Model Railroad Layout Sitemap

Foreword - This book is intended primarily for people who have just obtained their first electric trains and would like to develop the hobby beyond an occasional session on the living-room floor where tracks and equipment get in somebody's way. It may help adults who are just starting a fascinating hobby, boys and girls old enough to handle a few tools fairly well, or parents of younger children, who will find themselves doing a good deal of the work—and enjoying it—on their offsprings' "toy."

01. Round & Round - The locomotive eases forward, pulling the string of cars smoothly behind it. As it picks up speed, the rhythmic snorts of its pulsing power increase in tempo, and puffs of smoke swirl up from its stack. Swinging into a curve, the train's wheels set up a regular clickety-clack passing over the joints in the rails. Then into the straightaway, round another curve—round and round it goes.

02. Giants & Midgets - When a hobby has well over half a million devotees, you can be sure that manufacturers will supply them with an infinite variety of equipment. You can make your choice from all kinds and sizes of model trains, in a wide price range. There are pull trains for toddlers, clockwork wind-up trains, even large "live-steam" trains, usually for out-door layouts. But we are concerned here with the great majority of model trains sold and used today—electric trains.

03. The Wheels - No matter what kind of train you buy, electricity will run it. You may have chosen a choochooing, smoke-puffing steam engine or a growling diesel. It makes no difference, for a tiny electric motor working through a worm-drive makes the wheels go round. The motor pushes an extra piston on your steam loco, puffing out smoke which is really vaporized oil, and making the lifelike sounds of the engine. Electricity lights the headlight, blows the whistle, actuates the switch that sends your train into reverse.

04. Right Of Way - It takes a long time for the inconvenience of a floor layout to outweigh the enjoyment it gives. If you keep your train on the floor for some time, you can minimize the inconvenience of frequent assembly and dismantling by mounting several sections of track together on thin boards. Your track gains a permanent roadbed and is protected while retaining the advantages of portability and easy storage.

05. Variations - The layoutis the heart of your railroad system. The arrangement of the tracks, switches, crossings, and uncouplers determines what you can do with your trains to make their operation a source of never-ending fascination. You can make the rails curve, go straight ahead, lead into a siding, branch into an alternate route, tunnel through mountains, pass over bridges, circle through an earth cut, thread through a maze of switches at a terminal or freight yard. Where your train goes and what it does is up to you, and you are limited only by the space at your disposal.

06. Realism - Your choice of a layout will depend not only on the available space and trackage but on the work you want your railroad to do. At first it will be enough just to have the locomotive pull cars around, pass onto a siding, switch onto a branch line. You have a toy train with a wide choice of powerful locomotives, dozens of accurate, scale-modeled cars, and so many interesting accessories and buildings that you can keep your budget unbalanced for months. Isn't that enough, you ask?

07. Roadbeds - You have a table, have chosen a layout, and have fig- ured out a plan of development. The next step is to lay your track. You can test a train over your pike before fastening it down, of course, and it might be a good idea to operate it that way for a while before nailing it, as some final changes will perhaps suggest themselves.

08. Wires & Controls - Wiring your first train set is so simple, of course, that it is really not wiring at all—just hooking a couple of things together. Even when you add switches and a dozen other accessories and have a maze of wires that looks quite for- bidding, wiring is still not a difficult task to understand or perform, especially if you attach one new thing at a time and test it before going on to another. All you need to do is follow the manufacturer's instructions and remember that electric current flows out from the transformer along one wire and back again along another—and never the twain shall meet except at the terminals of an object it is supposed to work.

09. Small World - More newcomers to model railroading are discouraged by the thought of making scenery than by any other aspect of the hobby. They will tackle carpentry, wiring, and complicated layouts even if they've had no experience before, and will operate a complex pike like real-life dispatchers. But they keep saying that they haven't had time to get around to scenery yet; they want to wait until trackwork is definitely finished.

10. Lakes & Valleys - Almost everyone likes a lake or pond on his layout. It adds variety to the layout, breaks the effect of flatness even if it is flat, lends another color to the whole picture, provides opportunities for little details that are different, and gives a good reason for the curve of a train track.

11. Growing Pains - Your original layout, even a simple oval on a 4' x 6' table, can grow and grow without spilling over its original limitations. The addition of new loops, sidings, cars, accessories, buildings, hills, lakes, streams, trees, and the scores of other items that have a place on or near a rail- road, will keep you busy and happy for months—or longer.

12. Good Time! - Model railroading is a friendly hobby. Although you probably do not think of that aspect of it at the begin- ning, you will eventually find that one of its greatest rewards is the friends it brings, the enjoyment of doing interesting things with others. A model railroad enthusiast once had an elaborate pike in his basement. His friends at the office never saw him during the evenings or week-ends, and he rarely attended meetings of his club. He was too busy with his model railroad. He enjoyed himself immensely—but alone.

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