What's your favourite published track plan?

And why?

My favourite changes quite regularly. I was recently suggesting one of the old Lynn Wescott plans from 101 Track Plans to a trainboarder and was pretty stoked about that one for a while. Then there is the Appalachian Central. I had almost forgotten about it until Rick (rsn48) pointed it out to me recently.

But my all time favorite (this week anyway) would have to be David Barrow's South Plains District. When I first saw it I was in the process of planning a shelf switching layout and was having a really hard time getting it to be interesting without being too complicated. Then I saw David's plan, started adding it's features to what I was working on and eventually scrapped my project in favor of the SPD. Now that it looks like I have (almost) sorted out which side of the Pacific Ocean is home, I will get underway.

But of course things change. Now that I have settled on a prototype location (CP/SOO Tomah Sub) I am starting to look at prototype track arrangements and will probably need to modify the SPD a bit…

 

I have two favourites (more actually), each of them for different reasons. Since I am in N scale, one of my favourites is the Wisconsin Central (July 97 in MR). This was done as a series over many issues. When my layout is finished, it will look nothing like the WC, but its influence will be very much there. I learned effective view blocking from it, siding lenght, yard lenght, spacing of track. I learned not every inch of space on a layout has to be up or down, that flat can work very well.

Although an HO layout, Eric Brooman's layout - The Utah Belt - moved me towards contemporary modeling. The idea that you can move your equipment forward in time, retiring other units, while keeping pace with the prototype you have based your freelance job on (or your prototypical choice) has really enhanced my railfanning experience. It is fun to add rolling stock to your layout and know that sometime you will see the real McCoy rolling by.

[ 12 June 2001: Message edited by: rsn48 ]

 

A layout that has really influenced me is one by Deane Mellander. The Cumberland & Susquehana. It was designed to be in N scale. What impressed me most was how realistically the track "flows" I have tried to follow this in my MAT.
This track plan came in the book "Track Planning Ideas from Model Rairoader 58 track plans from past issues".

 

My favorite plan has to be one of the ones in the Atlas book (layout #22 I believe). It has a doubletrack mainline and the prominent feature is the juction (basically a doubletrack figure 8) with connector tracks.

The loops on either end can be extended and just about anything can be put inside them (a yard, industries, etc.).

The way the junction is laid out is the intriging part of it.

 

Whew. Haven't been around for awhile and wanted to get to this topic.

I have two that stick out. One was the Shawnee, Kentucy & Western in Great Model Railroads 1995. The other was in one of the Model Railroad Planning annuals and was by Mike Danneman (???) who was the art director at MR at the time.

Both are N scale layouts that are in a room that is about 12 x 12. What I really appreciated about both is that they very clearly demonstrated to me what you could do in N scale in a room that size. It helped that my area is virtually identical in size.

I considered doing the second one as is, but things such as exterior doors kept getting in the way. They were both inspirational as concepts, and the execution of the first one (scenery and such) is something I hope to come close to achieving.

Great question.

Chris

P.S. I look at EVERY plan published closely because you never know what you are going to learn.

 

I don't know if these plans will be of interest to anyone, but on my website are 15 trackplans I have drawn up and made into model railroads over the years. Some are from front cover publications.
All plans HO and N-scale will fit into a room size of 14' by 11'


Have fun

Paul

 

Hey Paul, I hope you are back permanently!!!! To anyone lurking, check out Paul's plans, especially if you have "less than a basement" sized area for a layout.

Well done Paul.

 

I was pretty impressed with the Union Freight RR layout that was in the September to December (2000) MR. I liked the urban scenery, the concept of the bridge line, and I thought the implementation was really well done.

I'm working on the idea of incorporating the UFRR as a module on my new layout. It's good to be back thinking about layout design after 20 years. http://www.trainboard.com/smile.gif

I just remembered I also liked the KR&D published in MR in 1972... I'll have to take another look at that.