Model Railway Plans for Trainz

pfx

Well-known member
I've been wondering if anyone knows of a good source for model railway plans (any guage)? It occured to me that I could take a compact layout and turn it into a fairly useful mini Trainz route.
Thanks
Innis
 
If you subscribe to Model Railroader magazine, you have access to over 600 trackplans on the website.

William
 
And if you bought that 75 year DVD set like I did they are right there on your computer. Plus loco plans, traincar plans, industry plans, etc galore.

Ben
 
You can still buy the old Peco track plan books at most decent UK model railway shops.

Also for the US perspective, Kalmbach also did a book called Track Planning Ideas which was a bit more colourful than 101 Track Plans.
 
Hi Vern:

The 101 track plan book is quite old but does have a good selection of them from those to fit on a 4 by 8 ft hunk of plywood to "If I Had A Million" club sized layout. One in it is on the DLS. Crazy Horse Timber Company - - - a logging route I think.

Ben
 
Atlas Railroad Co. www.atlasrr.com has some track plans that are for layouts you can purchase. What I've done is save the jpg files of the preview and make those into baseboard images. I then lay the track over those and then landscape. It's sort of like building a layout without the mess. :)

One of the layouts (the only one I uploaded) is the Scenic and Relaxed from the Atlas Nine-N'scale Layouts book.

John
 
For (mainly UK) layouts, 'PSL Book of Model Railway Track Plans', C J Freezer, ISBN 0-85059-905-9, published 1988 at £5-99. Over 70 layout plans, various scales and sizes.

Alternatively, look for and buy all back copies of 'Railway Modeller' published whilst Cyril was editor - he produced at least one detailed layout plan every month!

But don't try to make a Trainz layout the same size as the model - even a large one would be unlikely to fill even one Trainz baseboard! Take advantage of the unlimited space offered by Trainz to take a model plan and make it more realistic. See my web site* for my thoughts on the subject, and my layout 'Dukes Denver' (on the DLS, for TRS 2004 using only built-in assets) which uses, if I remember correctly, seven baseboards and is based on a CJF plan for 4.5 x 3.5 metres. * Click on Dukes Denver Designs, below.

Ray
 
I agree Ray. One of my long term ambitions is to try and recreate Peter Denny's Buckingham Central enterprise. However in order to make it more of a route I fancy extending it beyond Grandborough Junction and the Leighton Buzzra branch through to London. This would replicate one of Cyril Freezer's "through terminus" ideas, with the through tracks dropping down via the "Wizened Lines" to a cut and cover terminus based on his equally famous Minories design for compact spaces.

I did sketch out a year or two how this might work if tackled in one of the sims, using an area of around 7km by 4km to give a decent run but not too onerous to put together and of course utilising the favourite model railway trick that two sides of the same street or district, actually serve as the backdrop to sections of railway several miles away in running distance. Sadly the plan never came to fruition and I lost the pre-planning but so often we get fixated on doing long DEM based prototype routes it is easy to forget there are other ways of going about it.
 
Hi Ray. It was always my intention to expand a model plan. I was looking for inspiration regardig the station and junction layouts then add in 'proper' distances betwen everything.
 
Hi pfx,

If your after track plans, this might come in handy for you, it includes Layout plans, Hornby plans and Prototype plans, the prototype plans are of real railway stations throughout the UK and some of the USA, here is the link...

LAYOUT PLANS - http://www.freetrackplans.com/Layout-Plans.php

HORNBY PLANS - http://www.freetrackplans.com/Hornby-Plans.php

PROTOTYPE PLANS - http://www.freetrackplans.com/Prototype-Plans.php

Hope this helps and if I find anymore, I will add them to this list.

Joe Airtime
 
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One of my long term ambitions is to try and recreate Peter Denny's Buckingham Central enterprise

Hi, Vern

They say great minds think alike!

The sad news of Peter Denny's death, followed by the recent RM article on rebuilding Buckingham in a purpose-built shed, brought this to my mind too, and I dug out the most recent plan of this inspirational layout - it must have been one of the first I ever read about. Perhaps one of these days ...

As for Minories, that has been a continual inspiration for me and I have used the basic plan several times, both for a 'real' model railway layout and in Trainz. In fact, my first layout module (station and buildings but no scenery) is Minories, although called Albury.

It was always my intention to expand a model plan

Hi pfx

Good - I have seen some Trainz layouts built on, for example, a 6 x 4 board using a tiny corner of one baseboard and I think they look silly!

Ray
 
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I think this site has cropped up before, in connection with Lynton & Barnstaple.

http://www.009.cd2.com/index.htm

Certainly a grand concept for a Trainz project, even if the "history" part of the website is slightly misleading in presenting it as a real prototype. Only issue might be an accusation of plagiarising the concept, though building the real thing through a DEM'd landscape of North Devon is somewhat different to short sections of model railway. Then, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery!

However some of the track plans would be useful in other contexts, too.
 
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It's been almost a year since the last post, but it might inspire someone if I revive it.

I Googled 'Model Railway Layouts' and then clicked-on Images and got this little lot - https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=m...aJMfNOKKBgRA&ved=0CAkQ_AUoAQ&biw=1366&bih=648

Not only do you get the layout, but there are instances were you can see close-ups of buildings, roads, rivers and canals. Don't forget to do variations of the Google search, which will add more choice, e.g. - railway diagrams, railway yards, track plans; the list goes on.

Another source of inspiration for me was disused-stations.co.uk

They list loads of closed stations and also give details of the layout in the description. A visit to Old-maps.co.uk will show the trackwork, etc., in 1:2,500 detail, where available.

Regards, Dave
 
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