Enough of planning already!!!!

W

wdsrwg

Member
Jan 29, 2006
137
0
16
67
Hill Country of Western Wisconsin
I have created no less than 80 different variations to my plan and I have had it. wall1

I am just going to build my my layout one section at a time. :rolleyes:

I know the layout in my head and its time to just build it! :cry:

For pete's sake I've had the benchwork done for a month or so.

Now that that rampage is over, has anyone out there just plopped down track with no paper sitting in front of them, working from the imagination for a guide and have it turnout anything like your vision?

The TRAINS are the focal point and all of the other stuff should just fall into place.
RIGHT!
hamr

Its been a real, REAL bad week and all I want is to run my railroad! announce1

I guess I just need a little support here and wouldn't mind a smack upside the head to set me straight!

GEEEEZZZZ! :curse: :curse:
 
Thanks Chris,
That's really all I needed to hear :thumb:
I am going to have trains actually running by August :rolleyes: and will post pix when I figure out how to re-size them to fit.
For the rest of the night its cutting cork for roadbed :sleeping: (YIPPEE!)

Russell
 
I've never drawn a track plan. If I drew a track plan, something would not fit. I tried to use a cad program, but I'm not a computer guy. I use the computer as a word processor and to surf the net only. The bench work needs to be about 4 inches wider than the diameter that my minimum radius for a turn back curve results in. Otherwise, I just put the switches where I need them, and then connect them together with flex track.
 
I've found that no matter how carefully you plan, things come up that you did not anticipate or just don't seem to work like they did on paper and you end up having to wing it anyways. I use to plan things out meticulously but any more I just come up with the basic plan and then plop things down and see what happens. It's definitely more interesting that way. After all, it's model railroading.... if you screw something up, take it apart / rip it up / modify it and do it better the second time around... or the third time... or the fourth time.... etc.....
 
Sometimes you just have to jump in. I drew plans for my current layout for months, until I couldn’t count them anymore. The more plans I created, the less I could make up my mind. I came to the point where it was now or never. And I am glad that I decided to start building the layout. I had to redesign some parts and ripp off some track while building it, but now I am happy with my layout. Go for it! :thumb:
 
Russ, TN & Kurt,

I appreciate the input and encourgement!
The track work will begin tonight! Heck, I might close the office a little early and get some extra time in. I have enough dimentions on paper to make several thousand scale miles fit in one place or another!
Once again I will post pix of progress and show the slow but steady realisation of this life long dream.
The fun is back and its time to lay the flex track.
Thanks to all goldtoth1

Russell
 
I was kinda like you. I "planned" for the better part of a year. Hundreds of track plans later, I just wanted to run trains and be done with it. I was tired of wishful thinking. In the end, I settled on a pre-made plan that I was happy with. Yes, I would've liked to have designed my own, but perhaps that will come with experience.

Good luck to you! :thumb:
 
I went through the same thing as you thinking I could get the perfect plan . I worked on my plan for nearly 3 months benchwork was done and ready. I think to just trow down some track is not a very good idea. But I do think having the type of main line you prefer drawn out helps alot as well if you know the type of structures you will have then all you do is draw out the main line make foot prints sizes for the structures placeing them around until they work for your imagination then draw in some rails to service the structures and you will probably find your well on your way :wave:
 
I guess saying throw down the track was not the best statement on my part :oops:
I do have a very set diagram in my head and with all the paper I have it should turn out close to what I am wanting.
I read no less than an hour a day here on the Gauge and other modlers websites.
I subscribe to MR and I wear out my welcome on occasion at the local hobby shop.
I am starting with the swicthing yard and wil progress from there.
My benchwork at this time is a modified 4x8 with a 2x3 section removed for ease of reach. This configuration allows more than enough room for a good sized switching yard, town, factories and of course the mainline running through it.
The future will bring along the wall 2x and 3x benchwork with it ending back at the 4x8 with a duck under bridge for operations access.
The theme is modern commercial/light industry in a older midwestern town that is transforming from agriculture to commercial/light industrial. Just like all of the small towns in the Mid West!

See, I do have a plan. Kinda, sorta :rolleyes:

Thanks for all of your stories, they really do help!

Russell
 
I know the layout in my head and its time to just build it!
Click to expand...

Opinion: no compliance, or acceptance is looked for.

Model railroads are planned. The route of all the track is determined, and then scenery/ structures are created to agree with the run of the track...........right !, and what you get is a spaghetti bowl of track, impossible hills, over compressed buildings, and a general look of " FAKE " ! I can see the topography, I know in advance what my world should look like, and then I choose what industries will be served by rail. Next, industries are located in a logical place in the topography, and the rails are run to the industries. If the mainline looks like a snake, because it follows a river ?.........mainlines do look like snakes when they follow a river, most likely because rivers look like snakes !!
Caveat:
This works for me because, I like well detailed trains running through good looking scenery ! Good looking scenery is natural looking, not forced to fit a track plan. The epiphany was the first time I was able to view my modules from above, and it looked just like an ariel photo of the part of the world I was modeling. Yes, things were closer than they would normally be, but......the flow of roads, track, watercourses, stands of trees, and all the other facets of nature, were all there. Why?....because I knew the topography I was trying to create, and then logically placed things where the topography determined they should be. Industries are not cantilevered out beyond the edge of a cliff !! they are far more believable when they are located in a more natural ( and level ) place.
Oh, laying track in existing scenery IS difficult, but then "railroads" do it all the time. The final statement is basicly, if it works for you, THAT is what you should do. Model railroading should be just like Outback steakhouse......No Rules, Just Right!
Pete
 
I have a friend that has track
temporary​
laid​
for over a year. He keeps moving stuff around. He seems pretty happy about it until I bring of the fact his layout is void of trees etc.

[LEFT said:
wdsrwg[/LEFT]]I have created no less than 80 different variations to my plan and I have had it. wall1

I am just going to build my my layout one section at a time. :rolleyes:

I know the layout in my head and its time to just build it! :cry:

For
pete's​
sake I've had the
benchwork​
done for a month or so.

Now that that rampage is over, has anyone out there just plopped down track with no paper sitting in front of them, working from the imagination for a guide and have it turnout anything like your vision?

The TRAINS are the focal point and all of the other stuff should just fall into place.
RIGHT!
hamr

Its been a real, REAL bad week and all I want is to run my railroad! announce1

I guess I just need a little support here and wouldn't mind a smack upside the head to set me straight!

GEEEEZZZZ! :curse: :curse:
Click to expand...
 
The beauty about creating the plan in a trackplanning software like xtracad ( which is what I'm familar with) is you can put in a bit of scenery place industries and run trains to see if you like the operations.:)
 
I have the day off so I just spent 4 hours finishing the outline of the buildings, hills, water features and then of course the track routes.
No spagetti track here. :D

This is just the first phase of 5 that is to be completed for the around the room layout so, I know I will gain more knowledge and get more ideas as I go. I will keep researching like a madman until I get it PERFECT! :rolleyes:
I am however going to ditch the conventional roadbed for DAP chalk in some places but mostly industrial dbl sided tape. May still use some of the miles of pre-made and scratch cut cork but only when I have too.
Chuck Hitchcock highlited the use of these products in the August 2003 issue/pg-77 of Model Railroading and seemed to have great success!
Once again, I am just not designing any more layouts on the computer because I know what I want and its time to build.
:thumb:
 
One more thing for everyone to consider is that different individual look at things differently. When I think of a possible track plan, I see the completed railroad in my head. I'm a very visual person. Other people can't visualize in their heads and don't really see the completed railroad until the track is down and scenery is well along. Some people need to draw a track plan to scale to make sure everything will fit and that it will look right. Others can just start laying track directly from their imagination. No method is right or wrong, just whatever works for you.
 
You hit it right on the spike Russ.
I have used the cad programs for measurments and overall dimentional calculations but, the layout is in my head!
Althought for some reason I am often asked if my little mind gets lonely in that big thing.
As I stated before, the first 1/5 of this dream is in the works but, I can look around the room and see 4 walls of the layout in its completed stage.
I know, I know, a layout is never complete but, it will be to the best of my ability in the not so distant future. Say, 2010 :D
The landscape and all of the particulars will be there also but for now,

Lets run the train's :thumb:

Thanks again Russ,

Russell
 
Lynn,
jawdrop
You are quite the industrialist :thumb:

Fantastic pix and the wiring is unbelievable!

My plans are not as progressive but would love to see your layout as it developes please.
And maybe if possible a whole room shot of the layout.

Yes, yes I am trying to steal some ideas but hey, what the heck are we here for.aussie

Russell
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom