New to N-scale, please help!

[Anonymous]

Alright, I've ALWAYS ALWAYS wanted to do a full model railroad layout, but never had the time or money. I used to love building structures and little dioramas and stuff (in HO) but never went through the process of designing a full layout. Now that I am out of school, I would like to do so, but space restrictions limit me to N-scale (nothing wrong with this whatsoever) Instead of doing a basic 3x6 beginner layout like most magazines/books recommend for beginners, I would truly like to go "all out" in this first layout as I beleve I have enough experience from my previous HO modeling days to do a good job on a true expansive layout. Any thoughts on this? I have looked at numerous books, layouts, and MR backissues to get ideas for my layout. I would incorporate my version of these scenes at various points along my railroad. (BTW George Sellios' F&SM is AMAZING) But, I'm a little confused on layout planning. I've been looking at CAD software like 3rd PlanIt. Do any of you recommend this, and if so, which product is the best and why? Any other tips to offer an aspiring N-scaler? I have another post under the prototype category with a question on roadnames if any of you want to check it out. Thanks for all your help!

[Anonymous]

I use the old fashioned way using paper and a compass.I just scale down my lay out space until it fits on a peice of paper.Set the compass to the radius and away you go.For tricky things like turnouts just take the measuements or photocopy them and shrink it.I'm sure MR did an article on this last month.