Layout Design
So with the mass of railroaders on this site, I feel it would be appropriate to have some sort of a data base available of viewable track plans and maybe a brief description or operations plan. Maybe Joe could answer this; is there a way that plans could be stored and be available to be viewed. The obvious way is for everyone to add them to this or a similar blog, but they would not be searchable that way. Personally I love to look at other plans and critique them, often to myself but maybe there is a service that we could all perform similar to that of the Op Sig group that does just this.
Just thinking out loud
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Interesting Idea
The problem, however, as I see it is finding a suitable format.
Some modelers use CAD programs to draw they tack plans while, others (myself included) kick it old school using pencil/pen and paper to draw them. At a scale 1" - 1' my plan is over 30" wide by 20" high making it somewhat difficult to scan into a computer.
Still others don't really have a track plan, per se, they just have a idea in their head of how the layout will look. At most they do rough sketches of small areas of their layout which the will connect with a mainline running through whatever space is available.
It kind of like the old saying: get 10 different model railroaders in a room and they will give you 12 different ways of drawing a track plan for a model railroad layout.
George
"And the sons of Pullman porters and the sons of engineers, ride their father's magic carpet made of steel..."
Lenape Railway - Freelanced layout inspired by the shortline railroads of SE Pennsylvania.
Format
You pose a good question. I personally use AutoCad 2000 to work up my own designs. I know of only one other person on this site that uses this professional program. I also have an older copy of 3rdPlanit. One thing that I find in common to most programs is the ability to convert to JPEG or BMP. The hand drawn plans; yes these would pose an issue, however Mike Rose (G&AM) simply took a photo of his plan that looks to be hung on a wall and then posted that digital image. I believe that this could be done for the most part if there is a technical way for MRH to do it.
Neil.
Diamond River Valley Railway Company
www.dixierail.com
The LDSIG (Layout Design
The LDSIG (Layout Design Special Interest Group) used to have a web site where you could upload track plans and have those track plans critiqued.
But that function is no longer active on the new webpage (http://www.ldsig.org/).
Discussions of track plans can also be found in the LDSIG yahoo group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ldsig/) and the associated file storage.
If Joe wants to offer a space for posting track plans for critique (separate from the forums and blogs), he could of course do so.
One challenge of posting track plans for critique is to get people to actually critique the plans and offer suggestions. Often you get the "it's your layout, do whatever you want" crowd come in and try to pooh-pooh the concept of critiques in general, and often you get the "say nothing bad" crowd pile in with "looks great" with no analysis.
Smile,
Stein
Great idea Cadmaster. I think
Great idea Cadmaster. I think a track plan database would be an excellent idea however format could be an issue. You would almost need those submitting track plans to also include either a picture file of the track plan for others or a pdf file.
I think one thing the model railroad hobby needs is a concise wiki site. Other hobbies and interests I have had over the past few years have had them. Video games, especially large one such as World of Warcraft have wiki's that catalog everything about the game.