Track plans needed!!!

[Anonymous]

I am a 15 year old modelrailroad inthusiest looking for great layout plans that will fit on a 62" x 42" table. I can also help you get 3rd planit for free if you are planing to help.

Thanks for all your help,
Zack

[pcarrell]

It's usually very difficult to find a plan that someone else has designed that will make you happy. Other people don't have the same wants and needs (Givens & Druthers) as you, so what they have designed isn't really suitable for your purposes.

On that note, let me try and help and encourage you.

On little more then a 3x5 layout you are probably going to be looking mostly at N scale. You could do HO, but it would be tight, and a switching layout would probably work best. In N scale you have a bit more room. Being 15 years old I'm going to guess that your eyesight isn't failing and your hands are pretty steady, so N scale would probably work there too.

Now you're going to need to decide what you want in a railroad. Do you want to run big, modern trains with six axle diesels? Modern passenger cars or long strings of container cars? Big time steam? Small steam? Backwoods logging (steam or diesel)? How about 1800's era equipment? Speaking of era, what timeframe are you interested in? City modeling, countryside, or backwoods settings? These things all effect the choices you make in an overall layout design.

Now that I've got you thinking, let's get down to looking at layout design.

There are two sights that I would like to pass along to you. They've helped me tremendously and I still learn new stuff every time I look at them, so don't think you have to know all of this stuff up front. Just look them over and read a few articles and I think you'll have a much better idea of whats going on.

The first is;

http://www.nmra.org/

Look through the stuff for beginners.

The next is;

http://home.earthlink.net/~mrsvc/index.html

Just flip through the pages and read what catches your eye.

The next is a favorite of mine;

http://www.vetmed.auburn.edu/~smithbf/BFSpages/LDSIGprimer/TOC.html

A great site on layout design.

OK, now that you've got some idea of what you're after it's time to put pen to paper so to speak. Now I'm a computer junkie so I do all my planning on my keyboard and with my mouse. I'm also not rich, so free track planning software is a good thing. Here's two that you can take for a test drive, just be sure and register them after you download them or very few features will work right.

The first is;

http://www.sillub.com/

This one is a little tough to get the hang of, so do the tutorial. It's an excellent program though.


The next is;

http://www.atlasrr.com/righttrack.htm

It won't take you long to get the hang of this one, though it is more limited in it's abilities.

I have a couple of plans on my Railimages account, though you'll have to size them to your needs. Just click on the link on the bottom of my signature.

Lastly, I'd pick up a copy of a book called "Track Planning For Realistic Operation" and give it a read or two. It's an excellent book that no model railroader should be without.

Also, keep asking questions. We love to answer them, no matter how stupid you might think they are.

And keep us posted on how you're doing, OK?

[dickencr]

I have a collection available for download. These are all "N Scale" in the RTS (Atlas) format. You're welcome to browse and see what there is...

http://home.earthlink.net/~cdicken673/model_railroad.htm

Cheers

[pcarrell]

QUOTE: Originally posted by dickencr

I have a collection available for download. These are all "N Scale" in the RTS (Atlas) format. You're welcome to browse and see what there is...

http://home.earthlink.net/~cdicken673/model_railroad.htm

Cheers

That's quite a collection. There's some nice ones in there. Looks like you are into planning. Good stuff. [8D]

[dngnrr]

I just tried to access http://www.sillub.com/. Message there says they are having trouble with web site, but doesn't give any dates. Is this site still available or has it moved?

[pcarrell]

I just tried it and it worked for me.

[dngnrr]

even with the comment about the site not working?

[pcarrell]

I didn't get any comment. Loaded right up! Try this;

http://www.sillub.com/

Your link includes a period at the end which is what's messing you up I think.

[NZRMac]

You can't download from Sillub at the moment see the download bit on that website,

Ken.

[NeO6874]

However, they are having issues with the download server(s) for xtrkcad.

[dngnrr]

Thanks I will give them a couple weeks and try again. I'm still in the bench building process, but wanted to start planning for an end result.

[Anonymous]

You can download it from the XTrkCAD group at groups.yahoo.com.

[pcarrell]

Oh, I see what you're talking about. Yeah, it is messed up.

[dngnrr]

thanks everyone for you input. I will try the link on yahoo group. I did download the Atlasrr/righttrack. Have played a bit with it and found that my benchwork wasn't big enough for what I had in mind. Good thing I'm not that far along so at liast I can add some deminsion and be okay.

[Anonymous]

Sorry for the delay guys

Im looking for modern large desils and semi-long trains.
I already have a ac4400 and coal porters and a kato amtrak p42 and their two superliner sets. I would like to be able to do some switching and train "construction".

I would like a semi-country/town layout and a coal mine. I would also like a couple of industries that would support box cars. If you can help let me know.

Zack

[fwright]

Zack

You still haven't stated your scale. The space you gave will not work for modern large diesels and semi-long trains in HO. Even in N, the space is not large. A train that would look reasonable on a continuous-run loop in N in your space is only about 36" long. That's an engine and maybe 15 cars or so. Check through some of the links other gave you for some layout ideas.

Fred W

[Anonymous]

Sorry about that. I want N scale, thats what I have now. I would like a continuious runing layout. 15 cars are fine the most i was planing to run was a AC4400 and a SD-40-2 back to back. Any track plans that I can look at and possibly modify to my likeing would be perfect.

Zack