Please explain "Domino vs: Module

[Anonymous]

I did a search and didn't really come up with an answer.

Okay, so I feel like a dummy!

[Anonymous]

They are very similar concepts. A module is a section of layout that is built to certain specifications that can be connected to other modelers' modules and run in a group setting. Usually modules are made by people who do not have enough room to build an entire layout. A domino is a module like in it's construction, but is usually part of a larger layout that may or may not be built to certain specifications. Generally, the domino construction is easier to move than other types of construction such as l-girder. My current layout is constructed using dominos based on David Barrow's old Cat Mountain and Santa Fe layout.

[Anonymous]

I also understood that a domino does not have to have a uniform track configuration at its ends, the way a modul must. A domino only has to mate up with its neighbor, which usually is another domino owned by the same person, or it may be a fixed layout element. Of course, a club might be formed around a domino rather than modular concept, assuming that all dominoes are present any time the club layout is assembled. One way to deal with missing dominoes might be to rely on sectional track laid over a flat plywood substitute module to acheive connections between dissimilar dominoes.

[Anonymous]

Great. THANK YOU! Now I get the concept. I'm assuming Domino would be the best, in your home... If you move, you don't have to take the chainsaw out of it's case!

Thanks again for the quick replies. It's great to have found this site!

[dehusman]

A domino is just an open grid sectional layout with a snazzy name. The idea is that you build small open grid chunks that you can carry to your workbench and work on there and then drop into place on your layout. My understanding is that the current incarnation of a domino isn't as much a benchwork style as it is a construction concept.

Dave H.

[BR60103]

In a modular layout, you can remove any module and replace it with any other one. This gets adjusted as you have to allow for different lengths and then assorted extra tracks. Once you get to the point that all the pieces have to show up and be assembled in a certain order, you have a sectional, portable layout. Dominoes are a form of the latter.

[dknelson]

The idea is that modules plug in. Dominos are just all the same size.
Back in the mid 1960s MR published an interesting "Railroad you can model" feature where they boiled down the railroad into three or four distinctive areas or features, and created track plans for those features. They then showed how those three or four pieces of layout could be connected in a wide variety of ways -- point to point, part of a large oval, etc. I guess you could think of those pieces (which were all different sizes and shapes) as "modules" in the larger scheme of things, since they "plugged in" but were not of uniform size or shape.
But modular mostly now means, as above posters say, that you can drop in a module into a layout and the track spacings and wiring and layout height, and fascia will all basically match. Ntrak is a good example. Your Ntrak module can mate anyone else's if you built it to specs.
Domino as David Barrow devises it is not just a way of building benchwork although it is that too. More crucially it is a way of creating a practical discipline for track planning.
Let me give an example (since I use the domino approach and have given a clinic on it at the local NMRA divisional meets). I created a 1 inch to the foot drawing of my basement, including support posts, electric outlets, pipes, etc. I then created a bunch of stiff card dominos 2 inch by 4 inch to mimic the 2 foot by four foot dominos I was building (I started building them and storing them even before track planning began -- another advantage of the system). I could move the dominos around, try out different configurations, see what worked and what did not. It was a very practical way to quickly mock up what was practical. I then transferred the three or four best choices onto other large graph paper (office supply stores sell large pads of 1 inch graph paper, some of it marked in 1/4 inch increments) for the actual final planning, which used a commerical track planning tool which is also one inch to the foot. Of course CAD is also a way to do all of this but I do not have CAD or the computer to deal with it.
Once I had a good final plan the other advantage of domino planning was that I had by that time about 18 full size dominos that I could move around the basement floor, sort of like huge chess pieces. This was a reality check on the paper plan. I saw that by creating a few specialty dominos that were NOT the standard size I could do better so I modified the plan accordingly.
Another advangage -- you can buy 2 foot by four foot plywood handi-panels at most lumber yards, often stored indoors so they are dry and flat as opposed to 4x8 sheets stored out in the yard where they get warped.
David Barrow maintains the additional virtues of dominos are: the top can be removed and taken to the work bench for handlaid track or tricky wiring; the layout can be easily changed or moved when you get tired of the existing layout. To my mind the great advantage was that I was busy buildings lots of very usable benchwork BEFORE I ever put pencil to paper for track planning. So once I had some ideas in mind, I almost immediately had a good chance to really see what it would look like.
The Sievers prefab benchwork is domino-like.
Sorry for the long post. The David Barrow articles are in 1995 MR issues.
Dave Nelson

[dehusman]

The Domino is one of those concepts that has evolved. If you read the original domino articles, dominoes don't need to have matching track configuartions on the ends and don't need to have a flat plywood top. The down side that I see is that you have to put a joint in the track and electrical system every 4 feet. The Dominos can also be other sizes than 2x4. That's just handy if you want to carry it to a workbench to work on it there. As with any open grid benchwork system, Dominoes are very flexible to move or recycle. The only caveat is that if you have a track plan other than an urban setting with multiple tracks parallel to the layout edges, once you start rearranging things you will find more of your layout needs to be rebuilt anyway. With open grid you can usually retain the grids and just reconfigure the track from the roadbed up.

Dave H.