4x8 track plans

[jward]

 
Bill
[/quote]

I would be very careful about building these layouts. it is obvious that the person who designed them never built and tested them. they are full of s curves which will cause derailment problems. layouts 2 8 and 10 are especially bad.

the rule of thumb is to place a straight at least as long as your longest car or locomotive between curves of opposite directions. in practice, you can get away with 6" straights between the curves if you don't run cars longer than 50 feet. but going from a left curve directly into a right one, especially with 18r curves, is asking for trouble. just because anyrail will let you do it on a computer screen doesn't mean it will work in the real world.

[Jerrys HO]

buhlig

On this forum we are not allowed to sell our merchandise as I see you are selling these.

http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/board/index.php/topic,8493.0.html

Jerry

[jbrock27]

Ignoring buhlig's weak attempt to peddle his EBay merchandise, I will say this; that sometimes it can be helpful to see a track plan for ideas, even if it has flaws like S curves.  Bc, it can give an idea, and not necessarily copied if one knows where the flaws and weaknesses  are, these can either possibly be modified or left out and the good ideas can be taken from the plan.

[jward]

I do agree with you jb. those plans can be redrawn into something that works, as can most plans.

my point here is, and this is one of the reasons I keep hammering the point about s curves, that this is the time of year when we get many people new to the hobby. if they spend hundreds of dollars on something that doesn't work well because of a design flaw it leaves them disgusted with trains. we lose potential hobbyists who think trains are more trouble than they're worth. and it's all because of a flaw in the track layout which could be easily corrected, but they don't know that, and probably won't stick around long enough to fin out.

if we can steer them to a well designed, workable plan from the get-go, we've eliminated a source of frustration and they may find that railroading is their niche. we should be helping the newbies enjoy the hobby, not having them spend a fortune on something we know is going to frustrate them.

off my soapbox now. if anybody is still reading this, good luck on your railroad and please post whatever plan you build here for the rest o us to enjoy.

[jbrock27]

You make an excellent point JW!  Well taken.
I just got the Atlas #11 book-Track Plans for Small Spaces and while a little disappointed that it did not have plans for 8 x 8 Ls or a lot of 4 x 8s in general, it does provide great info and is easy for anyone to understand, down to the wiring.  I will likely read all the points made in the book, take what I have learned here thanks to you and many others as well as plans I have seen elsewhere, throw in a little SCARM and come up with something me and the boy will really like to operate.

A Merry Christmas to you and your family!

[jward]

you can't go wrong with the atlas books. all of those layouts were built and tested before they ever were published. many people don't know this, but the late john Armstrong was co-author of these books. and with a good layout planning program, you can redraw them for ez track, though they will take up a bit more space.

in my case experience is the best teacher. I was fortunate enough to have a grandfather and father who were both avid model railroaders. I was able to learn a lot from them, but still made a lot of the mistakes  I often warn about here.

how old is your son? mine loved to run trains when he was about 3-8 years old, then lost interest.

and everybody, have a merry Christmas.

[jbrock27]

He will be 10 soon.  He enjoys it, but is not as "into it" as I.
I have not been as fortunate to have the benefit of previous generations passing knowledge down to me so most of my learning before finding the right places to get information, also came from me making mistakes and except for some hand me down track, some structures, a loco, some cars and an AHM train set, I was left to it on my own.  It was still fun then, like it is now  

[Len]

One minor word of warning about the Atlas books, specifically the plans using 'cookie cutter' benchwork.

Dimensional lumber sizes have gotten slightly smaller since those plans were originally developed. So double check the clearance measurements you'll actually need before cutting anything. I found this out the hard way building the "Granite Gorge & Northern" a while back. I just cut the notches directly from the plans, without premeasuring, and ended up with too little clearance under the upper double track.

Len

[jbrock27]

Thank you for the heads up Len.

[rogertra]

The current issue of Model Railroader has a good 5 x 8 model railroad that takes up only a little more than a 4x8 plus it gives reasonable operation (switching) potential rather than just tail chasing.

Merry Christmas.

[jbrock27]

A Merry Christmas to you as well Roger!

I for one would love to do that but have found it near impossible/impractical to find a 5 x 8 piece of plywood unless it is special ordered through a local hardware store/lumber company; to the tune of $300+ (American). 
The big box stores don't carry that size, there is not a Menards within 3 states of me and I don't have the time or desire to comb through Craigslist looking for a ping pong table.  So for me, an 8 by 8 "L" is going to have to suffice.

[jward]

atlas has a plan called the rancocas harbor belt which would fit that area, with a dockside theme.

[jbrock27]

Thank you Jeff, I will have to look that up. 

[buhlig]

All

First I'd like to truly apologize for posting my eBay store on the forum. My attention was not to paddle Bachmann EZ track, but to share the layouts I created. I guess I should have just posted the layouts individually. With that said, I just have to thank Jeff for the constructive criticism about the work I created. It sounds like he really knows what he's talking about especially since he was fortunate enough to have a grandfather and father who were both avid model railroaders teaching him the ins and outs. I wish I had that opportunity!

Jeff I definitely have the same interest as you do and that's to get more people into model railroading. It's a great hobby that has been declining for some time and most kids would prefer to play video games then create a small wonderlands. If you are interested I'd be happy to send you my Layout designs for review and together we can make the beginners much happier with perfect layouts.

I can remember when I was a kid back in the 60's, I lived in Lynbrook, NY and I would ride my bike to Trainland almost every day. Today the few people that are interested in model railroading get online and look for information since they don't have a local store in their local area. Most people in the US don't have a hobby shop or a Model train store close by and rely on peddles like myself or massive websites like modeltrainstuff.

Many newbies are just looking for some help. I have a number of customers that are trying to design their own layouts by trial and error. They buy track and then realize it's not going to work and waste a lot of money. In addition, it's not easy designing layouts with Bachmann EZ track since there is so many needed pieces of track that Bachmann doesn't make.  For example, you can't parallel a siding with # 4, 5, or 6 turnouts, way is that?

Nobody else on eBay or any other site for that matter is offering customers or potential model railroaders layout designs. I'm trying my best to change that and would appreciate any help I can get. I'd be happy to send anybody my Anyrail designs and have them help make them better so we can get more folks interested in model railroading.

Thanks,
Bill Uhlig
Crazy Model Trains
240-367-6067       

[jward]

send me the files and i'll work on them for you.

btw, the 12 degree curved section, I think it is 35.5r, will work with the #5 to make a parallel track. the track spacing is a little wide for my taste, but it works.