Small Layout Plans.

It's just been approved, so hopefully live some time Monday.

I have only now downloaded Worcester. Not long after my post in June my health took a nosedive again and I forgot all about it. I can see why you had so many problems with the track and pointwork Vern, - some of those curves are real flange squealers.
 
Thought I would bump this having almost finished my run through the digital back copies of Railway Modeller. Of the probably 100’s of plans, layouts and ideas I’ve abstracted, those “folded prototypes” of the late 70’s and into the 80’s are still my favourites. Hard to know where to start, but Liskeard and the Looe branch looking the firm front runner. More to follow.
 
Thought I would bump this having almost finished my run through the digital back copies of Railway Modeller. Of the probably 100’s of plans, layouts and ideas I’ve abstracted, those “folded prototypes” of the late 70’s and into the 80’s are still my favourites. Hard to know where to start, but Liskeard and the Looe branch looking the firm front runner. More to follow.

Liskeard & Looe has the potential to make an interesting layout. I had a go at it back in TS2012 around 5 years ago, but I made a bit of a mess of it since my layout building skills weren't up to much back then.
 
The bit that I found tricky Vern was getting the heights between the various parts of the landscape correct.
 
Yes it looks as if it could be quite tricky. I have scaled up slightly to HO, which should give a bit more wiggle room.
 
Thanks!

The other change I'll probably make, is push the fiddle yard back a bit for extra clearance and a couple more roads. Cornish Main Line in the70's needs a loco hauled daytime Paddington to/from service, the Paddington to/from overnight sleeper service, a "Cross Country" (in the wider sense) loco hauled service and a local DMU - ideally a Class 120 Cross Country but we don't have one, so a 117 will have to substitute. The Looe branch for most of the year was operated by a single Class 121 "bubble car", with a 3 car set provided in summer. Interestingly there was (and probably still is) a restriction on coupled DMU formations operating through the yard at Liskeard, due to the extreme curvature. As regards freight, in addition to the Moorswater trips, in the 70's you had the main line china clay traffic from further west in Cornwall and a bit of local freight too, plus engineering trains.
 
Well you were right about Looe, Kotanga. If you follow the plan and the guide height for Liskeard in the article which works out at around 14m above ground level, you end up with Looe station in a gorge and nowhere to put any sort of representation of the river. So first attempt scrapped and going for Liskeard at a lower level, also push the RHS main line and fiddle yard approach a bit further out and same with the rear fiddle yard section.
 
If you do a Google search for the Liskeard viaduct Vern you'll immediately see the problem. The viaduct is 45 metres above the valley floor at its highest point.
 
Great stuff Vern. What I find with these OO model track plans is that they look far too 'tight' when put into Trainz, so in my experience everything needs to be eased out with more room (which obviously we have in abundance!)

Paul
 
Great stuff Vern. What I find with these OO model track plans is that they look far too 'tight' when put into Trainz, so in my experience everything needs to be eased out with more room (which obviously we have in abundance!)

Paul

With some of those 00 model railway trackplans Paul they are too 'tight' when building a tactile model railway layout as well. At least we do have the option of having plenty of room so we can ease out the tight spots.
 
Attempt #2 at Liskeard to Looe is looking better, using the easements I noted above. No estimate for finishing it as the good weather currently beckons out of doors and the wife has a list of jobs around the house which need doing. However I’m dropping in there for half an hour or so as time permits.
 
Attempt #2 at Liskeard to Looe is looking better, using the easements I noted above. No estimate for finishing it as the good weather currently beckons out of doors and the wife has a list of jobs around the house which need doing. However I’m dropping in there for half an hour or so as time permits.

Wishing you better luck with it this time around Vern.
 
Another source of track plans that I have not seem mentioned in this thread is the Internet Archive.
They have several books in their Library that can be used used for an Hour at a time (Renewable) and the scans are good enough to capture screen shots of the Track plans for use as a planning tool.
Here are a few of the books to get started:

subject:"Railroads -- Models"

You can narrow your search from there.
 
I like small layouts, - I know this is a strange and very British thing that many Americans might think is odd, but for me the TMR format means that I can indulge in making layouts that I saw in Railway Modeller (as well as other model railway magazines) back in the day without wondering where I'm going to put them in my already crowded cottage.

Anyway I found a very interesting PDF about small layouts online so I thought I'd share it here.

http://thoroughbredlimited2015.yolasite.com/resources/Clinic_Presentations/Gliebe Designing small shelf Layouts for operating fun 2015-2.pdf
Reading your post give me an idea. Why not build an interface (track and train control panel) like you would have on a real live model railroad and interface it with Trainz program. Way beyond my know how, but I bet someone could do it! I looked at your pdf file and it brought back memories of my model railroad days. I'm thinking of changing my whole approach to Trainz. Half the fun of model railroading is building the road and with Trainz that would be interesting. I like your ideas.
 
Another source of track plans that I have not seem mentioned in this thread is the Internet Archive.
They have several books in their Library that can be used used for an Hour at a time (Renewable) and the scans are good enough to capture screen shots of the Track plans for use as a planning tool.
Here are a few of the books to get started:

subject:"Railroads -- Models"

You can narrow your search from there.
That is certainly a lot of books, - thanks very much for posting the link.
 
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