Anyone else addicted to Anyrail layout planning in the winter months.

[ERIC ALLTORQUE]

Finding i am relaxing on a night using the ANYRAIL program to plan the loft as i build the baseboards. It is a good way to check if ideas work,is it just me or do others find it pleasing to use and play with planning or drawing out stuff to see if would work,even layouts that might not get to be built?

[melmoth]

Yep. I have no space whatsoever to build a layout at the moment and both Anyrail and Templot get used as displacement activities.

[ERIC ALLTORQUE]

3 minutes ago, melmoth said:

Yep. I have no space whatsoever to build a layout at the moment and both Anyrail and Templot get used as displacement activities.

Glad its not just me going loco,telly must be bad these days i guess,best thing ive bought in a while but it irons out any failings once i get to real world building the track.

[tigerburnie]

I've planned new layouts too, probably never get built but fun planning them.

[The Johnster]

I must give this a go.  I have been an enthusiastic layout planner for most of my life, using A4 drawing pads, biros, pencils, some cut card curve shapes to draw against, and a school geometry set, at 1inch to the foot scale.  I'd imagine up a layout of a specific type of prototype, and draw it up in various size to fit various possible rooms, then imagine-play trains on it to see how it worked, enormous fun especially during the several decades of my unsettled life following a divorce which cleaned me out and left me moving around a series of dodgy flats unsuitable for layouts.  Now I've settled a bit and have a layout, the muse has left me, I think becuase I am very happy with the layout I've got and have no sense that I need to investigate something else.

 

Interestingly, the few layouts I've built from these plans have never turned out to be constructable exactly to the plan, though I eventually became better at forestalling and eliminating such issues by planning them out over time.  And Cwmdimbath was not built to a plan at all, beyond a rough beermat sketch of approximately what I wanted based very loosely on Abergwynfi, and is I feel better for it.  I started laying track with a loco release headshunt two inches longer than the longest locomotive likely to appear (42xx), and carried on laying it out until I got to the fiddle yard, nice free-flowing natural long curves, generous clearances. and a feeling of fitting in to a real narrow and limited valley bottom site.

[ERIC ALLTORQUE]

5 hours ago, The Johnster said:

I must give this a go.  I have been an enthusiastic layout planner for most of my life, using A4 drawing pads, biros, pencils, some cut card curve shapes to draw against, and a school geometry set, at 1inch to the foot scale.  I'd imagine up a layout of a specific type of prototype, and draw it up in various size to fit various possible rooms, then imagine-play trains on it to see how it worked, enormous fun especially during the several decades of my unsettled life following a divorce which cleaned me out and left me moving around a series of dodgy flats unsuitable for layouts.  Now I've settled a bit and have a layout, the muse has left me, I think becuase I am very happy with the layout I've got and have no sense that I need to investigate something else.

 

Interestingly, the few layouts I've built from these plans have never turned out to be constructable exactly to the plan, though I eventually became better at forestalling and eliminating such issues by planning them out over time.  And Cwmdimbath was not built to a plan at all, beyond a rough beermat sketch of approximately what I wanted based very loosely on Abergwynfi, and is I feel better for it.  I started laying track with a loco release headshunt two inches longer than the longest locomotive likely to appear (42xx), and carried on laying it out until I got to the fiddle yard, nice free-flowing natural long curves, generous clearances. and a feeling of fitting in to a real narrow and limited valley bottom site.

Its very theraputic and you can play up to 50 pieces for free but to buy it for unlimited pieces is only a one off £48 i think.Heres the site link https://www.anyrail.com/en/download

[Chris M]

I bought the full Anyrail package some years ago and love "doodling" layout plans. Its great to refine them and refine them. I have actual built four layouts from using Anyrail plans and they all worked out pretty much as the plan. Although it uses a lot of paper and a bit of time cutting the edges off its great to print our a plan full size and sellotape it together. I do this if I think I might actually build a plan and it tells me so much. 

 

I love that Anyrail has so many track options, including Scalextric.

Me and my grandson like this one; it fits nicely into our lounge.

 

[KeithMacdonald]

On 04/03/2023 at 13:55, ERIC ALLTORQUE said:

Finding i am relaxing on a night using the ANYRAIL program to plan the loft as i build the baseboards. It is a good way to check if ideas work,is it just me or do others find it pleasing to use and play with planning or drawing out stuff to see if would work,even layouts that might not get to be built?

 

Me too. 😀

My existing layout is much smaller than my available stock of locos, coaches and wagons. So playing with AnyRail has been a great way of exploring potential layouts. Especially any that were join GWR/SR operations. I like the ability to include images from old OS 25" maps, so I can go completely bonkers, like this plan for Yeovil Junction.

 

[kopite]

I was using the trial version for awhile planning my new layout. Ended up buying the full version last night and been having a great time messing around in it. Very easy software to learn and very useful.