Is there a way to get an MR plan to full scale? The downloadable plans are PDFs and not really scalable for a full size plotted plan. Thanks
The painful way to do it is to make increasingly larger photocopies -- there may be some print shops with larger than normal printing capabilities who could at least save a few photocopying steps. And by the time it is full size it is going to be a grainy mess, IMHO. And cost a pretty penny.
I think there is another problem with what you seek to do. Unlike track plans designed in AutoCAD and similar specific track planning programs which can be expanded and printed out to full size and in theory everything should be a precise fit*, to my knowledge the track plans in MR and its publications such as Model Railroad Planning, are more "impressionistic" pieces of artwork based on fairly rough sketches submitted by authors or layout owners. That is, the drawing if enlarged would not really tell you how many inches from the edge of the benchwork this or that piece of track is, or this or that structure. They are not necessarily "to scale" in every particular although the general dimensions of the room and the footprint of the layout itself are likely pretty darn close to scale.
*Footnote - I added the asterisk above after saying that an expanded track plan done in AutoCAD or similar track planning programs should be exactly what was drawn expanded to "full size," I have yet to talk to anyone who has tried that who hasn't admitted that yeah the track plan is full size, but now they see they have to/want to make all sorts of changes anyway. It wasn't the magical guide to laying track that they were hoping it would be.
Dave Nelson
Plans published in Model Railroader are rendered with Adobe Illustrator, not a CAD program, and often couldn’t be built exactly as drawn in any case (except perhaps the smaller ones). There are a number of reasons for this, including hand-drawn input from authors and the use of different specifications for turnouts. Other speculative (never-built) plans sometimes have unreasonable grades and clearances.
One can use the scale grid printed on a plan and a similar grid drawn on the benchwork to get a general idea of track placement.
Which plan are you interested in?
Byron
Edit: Welcome to the forum, by the way. Your first few posts are moderated, which may lead to a delay in them appearing here ... but that passes quickly.
Layout Design GalleryLayout Design Special Interest Group
dknelsonI have yet to talk to anyone who has tried that who hasn't admitted that yeah the track plan is full size, but now they see they have to/want to make all sorts of changes anyway. It wasn't the magical guide to laying track that they were hoping it would be.
A few of my clients have chosen to have 1:1 prints made of my designs done in model railroad CAD (3rd PlanIt , in my case). At least in these cases, they were happy with the design and built it pretty much as I drew it. Photos of one such layout being built can be seen in Model Railroad Planning 2016. But in general, most folks use the grid to transfer track locations to the benchwork from smaller printed plans.
Again, these were plans designed from the beginning in CAD based on specific turnout templates, so not the same situation as blowing up an Illustrator-derived .pdf file.
For me I use the plans to not build that same one, but as an idea of what I might put onto my model railroad. Due track mfg turnout sizes are different so you might not be able to do 1 to 1.
Sometimes the drawn plans have tracks in places that aren't seen in the accompanying article photos, or vice-versa. Maybe it's just me, but when they show a picture, I usually refer to the plan and the number call out to see just where on the plan the photo is supposed to be.
I did the full size thing once - and will never do it again. My layout was drawn in CAD, right down to and including the actual benchwork (rendered out nicely in 3D view). I printed the track plan portion full size, skipping the blank sheets, for what was an 8x12 donut layout. Even only including the pages that had track on them, it was a huge waste of paper and time. The next layout after that was around the walls of a spare room, a good bit bigger. For that one, I simply printed out various parts in a convenient scale to take measurements from and transfer to the benchwork, instead of printing an insane number of pages and then tracing over it all full size on the benchwork. I'm now working on a basement size (eventually) double decked layout - absolutely NOT printing that out full-size. I don't even have wall space to hang up a large format plotter size printout of the whole thing.
A 4x8 or smaller MIGHT be a different story. But as Byron points out, the track plans in the magazine are hand drawn (electronically, but still hand drawn) in an illustration program, not accurately rendered in a CAD system where you have accurate matches for things like turnouts and crossings, so even if the article says the owner used Atlas #6 turnouts, if you printed the PDF full size, it's highly doubtful an Atlas #6 would actually line up with the turnouts as drawn.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.