Small Layout Plans.

Related but different, as well as small layouts it would appear that I like small locomotives, what with having collected 36 different ones.
Just put them all in one place.
There are 2 differently named listings for B&O No 20.
Other than it, no duplicates.
And I am certain I used to have at least one Western Maryland 44 tonner in Trainz to go with my HO scale one from Bachmann.

And then, while it is not a small layout, it is a small railroad, have been re-reading September 1978 Model Railroader 'Railroad you can model' article on Arcade and Attica with its stable of 44 tonners.
Though layout plan drawn on page 83 is not small in real life HO scale layout size, it goes around all 4 walls of a 24ft by 16ft basement, it is a quite simple one-mainline and several spurs layout.
And ...
Given it will fit on 1 baseboard as HO scale in Trainz, which the ruler says is right around 27 feet on a side, it would count as a small layout here in Trainz.

Personal experience did lead to a fondness for GE 44tonners, opportunity arose in 1980s to ride along in the US Navy's one at Oceania Air Station.
Perhaps it is that & personal experiences with a couple small railroads which are part of my liking for smaller layouts.

In background are several Whitcombs and Plymouths;

 
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This layout is a heavily modified version of a random plan found on the web. Has a continuous running loop on the outside, a small yard, and a branch line/reverse loop in the center. Layout size is 8ftx4ft in N scale.
TPLAN1.jpg


Loaded it up in T:ANE and mayhem ensued.
TPLAN2.jpg


TPLAN3.jpg


Really fun stuff!
 
How can there be may-hem in October! :unsure:
Track flow through the turnouts looks nice and smooth.

(trying to click Like was an adventure, hands are a bit spasmy this evening, kept triple and quadruple clicking)
 
How can there be may-hem in October! :unsure:
Track flow through the turnouts looks nice and smooth.

(trying to click Like was an adventure, hands are a bit spasmy this evening, kept triple and quadruple clicking)
That was my thought as well. His trackwork is really, really nice.

I can relate to the spasms. I have secondary dystonia that causes my hands and feet to curl inward and outward at the same time in addition to tremors when I'm off. This is why I prefer virtual model railroading because there's less of a chance of knocking an expensive N-scale loco to the floor which I did when things first started going south on me. I watched my expensive Kato/Atlas D&H RS-3 hit the cement floor in the basement and turn into a bunch of pulverized plastic bits.
 
The trackwork? Probably got lucky with that one. Been importing some of my layouts into T:ANE from 09. Some need adjustment because of missing ties under the rails at select turnouts. I figure that's because they use old track without points and frogs and I use the bulk replace to get them up to speed.

An added plus switching to T:ANE? Track condition, super elevation, and seeing just how fast you can go around one of those sharp curves; watching the trains rocking until they finally derail.
 
super elevation
That ... that is a thing I was wondering about the other day but then decided to not to pursue finding out about.
:unsure:

Most of the railroading I do with TANE is making routes in the switching and short lines genres, both standard and 2ft/600mm gauge, and landscaping them; but, I certainly do like to have the occasional fast passenger express. 😁

Would like to have a route where you can open the throttle and GO!
But my lands, making the 200 miles of landscape in which to do that ... 😲
 
The smaller the better works best for me, too. Someday, though I'm gonna climb that mountain!

Most of the time, I throw track on a baseboard, paint it "just gray" and that's that. Perhaps a few buildings just to tell where I'm at. T:ANE has me getting all cozy with surveyor all of the sudden.

A figure 8 plan with.... gasp... scenery!
Figure-8.jpg


Round and round we go.
Figure-8b.jpg


When it comes to super elevation, just a degree and a half will do.
Figue-8c.jpg
 
That's the cool part about modeling model railroads. There's no need to really landscape and place lots of trees like we do when we model the real world. A model railroad has a mere handful of expensive bottle brush pines and maybe a few Woodland Scenics foam and wire trees. The same with buildings. We don't need to build a whole town. A few buildings here and there and an industry are what makes up a town on a model railroad.
 
That's the cool part about modeling model railroads. There's no need to really landscape and place lots of trees like we do when we model the real world. A model railroad has a mere handful of expensive bottle brush pines and maybe a few Woodland Scenics foam and wire trees. The same with buildings. We don't need to build a whole town. A few buildings here and there and an industry are what makes up a town on a model railroad.

Apparently you haven't run any of my model railroad layouts, LOL.




Rico
 
Here are some plans posted by the members of the MRH forums. Some of these plans look interesting.

 
Hey Y'all; Just finished laying track on that 1 baseboard adaptation of the 24ft x 16ft HO scale Arcade & Attica in September 1978 Model Railroader.
Stretched the plan left-right to fill the 26ft x 26ft baseboard.

➡️ With the flange-squealing 'train set' curves 😲 this plan has you won't be driving any 4-8-8-4s on it! Is most absolutely definitely the realm of 40ft cars and the real line's GE 44 Tonners. 😁
Someone has made some nice 4-4-0 and 4-6-0 locos and maybe a couple other steamers which will work in TANE. I got them from Download Center.
Are 3 to 5 different 44 tonners available there too. Would have to go back and count them to be sure, but I do know there are numbers 99, 111, 112, available for TANE.

🚋 Ya know, with those kinds of curves, could also hang trolley wire on it and call it an interurban ...

(magazine plan had a 12 inch grid on it, and yes, the curves are that sharp, lower right is 18in, 45cm, radius)

Plan notes that layout designer Harold Russell added a couple industries which were not actually rail served, but, hey, ya do want a layout which is fun to operate!
At time of article the 2 railroads A&A bridged between had been merged in to Conrail.
They were Erie at NE end and PRR at SW end of line.

Also notes that since it is all about interchange traffic there is minimal car storage on layout.

53286103787_aa83179d5b_o.jpg
 
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😁 Just used the bulk replace asset function for the 1st time Ever in all the years I've been using Trainz.
Made a CDP out of this route in TANE from N3V, exported to a PC folder, then opened the TANE via Steam where I'm doing a bunch of 600mm/2ft gauge trains & imported the route there.
Route at this time is solely track, not a bit, byte, asset, or pixel, of landscaping.
Then used that bulk replace function to replace the 100# standard gauge track with Maine 2ft Light Grey track.
In the blink of an eye.
Pretty cool thing to be able to do. 🚂:cool:
 
😁 Just used the bulk replace asset function for the 1st time Ever in all the years I've been using Trainz.
Made a CDP out of this route in TANE from N3V, exported to a PC folder, then opened the TANE via Steam where I'm doing a bunch of 600mm/2ft gauge trains & imported the route there.
Route at this time is solely track, not a bit, byte, asset, or pixel, of landscaping.
Then used that bulk replace function to replace the 100# standard gauge track with Maine 2ft Light Grey track.
In the blink of an eye.
Pretty cool thing to be able to do. 🚂:cool:
Yep after I discovered tool, I use it a lot. You can even swap textures with it over the entire route! Another thing I recently started using after all these years is the plateau tool. Love that tool!
 
Bulk update is my friend too. We were all pretty excited when that finally came along. Prior to that, replacing track was a dreaded affair. A user who also created a Trainz Mapz utility, which sadly no longer works and is really old, put that ability in but that was also a cumbersome process. Even with that program, we had to click on individual segments of track in a map view, making that a tricky process when it came to complex trackwork such as that found in yards and stations.
 
Bulk update is my friend too. We were all pretty excited when that finally came along. Prior to that, replacing track was a dreaded affair. A user who also created a Trainz Mapz utility, which sadly no longer works and is really old, put that ability in but that was also a cumbersome process. Even with that program, we had to click on individual segments of track in a map view, making that a tricky process when it came to complex trackwork such as that found in yards and stations.
Just one of the things I found it useful for is to replace the grid texture with another desired texture. This covers all those nooks and grannies that may be missed while texturing
 
Route at this time is solely track, not a bit, byte, asset, or pixel, of landscaping.
Not true now! :)
Tell ya what, coming up with something for a bridge on a 21inch in HO Scale radius curve was a bit of a job.
Search both through installed listings and DLS listings to find some manner of bridge which would be usable.
Radius is approximately 152 feet, 46 metres, in real scale.

Color track plan in magazine shows landscaping, buildings, roads, I'm going to somewhat follow those.

⏰ Took a bit over 6 minutes for pictured train to make a full lap at 17mph.

"Railroad you can model" article notes the straight narrow section about mid left side on my plan illustration is a lift out bridge to allow for continuous running.

🌳 Somewhere recently in a thread here, saw conversation about trees and tree splines & the problem of far too many trees being far to small & that was why the person used tree splines instead of individual trees or something called 'Speed Trees' whatever they are.
While a fair percentage of living trees may indeed fall in to the 20 metre, 65 feet, height range, and that is big to us 2 metre humans, see my reference phot from the UP here in town, they look so tiny on the baseboards.
And I want some trees which illustrate how BIG the landscape on this planet is.

See: Railpictures dot net links for some tree-train references, which may actually be your 'typical 20 metre tree'.


💡 :unsure: Ya know, if ya wanted to add more base boards, that Pennsy/Erie/Conrail stretch of track running along all of left side could be connected to an oval with a staging yard and have live action interchange.
Portals could do same thing, add one at each end.

53292803028_403939f0b2_b.jpg


53292559506_080d750fd5_b.jpg


🌳 Tree images,



53292871888_0cbce3f0cd_c.jpg
 
the grid texture with another desired texture. This covers all those nooks and grannies
:unsure: Because our meeting place was hosting a book signing today we didn't have our weekly creative writers group meeting this morning.
So, while your Trainz is downloading updates,
here's your 'writing to prompts' 20 minute exercise ...
Write a story about 'The Granny Grid'.
📜✏️
 
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