Hi Byron - Thanks so much for your reply. I ordered Model Railroad Planning and just received it yesterday. Great stuff! I ride MARC daily through Brunswick and spend plenty of time hiking the C&O canal. Anyway, this definitely gives me some ideas to move forward. Thanks!
-Robert
Welcome back to the hobby.
Layout design thinking has changed quite a bit in 60 years, so there are plenty of interesting alternatives to those published plans.
The Harper's Ferry layout is clever in concept, but as drawn is not buildable at all. For one thing, there is far too little clearance between the bridge tracks and the hidden tracks below. One needs to allow for clearance from the hidden track to the underside of the “water”, more elevation for the bridge piers, and finally for the bridge itself.
My N scale plan for the Harpers Ferry scene in Model Railroad Planning 2017 allows the equivalent of more than 11" railhead-to-railhead in HO (it's 4.4" in Armstrong's plan) from hidden trackage to the bridge trackage -- and the client will build it with even greater clearance than that. This is to adequately model the bridge’s height above water.
As noted, in the enviable space you have, you could do a great job of the Harpers Ferry scenes and supporting trackage without the limitations of the overall size of the Armstrong Plan.
The Frisco plan is probably a bit more buildable, but note that the layout designs in 101 Track Plans assume handlaid-to-fit turnouts (track switches) and won’t fit exactly as drawn with commercial components. Again, in that much space, there would be interesting alternatives.
Good luck with your layout.
Byron
Layout Design GalleryLayout Design Special Interest Group
There's some rather exotic benchwork in that Harpers Ferry layout. Also, the layout's a bit odd. Its very wide, which is going to make pouring the Potomac difficult, and the hidden staging being where it is makes it a trickier "hide."
In a 20x20 space, even with the idea of not being too ambitious, I think you could develop a Harpers Ferry track plan that was true to the area, but had a less complex construction plan.
Hello,
So my son has been begging for the last couple years to build a model railroad in HO scale. I haven't done this since the 1990's, but I'm caving to his request...happily returning to the hobby :)
Anyway, I'm in the initial planning stage and was curious if anyone ever built John Armstron'g Harper's Ferry from the Aug 1952 MR or the Frisco Lines plan 79 from the 101 Track Plans book. I grew up near Harper's Ferry and lived in Oklahoma off an abandoned Frisco right of way for several years. These two plans are both relevant to our childhood experiences. I have a 20x20 basement space but am trying to prevent going overboard with ambition :) Thanks.