My trains still sit all boxed up in my parents basement except for a few that I have sitting on shelfs here at home till we move out of our condo in a few years and get a house with a basement and I can build my layout. For now though I want to start designing my dream layout and was thinking of useing a CAD program to do this. I thought about using AutoCAD but I have been told that there is some great programs that I can buy or get free off the net that have tons of accessories and tracks already built into the program. Do any of you use these programs? Where can I get them. I will be using Lionel O track with a mixture of Super O (I have tons of it but only a few switches that work so I do not want to use it for my whole layout). Thank you for any help you can give.
Hi Jim
Welcome to the CTT Forum,
Here is a link to a thread about track software
http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?page=-1&TOPIC_ID=16011&REPLY_ID=137749#137749
Hope it helps
Jim
RR-Track is the way to go… it is the “AUTOCAD” of track design software.
You might want to lose the Super O for Gargraves and Ross Custom switches because Super-O track is very limited in what you can build. However, RR-Track has super-O track libraries as well as Ross Custom libraries and Lionel accessory libraries too.
Alan
Dear Jim,
Welcome to the forums [#welcome]!
I agree with Alan. I have RR-Track software, and it works well for me. The website is www.rrtrack.com
I hope I have helped,
Daniel
This is a topic about which Alan & I actually agree. You gotta go with RR Track. Lots of track & accessory libraries are available in all scales.
Tony
I went to the website for the RRtrack program. It looks pretty good but is there a place you can download a demo. I really dont wanna put down $80 on a program that I can’t test out and play with for a bit to see if it is really what I want. The demo page just says its under construction.
Call Russ at RRtrack
and see if he still has the no print demo.
but if you were willing to buy Autocad; isn’t RR-Track a whole lot LESS
Alan
I already own AutoCAD so it wouldn’t have cost me a thing.
I emailed him. If he can not send me a demo is there any of you that still have a copy of the demo even if its an older version. I just really wanna try this program out before I put down $80
As a complete aside, I came across a CD of the old children’s computer game of Lionel trains and it’s a hoot - especially for youngsters. Anybody else have it? I believe it was called 3D Ultra Lionel Train Town Deluxe - doesn’t exactly roll off the lips - it has a layout mode.
Doug,
The Easter Bunny got my son this game this year and he still plays it all the time along with the neighbor boy who loves trains too! It’s a very good game - it teachs them how to use logic to solve problems. He also likes to design his own layouts in the program.
The boys also like to run the trains that we have in the basement as well.
Look into “AtlasO.com”, they have freeware RTS5.0, worth trying out when its free.
Hi Jim,
Maybe you can check at some of the train shows for the MTH RR trackpanner. I have see some of the older ones sell for under $10.00. This would give you a feel of what it is like.
tom
Anyone have a source to get the 3D Lionel Train Town from at a reasonable price? I think my son would get a kick out of playing on the computer, some of the same stuff we have on the layout.
Jim
Jim,
I found my copy out on E-bay for about $15 including shipping
What did you use to search ebay. I didn’t find anythign when i searched RR tracks
I have an old copy of MTH track software that you can have if you reimberse me for the postage.
Jim B.
Jim,
I didn’t find any at E-bay right now either by just typing in “Lionel Train Town Deluxe”. However I went over to Google and typed it in and found a couple of places that had it for sale.
http://www.cdaccess.com/html/pc/traintwn.htm
http://starvector.com/cgi/lp.cgi?975437824+ca0778.html
Hopefully this helps you out…
I tried the RTS5.0 program. It seemed ok but I do not think I will be using Atlas O track. I think I am gonna just stick to lionel O, Super O an dO27 track.
The RR track demo version comes in the MTH starter sets. This version is limited in hat it can do. I liked it enough to order the full blown version. It’s an easy to use program, and allows you to play with your trains when you are away from your layout. I have it on my lap top and had fun on rainy days while hosting at a campground this summer.