Up until a couple of years ago I would photocopy any track plans for HO layouts in MR that would fit in a 12x12 room and I put them in a binder. With the MR online index, and the compilation of layout plans in these books, my work is now much easier. Order Ascending Order Descending. Benjamin Maggi. Member since December From: Heart of Georgia 4, posts. Member since November 2, posts.
Posted by snjroy on Monday, July 21, PM. Hi there, Unless you are really short on cash, just buy it. Enjoy the homework, it's all part of the fun! Member since June From: Culpeper, Va 8, posts. Enjoy Paul. If you're having fun, you're doing it the right way. Texas Zepher. Member since October From: Colorful Colorado 8, posts. Member since December From: Smoggy L. Posted by vsmith on Tuesday, July 22, AM.
Users Online. Search the Community. Model Railroader Newsletter See all. Sign up for our FREE e-newsletter and get model railroad news in your inbox! Sign up. Model Railroader Newsletter Sign up! Follow us: Facebook. More great sites from Kalmbach Media :. Posted by Doughless on Friday, July 18, PM I own both the 48 and books and without having looked at them for a while, I recall there isn't a lot of duplication of the 48 in the Simon Reply.
For example, looking at the trackplan at the top of this page, if you imagine a short train or locomotive traveling east left on the bottom of the layout plan, and then backing up into the branch, as it makes it's way back and forth through the branches to get to the top of the plan, when it re-enters the mainline, it will be going in the reverse direction compared to when it started on the bottom. This won't work unless you have a railgap somewhere in the middle.
Frankly, what I personally like to do is just use paper and pencil to get a good, general idea of how I want it to look, then go ahead and start building benchwork. Just be sure that your plan is good enough in the beginning that you won't have to later redo your benchwork because you forgot to put in a loop or branch that you absolutely must have.
At some point in this process, after you have a rough draft of your layout on paper, you may want to use one of the many great software programs available to look at your plan in more detail and show it to others.
Many of the programs allow you to run virtual trains on the tracks to see how they will operate. You can even get an idea about how many sections of track and how many turnouts you will need. Go to the Software Page on this site to find out more about these helpful model railroad computer programs. Once your benchwork is built you can start putting down some tracks loosely on the subroadbed and see how it looks and how it might operate. This will help you further refine your plan when you can see it in 3D.
If you are planning on having grades, or elevations, in your track plan, or if you want to find out more about making sure you have proper clearance for your tunnels and bridges,and the proper space between curving parallel tracks, etc.
I usually spend quite a bit of time on my model railroad track plans. I try to imagine how my trains will travel, how they will operate, how many trains I want to have running at the same time without having to worry about crashes, how they will spot cars in spurs, how they will pick up the empty cars, how to avoid tying up the mainline, etc.
I do this on paper at first with lots of different drawings of different parts of the layout and then I use the Railmodeler software to "draw" it on my Mac. Mostly, I want to try to avoid "re-do's" later. When I get to see how it works in 3D on the subroadbed, integrating the track with the terrain, the plan changes further. If you know what structures you will be using, you can include them in your planning at this time and see how the trains interact with the buildings as well as the terrain.
You don't necessarily have to use completed structures here. You can just use mock-ups or just a piece of cardboard cut out to match the dimensions of the base.
Eventually, after considerable thought and deliberation, I end up with a model railroad track plan that I'm happy with, that I think is interesting, somewhat realistic, and should be fun to operate.
This is considered by many as the bible for model railroad track planning. I would highly recommend it if you are planning anything more than a very simple layout. Rather than designing your own layout, you may wish to use or modify a layout plan that has already been created. There are many excellent references containing multiple trackplans of all different sizes and shapes:. Another way to design your trackplan is to use model railroad track planning software.
This is described in further detail in the " Software " section of this site. Where to find more information about model trains and model railroad supplies, the best resources and references.
N scale train layouts are very popular because you can create a much bigger layout empire in a smaller space.
Based on manufacturer, N scale model trains scale ranges from to Various types of model railroad software are available which may be helpful for developing actual or virtual layouts. Back to Home Page. Model Railroad Layout Design.
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