Currently to my knowledge there is not a good track plan book for toy trains on the market. I own a model train store and every year especially during the holidays I have countless requests for such a book. There is the Fastrack and Atlas O track plan books but it would be nice to have an all inclusive book that has several plans in each of the popular brands - O27/O tinplate, Fastrack, Reatrax, Atlas O, even American Flyer S gauge. Primarily smaller layouts would be good. Despite the discontinuation of tinplate track there is still a huge number of people out there with it needing layout ideas and inspiration. Aside from an old Kalmbach book from several years back and a couple plans in assorted other books, there really is not a good book out there. Just food for thought. And if Kalmbach ever decides to publish one, I've got an 0-27 layout & a Fastrack layout that would be good candidates! Cheers!
When I started out, for a time all I could find were layout plans that were too ambitious in terms of size and budget for O gauge, which seemed to ignore the rise of HO which provided more in a smaller space. Another issue for me was taking each somewhat large plan and pricing out the total cost which is another arbiter for most folks and some of the costs associated with them I just could not justify in my own mind, let alone my better half's.. I think what you mentioned in your post has driven a huge number of folks to track planning software...not just beginners. There only seem to be plans for old Lionel display layouts that are loop to loops or spagetti bowls...I have yet to find a decent source for more modest and somewhat realistic plans. I think its much more difficult and a challenge to do more with less space from a design POV and that may have something to do with it. I would welcome plans that offer several options in terms of track manufacturers.
If its the same book I am familar with put out by Kalmbach it was a good basis for ideas and copies are hard to find..I think its out of print. One suggestion I have is to have CTT undertake a contest for the best small layout design with certain criteria.
I just lost my own layout due to a fire which consumed everything....and Im looking for a modest temporary substitute prior to rebuilding our home. Thats were my interest comes from.
Nothing is more fairly distributed than common sense: no one thinks he needs more of it than he already has.
I believe there is at least one toy train track book available in the store and at least six downloadable track plan PDFs also in the store. I will be sure that Randy, over in the books department knows about this thread.
Bob Keller
see if you can find a new/used book called Operating O and 0-27 trains.
distributed by MDK,Inc dates back to 1984
try doing an online search for it as it has a big selection of layouts from 4x8 to the big basement sizeed layouts.
There was a Kalmbach book written or editted by Linn Westcott called "Track Plans for sectional Track". It had several O gauge plans in it. Obviously, this goes back many years. I got my copy in the early seventies. There was another one published by Carstens called "Layout Plans". Once again, several really good O gauge plans in it too. I would also recomend the one mentioned by CB&Q above. It had 072 plans in it.
George
To add to what Bob said, several years ago CTT published a special issue with 40 track plans. It is still available for purchase in the store: https://kalmbachhobbystore.com/products/special-issues/ct2110301__Small--Midsize-Track-Plans-for-O-Gauge-Trains
Rene Schweitzer
Classic Toy Trains/Garden Railways/Model Railroader
Thanks Rene. I will be ordering in the near future. That being said I think I was referring to another with a title something like "realistic plans" that had a philosophy of less is more in terms of less track versus more. I remember alot of these plans germinated some similar ideas of my own..in terms of scaling them a bit smaller...this was quite a while ago...Sound familiar? These were not huge, but tended to mid size..maybe smaller.
You may be thinking about "Track Planning for Realistic Operation" by John Armstrong.
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