New layout

[Jbub]

Hey guys! I'm getting close to being able to build a layout but I need to come up with a track plan first. What recommendations do you  have on reading material relating to layout planning and design?

[Point353]

[cnw780]

Anything by Lance Mindheim

https://lancemindheim.com/book-store/

Particularly his How to Design A Small Switching Layout

~Tim

[N Scale Train Boy]

Definitely second Mindheim. Really inspirational and helpful stuff in his books!

[davefoxx]

That John Armstrong book, Track Planning for Realistic Operation (shown in @Point353’s post above), is a definite keeper for your RR library.  My copy dates to the seventh printing of the second edition of the book in 1991 and is the version with two railroaders assembling a small SOO track plan on the nose of Conrail GP40-2 No. 3373.  I’ve had this book for thirty-five years!  A valuable treasure trove of information for designing and building a layout with tips that I still use to this day.  It will continue to remain in my small library until my kids dispose of it after I’m dead.

Hmm, now I’m curious about updates over the past thirty-five years.

DFF

[MVW]

Can't say enough about the Armstrong book. My copy (which has literally been read and re-read to pieces) is roughly the same vintage as DFF's.

Jim

[OldEastRR]

That John Armstrong book, Track Planning for Realistic Operation (shown in @Point353’s post above), is a definite keeper for your RR library.  My copy dates to the seventh printing of the second edition of the book in 1991 and is the version with two railroaders assembling a small SOO track plan on the nose of Conrail GP40-2 No. 3373.  I’ve had this book for thirty-five years!  A valuable treasure trove of information for designing and building a layout with tips that I still use to this day.  It will continue to remain in my small library until my kids dispose of it after I’m dead.

Hmm, now I’m curious about updates over the past thirty-five years.

DFF

The Third edition (shown in photo) is a completely updated version of the original, with info on mergers, consolidations, spin-off short lines and all the other majoe RR history of the '70s. The first and second editions cover RRs up to the late '50s (2nd edition is first edition redone with colorized drawings and some new photos in places). A really complete model RR library should include both editions. Unfortunately no one has come up with a version covering RRing up to 2010 that's as comprehensive as Armstrong's.

[Kentuckian]

The Armstrong book is definitely a keeper. When I was in college many moons ago we had to read another Armstrong book for Civil Engineering transportation majors: The Railroad-What It Is, What It Does. A more in-depth study of why railroads do what they do.

Back to the topic, another book I like is Thomas Klimoski’s Building The Right-Sized Layout. Don’t let the subtitle about building a switching layout fool you. There are many great ideas that apply to any layout in this book.

[OldEastRR]

That John Armstrong book, Track Planning for Realistic Operation (shown in @Point353’s post above), is a definite keeper for your RR library.  My copy dates to the seventh printing of the second edition of the book in 1991 and is the version with two railroaders assembling a small SOO track plan on the nose of Conrail GP40-2 No. 3373.  I’ve had this book for thirty-five years!  A valuable treasure trove of information for designing and building a layout with tips that I still use to this day.  It will continue to remain in my small library until my kids dispose of it after I’m dead.

Hmm, now I’m curious about updates over the past thirty-five years.

DFF

The Third edition (shown in photo) is a completely updated version of the original, with info on mergers, consolidations, spin-off short lines and all the other majoe RR history of the '70s. The first and second editions cover RRs up to the late '50s (2nd edition is first edition redone with colorized drawings and some new photos in places). A really complete model RR library should include both editions. Unfortunately no one has come up with a version covering RRing up to 2010 that's as comprehensive as Armstrong's.