New to the site but I have a question about track plans shown in Model RR. They are always depicted as lines, are there ever what exactly you need to create the track plan? I really like the Winter Hill Branch line and would like to add it to my layout but I don’t see what peices of tract etc you need to get to make it.
Most experienced model railroaders lay flex track. Some even hand-lay rails on individual ties. Only track plans which were specifically designed to use Brand X track components will (sometimes) have an exact bill of tracklaying materials. A lot of the model railroads featured in MR have been laid with flex - check the photos for some of the giveaways (joints more than nine inches apart, ties joggled at/missing under joints…)
My own modeling includes such things as spiral easements and track radii not found in bubble packs at the LHS, so I don’t usually use sectional track. Laying flex track does require a certain amount of acquired skill - but the skills are easy to acquire.
Before DCC became all-pervasive, track plans showed the electrical gaps needed for analog DC multi-train operation. That, too, has gone away.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - on flex track with hand-laid specialwork)