layout

[richard39]

Hello everyone.

I have a baseboard 7ftx20in and am finding it very difficult to plan the layout. This is my first model layout as i used to build model boats
and am used to working from plans.Can anyone give me some advice or steer me towards ng plans.
thanks.
richard39.

[Isle of Stoner]

First of all, welcome to the forum and to 009 modelling in general.

Your baseboard is a good size for a 009 layout and I would say the first thing you need to consider is what sort of prototype you want to model. Industrial, tourist, British, Continental, historical, contemporary... or a splendid mix of all of these and many more.

A good way of having a look at other peoples layouts would be firstly to rumage around on this forum and on the Society web site in general. You could also do a lot worse than to have a look at our 'Roving Reporters' CDs of pictures taken at many exhibitions.

Hope this helps and doesn't just open up too many more questions, planning a layout can be almost as much fun as building it.

[richard39]

Thanks for your welcome.
Does the combi have 16vAC outlets for points?
richard39

[Graeme Dunbar]

That's good advice and I can only add the following that have helped me -

What size of stock do you have or are planning to get? If it is large locomotives and long bogie carriages then beware of sharp curves. With shorter stock you might manage a U or even an oval, but you want to make sure the running is perfect before landscaping or you might be plagued by bad running and derailments so you would be better with an end-to-end layout.

There are many examples of small layouts on the internet. A good starting point is Carl Arendt's Small Layout Scrapbook:
http://carendt.com/index.html
This contains many much smaller "micro" layouts, but also slightly larger stuff too.

At the risk of being excommunicated, there are a number of interesting layouts shown on Narrow Gauge Modelling Online forum:
http://ngrm-online.com/

To get you thinking about operational potential, there are a couple of well-known shunting puzzle layouts:
http://www.wymann.info/ShuntingPuzzles/
I'm not suggesting it has to be a shunting puzzle as they can be rather restrictive and you have more than enough space for something more ambitious. However, knowing about them, I am now mindful of traffic movements and (hopefully) where to place sidings and points.

Not quite a shunting puzzle, but "classic" of its type is the Gumstump and Snowshoe design:
http://thegumstump.co.uk/gumstumptop.html

Iain Rice's book on shelf layouts might be worth a look:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shelf-Layouts-Model-Railroads-Iain/dp/0890246904/