How do you plan your layout?

[Earl Bathurst]

Hi

Whilst thinking tonight over what i want to achieve from my hobby got me thinking of all the false starts i have had infact got a shed (modelling room) filled with them because i start them and then realise its not what i really want. I think my problem is in the planning stage because i can never find a plan that works for me or a plan that will fit in the space available. So i see a plan which works for someone else and try to get it to fit my requirments but i end up getting bored of the idea and nothing ever comes of it. And the other problem is with not being able to make my mind up what to model i now have enough locos to open a shop with haha.

Does anyone else ever have trouble planning a layout or what they want from their hobby. I have started building my own point work and really enjoy building track.

I know that i want a country station some thing like the station in the Titfeild Thinderbolt (through station) but in the late steam/ early diesel BR days, and want it to be of finescale track standards but when it comes to actually planning it and drawing it how do i go about it?

 

Can anyone help me out with how you start planning and drawing your layout onto paper before you build the layout.

 

Thanks

Scott

[bmthtrains - David]

Best place to start is with a book of track plans of real places. It's a great way to be inspired, drawing out various plans that you like, and imagine what's they would be like to operate.

 

If you are struggling to complete something, then start simple and small, tempting as it is to plan a behemoth that would be your dream layout. Get something small and completed under your belt first, as finishing something will inspire you to build a bigger one later.

 

Doodling track plans on paper is a great place to start, so get some books from the library or look online for station plans and see what inspires you!

 

David

[Kenton]

Best place to start is with a book of track plans of real places.

 

I think that can be he worst place to start. Although great for ideas on what you might like to achieve there is never going to be enough space available and once you start to compress that plan you will find that fine scale goes out the window.

 

Usually the most limiting thing we all have on our modelling ambitions as far as track plans are concerned is space. The space you have is always going to be limited and that ultimately comes down to cost. We (probably) are not all millionaires who can afford that ultimate building to house the ambition and even if we are then we do not have time to build it.

 

So like everything it comes down to compromise. Take the available space, take the available funding, realistically assess the time required against that which will be available and you will probably come to the conclusion that it is going to be something small, fictional, and far less than satisfactory compared to the ambition.

 

The difference is that most of us can settle for that, even if it means starting over many times.

[Colin]

I usually draw the plan to (near) scale on graph paper, and once I think I have the ideal layout I then revisit said plan and simplify where possible.

In my enthusiasm I invariably incorporate too much track & complex pointwork.

[edcayton]

I do wonder about this. I have never(yet) tried to build a model of a real location, and have always ended up wishing I had come up with a better plan!

I'm starting to think that building a model of a real place (not necessarily a station) would take away the doubts in the same way that I always found it much easier to be given assignments rather than come up with my own at college/uni.

 

I appreciate there is likely to be a degree of compression and even omission of some sidings etc, but if you have enough photo's of the location you have inspiration-and can display them next to the (finished) model.

 

Ed

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Here's a vote for the 'look at real locations' approach: specifically from the point of view of whatever are the interests of the layout builder.

The OP appears to want a country through station, presumably in a South West location.

Are there any traffic requirements, track plan features, location specific aspects that are really desireable?

Use these as filters and inspect the target region stations for 'best fits'.

Then comes the bit I find most fun, creative doodling to try and get the essence of the 'best fit' stations into the space available.

One tip I was given decades ago is that most real locations positively benefit from selectively losing about 10% - 30% of the plain track length in model form: if it is generally to be viewed from a fixed centre, smaller proportion from the centre, larger proportion from the ends as this replicates the effect of our vision when viewing the real thing.

[Metr0Land]

Must admit I started with a real location (Thame in Oxfordshire) then had to reduce lengths selectively, then added bits and bobs as it evolved, especially as my layout evolved from GWR/BR(W) to ficticious LNWR/Metropolitan Joint Railway. Doesn't look anything like Thame now unless you concentrate on the 'main line' portion of the layouts where relative juxtaposition of turnouts are.

[melmoth]

I would recommend reading David Jenkinson's "Historic Railway Modelling" (Pendragon, 10 digit isbn 189981600). It is well written, informative and gives plenty of food for thought when it comes to helping identify what you want out of a model railway. Chapter 3 on "Setting Objectives and Isolating Essentials" might be particuarly useful.

[richard hines]

i have just dismantled my second layout and i am planning the third.I adopt the fag packet sketch approach and then proceed slowly as i have found that however accurate your plan is it will look different in the flesh so to speak and will need adaption.I believe railway modeling is an evolutionary thing anyway and just accept the fact that i will never be completely satisfied with the finished article.Saying that i have enjoyed both my previous layouts.Just be realistic in your demands and take the disappointments as part of the hobby.

[Clive Mortimore]

I would recommend reading David Jenkinson's "Historic Railway Modelling" (Pendragon, 10 digit isbn 189981600). It is well written, informative and gives plenty of food for thought when it comes to helping identify what you want out of a model railway. Chapter 3 on "Setting Objectives and Isolating Essentials" might be particuarly useful.

 

Hi Melmoth and Earl

 

I full agree with reading this book. Once read then look at prototype locations. Choose a location that works for you then re-read David Jenkinson's book so you can then understand why and how the real place worked. So many layouts are let down by un-workable track plans where people have copied from other model railways.

Best place to start is with a book of track plans of real places.

 

David

 

Hi David

 

Aagin I fully agree.

[Kris]

Again another vote for looking at a real location to get a plan. In some cases it is worth while looking for plans a long time ago as these can be simpler but sometime more interesting operationally.

 

I don't "draw" my plans as such but use the computer first placing on a correctly scaled plan / map of the location then working out board sizes. If these work I will then look at printing out 1:1 for the scale that I am working in so that I can get a real feel for the potential layout, even placing rolling stock on etc to see if there are features that don't work. Doing this can often show up difficulties and occasionally inaccuracies in maps and plans.

[mikeg]

I to think that real locations give the best options for modelling. I have used Swanage as the basis of my layout using half the length and half the width to fit into the loft. The essencence of the location is all there but the track layout is a little different to get a working layout in the space, ie I've a threeway point directly before the double slip to give access to the bay and goods shed in the length. The engine shed is at a far greater angle to the station and further from the overbridge so that it fills the corner as the main line bends at 180deg to get to the fiddle yard, its to the left but on the original it bends slightly right. Operationally it gives a good deal of shunting and the use of push pull trains into the bay and main line stock to the main platform allows the prototype to be used for sequence etc.

 

I think that all the good exhibition layouts of the last 10+ years have been those based on the prototype, ie Holiday haunts, Dainton bank in O Stoke Bank and the Geart Central layout in OO/EM come to mind although they are all very large layouts!

 

regards

 

mike g

[edcayton]

Again another vote for looking at a real location to get a plan. In some cases it is worth while looking for plans a long time ago as these can be simpler but sometime more interesting operationally.

 

 

I don't really agree with that Kris. A modern double track to single junction will only have a crossover and turnout, years ago it was probably a double junction with diamond, and then the branch going into single line. Engine release and run -round facilities have largely gone, sidings have been simplified and the surviving branches are mostly of the "long siding" variety.

 

Of course, much of the railway has been simplified to death (literally) but the operating interest is a tad reduced

 

Ed

[Earl Bathurst]

Hi

Thanks for all the info. I think planning is so important now because i have had so many false starts. I know in my mind what i want but when it comes to actually build it it never looks how i want it to. I think with the info which people have put i will start to use the only problem is i want to model the cornish/ devon area so living in south wales to go visit some of the real locations will be a bit difficult so will have to use books.

I know i want late steam early diesel, through country station but do i build a end to end or continuous run? thats the problem?

 

Scott

[Kris]

I don't really agree with that Kris. A modern double track to single junction will only have a crossover and turnout, years ago it was probably a double junction with diamond, and then the branch going into single line. Engine release and run -round facilities have largely gone, sidings have been simplified and the surviving branches are mostly of the "long siding" variety.

 

I was mainly thinking for steam era plans where single track lines had been doubled and siding / platforming increased.

[Revolution Mike]

Another vote for looking at the real thing for inspiration. Once you have an idea of the types of train or scenery or industries that interest you then you can start to narrow down locations.

 

What you may end up may be bits of several locations or a section of one location (compressed or not).

 

Cheers, Mike

[Revolution Mike]

I think with the info which people have put i will start to use the only problem is i want to model the cornish/ devon area so living in south wales to go visit some of the real locations will be a bit difficult so will have to use books.

I know i want late steam early diesel, through country station but do i build a end to end or continuous run? thats the problem?

 

Plenty of books on that area! North Devon has always appealed to me as a variation on the "familiar" Cornish layouts that you see.

 

As to end to end or continuous - what space do you have? What scale are you using? How important is a continuous run eg mainline to you?

[Earl Bathurst]

Hi

As for space. i have a space of 12ftx8ft but the baseboard i have down at present are fixed and cant be taken to an exhibition so will be fixed permanently. Or should i make it a porttable layout? Another question i cant decide?

Scott

[steve1]

Plan?

 

steve

[The Q]

Your choice of period, means most country stations Have not been limited by Beeching or modernisation, and should give you plenty of track work to build. So pick a station of the style / region you like. Then see if it will fit into your shed you almost certainly will have to make compromises with length (mine didn't fit the shed, so I enlarged it, I'm lucky I had the space). You may well have to "bend the station" round a curve to get it in. You don't say the size of shed but you may have to settle for a fiddle yard - station or fiddle yard - station-fiddle yard to save space without a scond curve.

If it is a shed and not a room you may consider taking one or both curves out through the wall, to make more room, even if the outdoor track has to be removeable.

I found I didn't get on with software so mine was designed by moving a scale track plan around the drawing of the available space, till it fitted and then plotting the return tracks.

 

The Q

[JZ]

I know that i want a country station some thing like the station in the Titfeild Thinderbolt (through station) but in the late steam/ early diesel BR days, and want it to be of finescale track standards but when it comes to actually planning it and drawing it how do i go about it?

 

Titfield is actually Monkton Combe station on the Camerton Branch. Track plans for all stations on the branch as well as plans for many buildings, can be found in "The Camerton Branch" by Maggs and Beale. Less detail track plans are in Frome to Bristol by Mitchell and Smith.

An excellent choice of prototype and can be modelled without much shortening. Land falls from back to front for good viewing. Only 3 points needed. Traffic would be mainly coal, though you'd have to assume that the collieries stayed open another 10 years or so, with a daily pick-up goods.

[Earl Bathurst]

Hi The Q and JZ

Thanks for the info. Does anyone have a track plan of Monkton Combe station? Also i shall try and dig for some info on this branch i must say since i have seen it on the film and read little articles i have always found that a nice looing line. Id also need to find station building plans for the buildings

 

Scott