As editor of Model Railroader's annual Model Railroad Planning magazine, I often hear from modelers who are having the usual amount of trouble designing their next model railroad. They know I'm really busy, but could I find some time, just this once, to design their layouts for them?
The short answer is "No," as I seldom have time to answer my mail, let alone think through someone else's layout design. Besides, I had expert help with the design of my own new model railroad, so the idea that I can help someone else with their own track plans may rest on a shaky foundation.
But let's explore the topic of layout design for a moment, as you may have a better start on it than you realize.
Back in 1995, in the inaugural issue of MRP, I introduced the concept of the Layout Design Element, or LDE. The basic idea is simple: Find a modelable hunk of a full-size railroad, document it physically and operationally, and then scale it down to fit in a reasonable space. The hunk could be almost anything: yard, engine terminal, industry, town, or important scene - Horseshoe Curve, perhaps.
This approach has critical advantages that can help even the rank beginner do a better job of designing part or all of a model railroad and be confident it will look and operate prototypically.
For example, even if you don't now know why the track and buildings were arranged as they were, you can be sure the full-size railroad made do with this arrangement and proceed with modeling it. As you learn more, you'll simply confirm that what you already decided to model can be operated realistically. And the aesthetic attributes that caught your eye in the first place can be scaled down - selectively compressed - simply by following the prototype example.
Compare this with the all-too-typical approach wherein we attempt to guess how a full-size road operates and how it might have arranged its track. Then we take a stab at arranging our track without following a prototype example.
Why do we do that? If we were building a model of a depot or boxcar, we'd want good dimensional data and photos of the prototype. Yet we arrange trackwork this way and that without consulting anything more reliable than our assumptions about what should look right and operate well.
That we too seldom get there from here should be no surprise at all, but we keep surprising ourselves year after year. "Yup, this here's my eighth layout," we boast. It's no wonder that we're still trying to get one right.
My goal with the Layout Design Element approach is that over time we will compile a library of LDEs. Those seeking to model a specific prototype can narrow their focus to LDEs for a reasonable section of that railroad, perhaps inspired by an LDE someone else kindly documented for them. Free-lancers have more latitude and may choose several loosely related or even unrelated LDEs, then string them together with "the twisty bits" to form a layout.
My new Nickel Plate Road Third Sub layout (September and October 2000 Model Railroader) is just a series of LDEs for towns and yards on the St. Louis Division of the Clover Leaf District. It took some thought to put the larger LDEs such as Frankfort and Charleston yards where they needed to be, but the path for-ward was always clear to me and to my friend and co-designer Frank Hodina.
But what happens if a free-lancer, perhaps out of ignorance more than a lack of caring, uses no sensitivity whatsoever and links LDEs from dissimilar railroads from the four comers of the continent? That person will still be better off than the modeler who makes no effort to tie a plan to reality. A layout plan that lacks any benchmark has a poor chance of looking realistic or being operated prototypically.
There is no one best way to design a model railroad. Some of you are far more competent designers than I'll ever be, and you have your own approach to layout design. Perhaps you'll one day share those ideas with the rest of us through the pages of MR or MRP.
But those of you who are now staring blankly at a sheet of paper that is staring blankly back at you might try the LDE approach. Find a prototype railroad, or similar prototypes in a given region, and read magazines and books and watch videotapes to find potential LDEs that catch your eye. Ask yourself what industries and other features (such as helper districts) add to the railroad's operating interest and would make good modeling candidates.
Then find out more about those potential LDEs. Join the appropriate railroad historical societies and become an active member, for example. Before you know it, you'll be the subject-matter expert and helping others as they try to choose LDEs and string them together to form a model railroad.
