Chart tape is your friend, if all you want is centerlines or if you decide to use a smaller scale. 1:4 will result in a mockup bigger than most Japanese layouts!
If I was doing it, I'd put down paper overlays and use a nice soft pencil. After the erasures start getting messy, just change the paper. By the second paper change, you should have it just about set...except:
No smaller-scale track plan ever survives first contact between roadbed and track unchanged .
After planning and building a number of layouts, from sub-mini to huge, I have yet to see any exception to the above.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - in a double garage, on several levels)
Go to this site and print out track templates. You can adjust the size before printing.
http://www.handlaidtrack.com/document_general_info.php?products_id=2237
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."
Since you don't want to draw the tracks, I would use thin pieces of cardboard or some cardstock to represent the track. Rather than demanding the material bend like flex track, pre-cut some 45 and 90 degree curves in a variety of radii. Make more in your minimum radius than any other for you experimenting.
My thoughts, your choices
Fred W
I am in the planning phase of an 8' x 20' approx. layout that could have 3 vertical levels (a bit like a layered cake I guess)
I would like to build a 1/4 scale mock up to check things like grades & clearances etc.
Any suggestions for suitable economical materials for the mock up & in particular, scratching my head as to what I could use to represent the tracks?.
I don't want to draw the tracks on as I want to be able to shift them around while I sort clearances & so on.. Ideally something that will bend easily & hold a smooth curve without having to be tacked down.
Thanks
Tanked