Design Your Own
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GUIDE TO LAYOUT DESIGN • FROM DREAMS TO DRAWINGS A SUPPLEMENT TO MODEL RAILROADER MAGAZINE MAGAZINE Workshop tips Design your own track planBy Andy Sperandeo • Define the railroad you want • Put your ideas into accurate drawings • Design for reliability through standards 618244 2014 Define the railroad you want Model Railroader’s HO scale Beer Line Among the many satisfactions Start with a theme. Since we call it a layout models industrial Milwaukee’s track plan it’s probably natural to think downtown brewery district in the late model railroading has to offer, designing that the place to start is with the track. 1940s. Bill Zuback photo your own track plan rates pretty high for Putting some track down and getting some trains running is a great way to nearby. There are lots of advantages to many hobbyists. You can build a mighty build and maintain our enthusiasm for this, familiarity and ease of learning model railroading. probably being the most important. It’s a good model railroad by following a plan You’ll soon find, however, that as you great help if a field trip to gather ideas from a magazine or a book, but to get the plan and build track you’ll run into all about scenery can be the same outing as kinds of questions about what the layout a family drive in the country. layout that’s just right for you, there’s should be like. These include what kind On the other hand, you might want of scenery will it have, what kinds of your model railroad to represent a favor- nothing like designing it yourself. trains will it run, what kinds of engines ite region a long way from where you In this booklet you’ll find guidelines and cars will it use, what industries will live. Many modelers enjoy this approach, it serve, and a lot more. If you start with and magazines, books, and online re- to help you get started on imagining the a theme in mind, you’ll have a frame- search tools can put information about work for answering those questions and distant places at your fingertips. You model railroad you want, and for getting for making the many other decisions may not often have the chance to visit a your ideas down on paper. Starting with along the way between an empty train faraway area you want to model, but if room and a satisfying model railroad. you can get there on a vacation, for ex- imagination is key because it helps to ample, your modeling interest will add Where is your railroad? A good place to the fun of the trip. have a good idea of what you want your to start is with geography. Naturally layout to represent before you try to enough, many hobbyists like to have When is your railroad? Model rail- their layouts represent the city or town roading has a historical dimension that draw anything. where they live, or at least the region greatly magnifies the hobbyists’ oppor- 2 Design your own track plan • www.ModelRailroader.com ▸▸ Further reading Model Railroading from Prototype to Layout, by Tony Koester Modeling the ’50s, The glory Years of Rail, edited by the staff of Model Railroader The Model Railroader’s Guide to Coal Railroading, by Tony Koester The Model Railroader’s Guide to Industries Along the Track, by Jeff Wilson (four volumes) Trinidad, Colo., is a major station on Dick Rotto’s HO rendition of the Santa Fe Ry’s. transcontinental route through Colorado and New Mexico. Bob Hayden photo (All published by Kalmbach Books: Ask your dealer for them, call 800-533-6644, or visit www. ModelRailroader.com.) tunities. In real life we’re stuck in the here and now, but our model railroads can represent a favorite era as easily as a favorite place. One popular era for model railroaders is the 1950s, a decade when North Amer- ican railroads completed the transition from steam to diesel-electric motive power. Besides the drama of the new technology replacing the old, there were over a hundred large railroad companies instead of the eight we have now, and their individuality offers us further dis- tinguishing characteristics for establish- ing the theme of a model railroad. Any one layout may represent only a single rail line, but freight car interchange means that rolling stock from almost any other carrier may appear on its tracks. A few modelers turn their calendars As this mine scene makes clear, Jeff Kraker’s HO Roanoke & Southern RR is all back to earlier times. You may have a fas- about hauling coal out of southwest Virginia. Jeff Kraker photo cination with the railroads’ role in devel- oping the American West, with the portation success story. The drama of A model railroad serving a coal or iron dominance of rail transportation in the today’s railroads at their peak of capacity mining region can have a strong sense of 1920s, or with the railroads’ enormous and efficiency can be fascinating. purpose that’s easy to see. contribution to the United States’ effort Perhaps you’re drawn to urban termi- in World War II. Although the challeng- What kind of railroad is it? Another nal railroading, with switch engines es tend to be greater the earlier you set way in to a thematic approach is to de- serving industrial complexes, stock- your model railroad, the reward will cide whether your railroad represents a yards, and produce terminals. Water- come in seeing history brought to life. big company or a small one, a prosper- front railroads offer a strong appeal, with Also popular with Model Railroader ous enterprise or one just getting by. A the attraction of trains making connec- readers is the present, loosely defined as large road with cash in reserve won’t tions with ocean-going ships and many any time from about 10 years ago up to hesitate to increase capacity by installing kinds of smaller craft. Or maybe you today. You get to model the kinds of new steel or concrete bridges, for exam- fancy a big-city passenger station, with trains you see every day, and can enjoy ple, while one barely in the black or in freight traffic playing a minor role. the challenge of keeping up with the lat- receivership might have to make do by est developments in locomotives, rolling reinforcing its old wooden trestles. It’s up to you. As you’ll see in this stock, and operating practices. Although Do you want a line-haul railroad car- booklet, your railroad’s theme helps de- some favorite items of past eras have dis- rying a variety of raw materials and termine many design choices. That’s why appeared, such as cabooses and small- products, or do you want a railroad pri- a clear thematic idea is a great first step town depots, railroads today are a trans- marily devoted to a single commodity? toward the model railroad you want. Design your own track plan 3 Curves, turnouts, and track centers Curve radius, turnout size, and track Among the first choices you’ll need Equivalent N scale track sections have a spacings are standards you need to set to make in designing your model rail- radius of 93 ⁄4". before starting to draw a track plan. road are the sharpness of the curves, and In both scales these sharp curves are Paul Dolkos photo the angle and length of the turnouts best suited to smaller steam locomotives, (track switches). Curves are defined by older-model four-axle diesels, and cars track plan. With flextrack you can make radius and turnouts by the number of of 50-foot scale length or shorter. Never- curves of whatever radii you need. Of the frog. Or you can look at it another theless, many larger engines and cars course larger curves are always better, way and decide what the longest cars and made in both HO and N are engineered assuming you have room for them. engines you want to run will be. You to operate on these extremely sharp pretty much end up in the same place ei- curves. Experienced modelers have Turnouts. These are usually specified ther way because your rolling stock will learned to keep curvature and equip- by the angle of the frog, where the two require a certain minimum radius and ment in proportion for the best opera- diverging lines cross – see the “Turnout corresponding frog size to operate reli- tion and most realistic appearance. parts” illustration – stated as a number. ably. In fact, your trains will look even The box “Curvature by scales” on the In a no. 4 frog or turnout, the legs of the better on curves and turnouts larger next page recommends minimum radii diverging angle will be one unit apart than the minimums they need. based on types of rolling stock in differ- four units from the apex of the angle, The sectional track in a typical HO ent scales. It classifies curves as “sharp,” also referred to as the point of the frog. train set forms curves of 18" radius. “conventional,” and “broad” for conve- This way of determining angles comes in That’s measured from the center point of nience, but feel free to use whatever in- handy when you want to draw turnouts the curve to the center line of the track. between radius is appropriate for your on a track plan. 4 Design your own track plan • www.ModelRailroader.com “Turnout” is an engineering term that we prefer in model railroading to avoid Curvature by scales confusion with electrical switches and because it describes the whole track as- sembly where two lines diverge.