Does anybody know of a good book or web site that has a repository of “switching” track plans? I’m not looking for the 4x8 beginner layouts, but specifically switching plans… ??? It would also be okay to find plans for mid-to-large size layouts that have a good switching component.
John
I would highly recommend Carl Arednt’s Small Layout Scrap Book. He has a plethora or articles on small switching layouts such as the Box Street Junction or John Allen’s Time Saver.
Lance Mindheim has some excellent books on desigining switching layouts. http://www.lancemindheim.com/
John in Carolina
Thanks for the replies!
I am already familiar with both of those though-- both really good sites, I agree.
John
John,First I will answer your question and then give you some food for thought.
Here is a interest site that has some excellent switching layouts.
http://www.huntervalleylines.com/gallery/
Now for some food for thought.
Why not breal away from the standard switching layout and design one using prototypical guide lines?
Look over these industrial areas.
http://www.lancemindheim.com/industrial_parks.htm
For layout ideas may I recommend looking over these layouts to get a general idea.
http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=3497
http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=3484
http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=321
http://www.the-gauge.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=169
There are others as well.
I also recommend staying away from any switching puzzle design as they can become frustrating.
Well, I am not looking to design a switching-only layout, but rather am interested in studying switching track plans to get ideas and inspiration for stuff to incorporate into a larger layout.
Thanks for the links, I’ll check 'em out!
John
Lance Mindheim has a couple of good books. One on designing switching track plans, where he discusses some principles he applies to switching plans, and one with track plan samples.
Book list here: http://www.lancemindheim.com/bookstore.htm
Another place to look for inspiration : Adrian Wymann’s Shunting puzzles web page. Not just puzzles there.
Grin,
Stein
How about designing the city or industrial area first, then trying to locate the tracks in a way that will serve the industries efficiently? Sort of what the prototype has to deal with.
Do check out this site. I used one of these design elements in a previous layout.
http://andrews-trains.fotopic.net/
-Tom
Larry,
Thanks for the links, they were great! That’s exactly the kind of stuff I’m looking for. I’d sure like to find even more… [(-D]
John
John,
One that may interest you is “mcfunkeymonkey”'s “Dogeared and Broken Spine” railroad, right here in our own MRR back yard. You’ll have to do a search using Google or Yahoo, brcause it was posted (outside the search range) over a year ago… I’ve redrafted it in another package (because I’m a tightwad), but it’s just what I was looking for.
Dennis
http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/t/154251.aspx
Still not sure exactly what John is looking for, though.
There are tons of layouts that contain industrial switching in some form. I’ve already mentioned Adrian Wymann’s Shunting web page (google it).
We can throw random web sites at John for weeks. Bruce Petty (steamage in these forums) has an interesting little 9x11 foot shelf switching Trona layout on his lariverrailroads web page: http://lariverrailroads.com/trona/trona.pdf
There is e.g. the State Belt railroad (http://www.statebelt.org)
There is the british rmweb.co.uk web site - the brits builds lots of small layout, since they often have smaller homes than Americans.
Tons of sites. And tons of threads in these forums. Just search for my name and “urban” e.g. Links to quite a few urban layouts.
But what are you really looking for, John? Random inspiration for your own Pennsylvania based railroad? Or something else?
Smile,
Stein
Take a gander at 18 complimentary PDFs at MRR’s Landmark Layouts.
The gemstone here is the 36-page “Art of Model Railroading” by Frank Ellison – From the 1940s MRR Series with his Delta Line trackplans at the beginning & last page. Look at each town’s switching yard, and “pull out” yard planning that appeals to you for a shelf layout. Frank Ellison’s Delta Lines was decades “ahead of its time” in terms of combining freight & passenger operations.
Another example is John Armstrong’s Canandaiga Southern, a walkaround layout, which is narrow in many places. Shelf layouts are narrow in width just as many of these walkaround Landmark Layouts are narrow in width.
Midwest Railroad Modelers layout is one switching yard after switching yard, etc.
Heh! Well, if you had just said “What are you looking for?” I would have simply replied “Inspiration.” But the way you said it was in such a delightfully mysterious manner that I feel like I should have some hidden, eclectic agenda… something like “I’m searching for the long-lost spur that leads to the warehouse where they hid Montezuma’s gold…” Really though I really just like seeing and studying layouts and track plans, and lately have been interested in switching areas / regions.
BTW, you guys are right, the Dogeared and Broken Spine is a nice design. I liked that one very much.
John
I wasn’t trying to be mysterious. I was trying to point out that looking for specific inspiration for your own layout is not necessarily the same thing as just looking through a random collection of track plans.
If you just want to look through a random collection of track plans, go for the MR track plan database, 101 track plans, 102 track plans, the Model Railroad Planning annuals, Carl Arend’t micro layouts site, Adrian Wymann’s site, Andrew Martin’s site (now huntervalleylines), this forum, modelrailroadforums, trainboard, rmweb, railroad-line and so on and so forth.
If you are looking for specific inspiration for your railroad, look at old maps and photos from the region.
Smile,
Stein
I have been doing both, extensively! 
John