Check out Tony Koester's article in MR's booklet "Track Planning Ideas", pages 8 & 9. He indicates some interesting changes and additions which I have incorporated in the version I am building. Mine is 3' x 8' with a 1' x 8' staging extension. I used the original version which includes the river and bridges, not the newer version which truncates the river and looks strange. Hope this helps.
MILW-RODR...is it me or does Kato's track plan seem a little more compressed?..
I could go for Kato. If they made a code 55 Unitrak. Things have changed a little bit though, after FINALLY deciding on what I want to do. I am now creating my own shortline, named after an imaginitive valley, which after looking on a map of my state to get idea's of where my "valley" could be I realized that my make believe valley actually exists. Well, I assume it is real since there was a spot on the map marked as the site for the "Chippewa Valley Museum". And the real thing is in the right spot to have direct interchanges with SOO and MILW, possibly even C&NW and CB&Q so it's working out real good. So now I'm basically going to plan a larger layout scheme and design in dominos so I can just make new dominos and add on as time and space allows. The idea should work, MR did an article about such a track plan, I do believe it was in their seperate publication "2009 Track Planning" I will have to check. Still plan to use Micro-Engineering code 70, 55, and 40 track, maybe even try to work Atlas True-Track in there since it's code 65 and even more prototypical than code 70. I still really like the CC R.R. track plan so I will probably still make that and just not have it as a continous loop, figure maybe seperate it with a big enough hill that my RR decided it would be cheaper and easier to build a little extra track around the hill instead of cut through it.
Just as a side thought though, I looked at the Kato plan and saved a copy of it to start off with, is it me or does Kato's track plan seem a little more compressed? The picture of the built CC didn't seem like the two spurs to the farthest left didn't stretch out so close to the main track loop. Mine will look different, more homes in it, and it will basicaly be a "logging" RR. My big plan will take up a room say 10x12 since that seems to be a common size around these parts, with a penninsula to create a view block, and eventually have 3 saw mills, 2 or 3 small sized towns, plenty of rural area, and maybe a few small towns built just for the saw mill employees. I need to start tracking down books about saw mills and logging RR's in the 50's.
You can view the original track plan using Google Books here:N Scale Model Railroading
The track plan for this layout is in the Kato web site under Unitrack track plans. I was looking at it myself and like it but think in needs a few modifications, namely a passing siding.
CN Charlie
Thanks a mil. I've actually heard of that book, think I might have even seen at in publishing ad's. My Walthers catalogue is the '08 but I'm going to check in the book section when I get home.
Originally in the Dec 1996 and Jan 1997 MR. you can buy back issues or copies from kalmbach. Also published as part of a book, N Scale Model Railroading by Marty McGuirk (Kalmbach 2000). For a beginner, the whole book would probably be useful.
Layout Design GalleryLayout Design Special Interest Group
Has MR ever published it's track plan for their Carolina Central RR layout? A few changes would be made of course, but very few. Changes would be limited to that needed for different industries. The most I've seen is a picture of it in one of MR's anual booklets for '09. The picture is good enough to get a pretty good idea of the track layout but I prefer to be a little more precise than matching up track pieces in planning software untill it looks like the picture.