Track Planing

First I hope you didn't put them against the wall. Depending on your arm reach most of the back 2 ft won't be reachable.

For track plans there is a lot available. Anybody in your family want to learn some basic computer drafting skills? There are design software available from fairly simple to really complicated. Cost is free to $100+.

On this sight we have a track plan thread. Search button in upper right corner of any page will take you to it. There are a lot.

Do a search for track plans on the internet in general and you will find more sites.

Model Railroader published by Kalmbach has put out a lot of track planning books over the years. Some are still being published and Amazon has used ones.

Model Railroader does a project layout every year. A few have their own books, a lot of them showed up in a newer version of an old book called 101 track Plans. I think it is called 102 Track Planes. Both are anything from simple shelf layouts to basement monsters.

My suggestion is get some books and get some ideas and then take bits and pieces that you really like and come up with your own.

Feel free to ask anything here having to do with trains and the building of them. We love to help.

Jack

RE Track Planning

I'm a pretty tall guy and yes we did arrange them along a wall on 2 sides for some back drops my wife is planning on doing. I can reach 4' with my arms length plus i have a special ladder that will enable me to reach to the back of the lay out no problems.

I didn't see you specify a

I didn't see you specify a scale (N, HO etc)  If you can make the platforms a little wider, you will be able to use a little broader curves (in HO).   The trainset track many use have rather sharp curves and if you want to run longer or more modern train models, then increasing the curve size, even by a little, helps a lot!  Typical set track are 18 and 22 inch radius.  But if you have a double track loop on that L shapped layout, using 22 and 24 1/2 inch curves would allow you to run a wider variety ot rolling stock.  Especially scale length passenger cars.

If you are planning N scale, then of course you have a lot more room for broader curves and longer runs for the smaller trains.

I have been using and

I have been using and recommend the free track planning software xtrkcad. There are versions for PCs running Windows, Unix, and Apple OS and uses accurate specific parameter files for all scales. It was just updated to v. 5.2.0GA a few days ago. It runs well and the developers are very quick to fix any issues found with work arounds and/or new code and there is a very large and helpful users forum. It is open source if you want to play around with the code itself. The learning curve is fairly short for such a powerful program.

One thing I highly recommend is the use of flex track (HO,N, Z scale) rather than sectional track to significantly reduce the number of joints that can quickly become electrical headaches. This also allows the use of easement transitions (gradual increase in a curve's radius as it approaches a straight) that is prototypical and makes the trains run smoother and look more realistic, blending around the layout, and less toylike, suddenly snapping out of or into a curve.

It is a good idea to use directly or make minor adjustments to an existing track plan for your first layout as there are a large number of considerations, decisions and mistakes in planning an original track plan that may make an original layout plan awkward and unpleasant to outright frustrating to run.

There are also a large number of track planning videos on Youtube that discuss the reasoning the planner used in his design. Don't necessarily avoid videos dealing in a different size layout, or even scale, as the thought process is still very similar.

Yes you may be tall enough to reach the far edge of an empty 4" wide table, but place some buildings, trees, scenery along that close edge (a row of a few upright empty toilet paper rolls can substitute for scenery and see how far you can reach without destroying your carefully crafted scenes to pick up a derailed train or make a repair to your track. Especially if you raise the base level of the layout platform to the much more fun near eye level viewing at 36 - 44" from the floor. At a more typical table height of 28-34", unless sitting in a low chair you will always see your layout from the viewpoint of a high flying drone or small plane. You will only see building roofs and the tops of figures heads rather than an interesting street view where the groupings form a cohesive and interesting scene of activity. A realistic and visually exciting layout tells a story that is more than just "watch the train run around and around" and gives you a reason to operate the layout.

RE Track Planning

I'm building an HO scale layout on three 4'X8' tables arranged in a J shape.