Has anybody read the Iain's book "Compact Layout Design?" I picked up this book at Discount Model a Trains in Dallas yesterday. I have read the first half of the book while waiting at DFW for an incoming flight.
The first half of the book is a discussion on designing a model railroad. It is full of good advice and gets deep into designing your layout. It includes the pitfalls many tend to forget or just don't know about. It includes avoiding temptation when building your layout. He gets into the shrinking living space as homes are built smaller.
How often on the forum have we seen, "Here is my bench work, help me design a layout to fit it?" His thoughts are that you design what you want the railroad to do, work up a list of givens and druthers, design the track work to accomplish your needs and fit the available space. Then you design the bench work, on paper, to support your track plan . There is a lot of discussion on available space.
How many times have we seen railroad model equipment that are just to big for the radii on the layout. How many engines and 70 foot plus cars hanging way out over curves? He refers to it as End Swing and Mid Point Fouling. Mid Point Fouling is the distance the body of your longest car pushes inside on the radii of your curves. A tight tunnel portal on a curve might be fine with your 40 & 50' cars. Yet that 86' auto rack body snags the tunnel portal on the inside of the curve.
He covers it all from radii, grades, to designing bench work with the track design. He covers building static layouts, built into the structure, and the amount of expensive lumber to build it. He covers moving layouts that weren't designed to be moved and his experiences of what happens when trying to move such a layout and what the result was. He even spends a little time discussing the future. What happens to the layout after something happens to you? What will your family be stuck with. How does your family dispose of it, let alone get it out?
Then he goes into why designing a moveable layout that will not flex, but can be move through doorways is important.
He does discuss commercial turnouts and wyes, how to modify those to fit in your space. He goes into why you should not fall into the trap of, "I can add just one more track" to your design. There are discussions on scaling scenery and structures in a compact design.
i do question the 8 layout designs he presents in the second half the book. These seem to be to big to be Compact Layouts. 8'x12' to 12'x16'. Yet, that is just my opinion. To me a compact design is that shelf layout 18" deep and maybe 8' long or longer. Or the young father trying to design a first layout in 4'x8'.
He does have photo examples in his book from other well known layouts and builders. There is a lot of information to take in from the first half of the book. I say this book needs to be included in the beginners library and used as a reference guide while trying to design a layout. I paid $17.59 before tax for my copy. I will recommend this book to the next beginner who asks about building a layout.
Den
Dennis Austin located in NW Louisiana
