Track Planning

[DanMacK]

At some point in the last few months I figured out how to get XtrakCAD to do what I want it to.

 

12" radius, Peco medium turnouts:

 

The big ones are cool I'm rather partial to this one actually.  Very "branchline" in scope

[Sir Madog]

I am into model railroading for nearly 48 years, starting out with a Marklin starter set given to me on Christmas 1963. Since then, I have been dreaming ao a big layout, with sweeping curves, rolling hills, big yards and stations, lots of tunnels and bridges. Never had the chance to build such an empire - for the lack of space, funds, and time. Now, as an old fart of 55, I feel lucky that I´d never even came close to starting such a venue.

 

Over the years, I have developed many a track plan, most of them in the classic "spaghetti bowl" design, where trains go nowhere, but around a scenery, which acts as a filler of the little space left between all those tracks. I have seen some very nice layouts following that philosophy, but those with a striking touch of realism, go down a different route.

 

For some years, I have been studying the various layout philosophies you´ll find in the world. Here are my observations:

 

Germany, Belgium, The Netherlands, Switzerland (Martijn, correct me, if I am wrong): mainly rectangular roundy-rounders of the spaghetti-bowl design, the bigger ones with a hidden staging yard, usually one level below.

 

France, UK: Small, layouts, highly detailed, concentrating on a singular theme. Mainly display character, often shown at train shows. Main theme is terminus to fiddle yard.

 

USA.: The classic 4 by 8 roundy-rounder still dominates the scene, in spite of what the mags try to tell us.

 

Japan: Tiny layouts, mainly just a circle or an oval, but loaded with detail.

 

Seems, as if we can´t get rid of the roundy-rounders!

 

So how to make something nice out of it?

 

There is an easy answer to it: Divide the layout into different scenes and separate the from each other by using scenic dividers!

 

A picture tells you more than a thousand word, so here is a picture of what I mean:

 

 

This is a layout I have developed out of a project layout published in Model Railroader. The layout actually has two faces - one with a spectacular mountain scenery, and one displaying an urban scene with a yard, station and an intermodal facility. Of course, you´ll need access to both sides of the layout, if you want to go down that way.

 

Some more examples:

 

 

 

Just some food for thought!

[The_Ghan]

I love the last layout.  Flip the station horizontally so that the terminating platforms enter from the right and you almost have Kofu Station in Yamanashi-ken ... where I went to school.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[Mr Frosty]

Some interesting observations and to some extent, I must agree with them. I am definitely not a fan of spaghetti bowl roundy roundies. Also trains need to go somewhere, which usually means 2 stations or more. I am currently trying to design a layout to fit within my limited available space. So far, I must have re-drawn my plan 7 or 8 times making minor changes each time, but slowly getting to the stage where I am happy with the design and operational capabilities. I shall reveal all when I am fully happy.

[Guest Closed Account 1]

I changed my design many times only to use the original simple design with a twist.

 

On the passings, I added extra switches to add spurs so that I can park a full train.

 

The spurs are just an extension of the passing not a short dead end track.

[Mudkip Orange]

USA.: The classic 4 by 8 roundy-rounder still dominates the scene, in spite of what the mags try to tell us.

 

Almost all of us are space-constrained, and most of us are time-constrained. The spaghetti bowl is the logical outgrowth... pack as much variation into a given space as possible.

 

Alas, I think the magazines' emphasis on shelf layouts and the idea that "trains should only go through the same scene once" pushes people who might be better served with spaghetti into a simple roundy-round instead. MR in particular does all these fantastic basement empires and then they run a "layout you can build" which is just an oval with a passing siding and a few spurs.

 

101 track plans is still in production, but I haven't seen any new plans that pack the same amount of track in as those. And a lot's changed in the interim. Most of the 101 plans were designed around steam operations, so there is an emphasis on reversing loops and provision for roundhouses and turntables. In the diesel era these are completely unnecessary. Also it would be nice to see spaghetti plans incorporation staging and/or fiddle yards.

 

Of the three plans you posted I definitely like the middle one the best, because the continuous-run base of the layout is a twicearound, whereas the other two are just ovals. I do very much like the station layout of the bottom plan though.

[westfalen]

I can visualise the station in the bottom plan built as a three module set of double length T-TRAK modules. It needs the left crossover moved to allow access from the top mainline into the terminating platforms but that's a minor alteration.

[Sir Madog]

Track planning for tight spaces is an issue that, in my opinion, is not very well covered in the hobby publications. Either the layouts are too simple, i.e. that oval with a passing siding and some spurs, or they are too complex, loaded with track that only serves the purpose to lengthen the run until the train appears at the same station again, leaving the scenery looking like a Swiss cheese.

 

I have yet failed to identify my own ultimate design, that´s why I opted for building mini-modules. I have to admit, that I very much liked David K. Smith´s James River Branch layout, which is basically just a simple loop. I have amended the design to incorporate a passing siding and, of course, moved the setting to Japan.

 

 

A nice little display layout, but certainly some task to build. 2 helices are not an easy feat.

 

 

The layout´s attraction is the breathtaking scenery.

[Mudkip Orange]

The thought occurred to me that I can use XTrakCAD for Unitrack plans, too.

 

Here's an old-style Kato plan (e.g., not using any double track pieces)

 

[Nick_Burman]

The thought occurred to me that I can use XTrakCAD for Unitrack plans, too.

 

Here's an old-style Kato plan (e.g., not using any double track pieces)

 

 

Looks like the "Granite Gorge & Northern" track plan from one of the Atlas books...

 

Cheers NB

[Mudkip Orange]

Yup. I spent quite a bit of time reverse-engineering that track plan (there's two variants on the previous page of this thread), at this point the angles seem "natural" to me...

[Mudkip Orange]

First attempt at a plan using Atlas Code 55...

 

[Mudkip Orange]

Here's another Peco code 80 turnouts / Atlas code 80 crossovers plan I did awhile back.

 

[Mudkip Orange]

Some more Kato, this time for 3x5, with doubletrack pieces.

 

 

(XTC doesn't have the 22.5-degree runoff pieces for the 282/315 curves yet, so they don't shown on this one).

[The_Ghan]

That last one is very seductive.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[Mudkip Orange]

Thrice around in a 3x5. R282 minimum, except for some R249's for the spur tracks in the middle.

 

[Mudkip Orange]

So I noticed last night that MB Klein has the new tight-radius Kato curve pieces in stock.

 

Here's a table layout using those pieces, as well as the new platform expansion S-curve set. (Neither of these are in the XTrakCAD library, so I'm using R481's and S62's to represent the S-curve, and flextrack to represent the R150s and R183s.)

 

Since this thread started, Ikea has discontinued the MIKAEL desk; the VIKA AMON modular tabletop/leg system is its replacement. This plan is based on a 75x150 (29"x59") tabletop and a 60x100 (24"x39") tabletop put together:

 

[Ken Ford]

 

The Welham Green runs deep in this one!   

[Mudkip Orange]

Now that I've moved into an apartment I actually plan on staying at for awhile, I can start thinking about layouts.

 

Since I'm only rocking a 2br, I figure I should keep it to 29" wide, so it fits through doors. This way I can put the layout on casters and move it from room to room to make space for other activities as necessary.

 

As much as I like Unitrack, the turnout and crossover geometry is too restrictive to fit enough spaghetti into my space constraints. I have zero interest in messing around with the soldering and shimming that are required to get Peco point motors to work properly, so this means I'll end up with either Tomix or Peco with ground throws. Possibly a mixture.

 

Here's an all Tomix plan. The idea is it usually runs as a folded dogbone, but you can switch to a flat outer oval for idiot running/breaking in models. The grades are tricky... assuming the outside oval is flat, the center yard/station (NW to SE) would need to drop some to clear the underside of the truss bridge.

 

[cteno4]

nice, like folded dog bones, they really make the trains go in unpredictable ways when watching and give super long run times. looks like a lot of fun action and still room for buildings and scenery.

 

one trick for legs is IKEA legs. they have a cheap set that has leveler feet for $3.50 each.

 

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/70217973/

 

and ones with casters for $12.50 each

 

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30250257/

 

you might get away with mounting some small casters into the cheap leg feet.

 

to deal with mounting legs to hollow core doors, just glue a piece of 1/2' - 3/4" board about an inch bigger than the leg plate onto the bottom of the door (or screw it on to the side rails of the door) then you can mount the legs to that. Use to do this in the design office and we had a wild array/combo of desk configurations with this trick.

 

jeff  

[Mudkip Orange]

Indeed, cheap casters glued to the bottom of the $3.50 table legs was exactly what I was planning on doing... my current Kato setup (below) is on two Ikea table tops that sit on those same legs.

 

[cteno4]

LOL, great minds and all. i did look at the cheap leg feet and thought that perhaps cutting a wood plug to fit inside the foot and then drill thru the center for the peg style castor might work well. but scoring the bottom well, using a flat castor base, and then epoxy might do the trick well and be very quick and easy. its nice as you can then level the castor leg, something you usually cant do with castor legs!

 

another useful IKEA bit is their cable tray. convenient little rack to suspend under a desk (or a layout) to hold cords, power strips, etc. nice fingers let you loop spare bits on them or snuggly hold onto cables by interlacing them between a few fingers.

 

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/30200253/

 

cheers

 

jeff