Inspiration for track layouts

I sat down tonight to start roughing out a sketch for my layout. It was only after about 20 minutes of looking at a blank page did I realize that I had no idea what I was doing.

I know that I want to model the Reading and also some Pennsy. I would like a mix of a little anthracite operations and some passenger as well. The time period has to be the transition era. I want to get both steam and early diesel (maybe some of the electrics as well). This will be a freelance railroad, but I am very interested in realism and detail.

I am an apartment dweller right now, with an extra bedroom, but I don't know how long I will be here. For this reason I want to start with some small and practical, but highly expandable for later.

Do any of you have any thoughts, suggestions, comments? Also, I would like to hear how you have come up with you layout designs. What was your inspiration? Did you borrow heavily from the work of others or was it all from scratch?

 

Good question. I strongly recommend that you get a copy of John Armstrong's book "Track Planning for Realistic Operation". Mr. Armstrong goes into a lot of detail on how to plan a layout, but does it in a manner that it interesting, amusing (I love his wry sense of humor) and easy to read. I've practically worn my copy out. I'm sure your anxious to get started, but I think that once you get and read the book, you won't regret the delay.

Good luck,

Chris

 

Ditto what Chris said.

Since you know where you want to model, go check out http://terraserver.homeadvisor.msn.com/default.asp

It's really hard to start from a blank page. But if there is a particular town that you want to include, sometimes it is best to start with a map of that town that shows where the railroad runs or once ran. Then you can try to figure out how to get that into you space - you will find much of the RR will just fall into place after that.

Another good place to look for ideas is 101 Trackplans by Westcott.

 

Check out www.layoutdepot.com for some ideas. Lots of layouts including modules. You can find a few ideas and incorporate them into a plan to fit your needs/desires. Also the swithcing standard as seen at
http://www.urbaneagle.com/data/timesaverN.gif
can provide hours of fun in a small space. The original from John Allen had two of these setups with an interchange. Two operators could compete or cooperate with each other in solving switching problems.

Another idea is to follow some of the design plans they have, prototype, min radii, overall concept, scenery/operations/continuous running/etc.

With an overall design plan like that, you can start small for your current apartment but allow additions when you get a bigger annex/easement.

 

Thanks for all the advise so far. I am modeling in N scale. I figure this is the best route for small spaces.