Need help with train layout.....

[Anonymous]

I'm going to be putting a train layout in my basement. I'll be using a 4 X 8 sheet of plywood and am looking for some help designing an O gauge layout for it. I've seen some but none loked good to me. I want it to be realtively simple but also appealing to the eye. I need to buy track so any ideas would be great! Thanks for the help!!
Eddie

[csxt30]

http://www.thortrains.net/
This site will give you a lot of info on small layouts & probably some on track also. Hope this helps !

[Anonymous]

Heres another link for you with around 100 webpages of layouts if you want
http://hometown.aol.com/corelane/links.html
but Johns link is the most direct , check them out
lots of luck and good hunting[tup]

[mickey4479]

I have found graph paper to be a great tool. It forces me to take inventory of the space I have and think about the layout I am planning. The radius of the track is probably the most significant issue I have found. There a many preplanned layouts out there and Atlas, MTH and Lionel have some neat ideas. Good luck.

[lionelsoni]

Here is an approximate way of laying out standard tubular track pieces using only graph paper--no template. There are two versions, one for O27 and one for O31.

For O27, each square of the graph paper represents 1 1/4 inch. You sketch the center-line of the track for each straight track section 7 squares long if the track is parallel to the graph-paper lines, or across the diagonal of a 5x5 square box otherwise. You sketch each curved section inside a 3x7 rectangular box, with the curve tangent to the long side of the box at one corner and at a 45-degree angle at the opposite corner. A switch is just a curved piece touching a straight piece, of course.

For O31, each square represents 1 inch. The straight sections are 10 squares (inches) long or across the diagonal of a 7x7 square box. A curve is in a 4x10 box.

This method is not exact; but it is very close. The worst error is about 1 percent. For example, it makes some O27 straight pieces 8 3/4 inches long, whereas they are actually 8.839.