Model Railroad Layout Track Designs Fall into Three Basic Categories

Complex Model Railroad Track Plans

Can be Classified as One of Three Basic Layout Designs

Learning pros and cons of the three types of model railroad layout track designs helps you design your own Model Railroad Layout

A basic point-to-point model railroad layout track design

Perhaps the most important step in creating a model railroad layout is designing a track plan. But where do you start? Many of the plans available online look like a spaghetti bowl that's hard to understand. What's coming and what's going? Where will a specific train end up when traveling on a specific track?

The very nature of model railroading's limited space often leads layout designers to curve track routes over themselves to create longer mainline runs that a direct route would allow. This works well in increasing the amount of track a train must traverse, but leaves many track plans hard to decipher. However, when it comes to model railroad layout track plans, nearly all can be classified as one of three main types: Continuous-run, point-to-point, and out-and-back.

Complex track plans may contain elements of all three, but the overall theme can usually still be brought back to one of the original three. Our Basic Model Railroad Types page examines each type, and its pros and cons to help you decide which type - or combination of types - best fits your operational desires for your model railroad layout.

Free Plans of a Baltimore & Ohio Pratt Truss Bridge

Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Pratt Truss Bridge

Would Make Intricately-detailed Model

To Improve any Model Railroad Layout

Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Bridge No. 451/1

Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Bridge No. 451/1 crosses the Cuyahoga River carrying a switch track serving the Jaite Company, a paper mill in Summit County, Ohio.

The Jaite Co. paid for the bridge construction, which otherwise would have been prohibitively expensive for a spur serving just one industry. Right of way for the switch lead was secured in 1907, and construction was completed by 1909.

Bridge No. 451/1 is a through Pratt truss. It is 138 feet 9 inches pin to pin, and has a clear width of 13 feet 9 inches and a 19 foot 10 inch height clearance. Carnegie steel supplied the steel.

Our Free Plans of Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Bridge No. 451/1 would allow a model railroader to create an intricately detailed model that would definitely set their model railroad layout apart from others.

What Type of O Gauge Track Should I Choose?

O Gauge Model Railroad Track

Is Available in a Dizzying Array of Styles

Which One is Right for You?

Lionel tubular O Gauge model railroad track

So, you want to add track to the oval that came with your O gauge train set. You visit a local hobby store to buy more, and you see a dizzying array of track that looks vastly different, all of it labeled O gauge. What’s up with that?

There are a number of manufacturers of O gauge model railroad track, and some manufacture more than one style of track. All O gauge track features the same width between rails (What's the difference between O gauge and O-27 gauge?) so your O gauge trains will run on any manufacturer’s track, but not all manufacturers’ track will work together well. Each manufacturer has a method of joining track pieces together, so to use track from different manufacturers often requires a special adapter piece.

If you already have a lot of one style or brand of track, it'll be cheaper in the long run to stay with that, but if you are just getting started, and you only have enough track to make a simple loop, it’s a lot easier to switch track brands now, rather than later, after you have bought hundreds of dollars worth of additional track (see what expanding your layout can cost on our Comparing Prices of O Gauge Track Page). Ask you local hobby shop about their opinions of the various track brands and styles available. They all have pros and cons, so this is a good time to study them and see if you want to change.

Our page Choosing Track for an O Gauge Model Railroad Layout explains the basic differences in types of O Gauge model railroad track, gives some pros and cons, and has tables of what variety of track sections each manufacturer offers.

Union Pacific Passenger Station at Logan Utah

Logan Utah Railroad Depot Shows 19th Century Character

Passenger Train Station Fits Range of Railroad Eras

From Steam to Modern Diesel Model Railroad Layouts

Union Pacific Railroad Depot, Logan, Utah

The Union Pacific Railroad Logan, Utah, passenger station was built shortly before the turn of the century, during that lines’s short ownership by Oregon Short Line. 

A typical 19th Century railroad depot, the Logan station had some attractive details.  hip roof covered 178 feet of platform. The symmetrical floor plan was split by the telegrapher’s bay, featuring ticket windows in each of the waiting rooms.

A timeless classic perfect for any model railroad layout based from the end of the 19th Century to the modern era, the small size of the building would fit well as a smaller town station, and the long platform could be selectively compressed if need be to fit a smaller space.

Check out or free model railroad plans of the Union Pacific Logan Utah Passenger Station.

Building Benchwork for our O Gauge Model Railroad Layout in a Spare Bedroom Project

Modular Benchwork for an O Gauge Model Railroad Layout

Nothing lasts forever so plan for your model railroad future

When building benchwork for your current model railroad layout

Modular tables for an O Gauge model railroad layout

After settling on the location – a spare bedroom – for our O Gauge model railroad layout on our first page, and deciding how much room we had in the bedroom on our second page, we need to get busy designing the layout’s benchwork and trackwork.

The benchwork (the tables on which the tracks are fastened) is somewhat dependent on the trackwork (how the model railroad tracks are routed around the tables), and vice-versa. There are many methods of constructing benchwork from the basic 4×8-foot sheet of plywood on sawhorses for a transient layout, to building right into the structure of the room’s walls.

We went with a modular design that is semi-permanent model railroad layout, but also can be disassembled and moved if our needs for space change. Let's face it: people buy new houses and move, or interests change. If you don't take this into account, when the day comes that you have to tear down your model railroad layout, there won't be much to salvage. With this design, if you are no longer interested, you can sell the layout to someone else, or if you have to move, your model railroad layout can move with you.

Free Plans of Steam Era Narrow Gauge Enclosed Water Tower

Plans of Enclosed Water Tower, East Broad Top Railroad

Cole’s Station Enclosed Water Tower

Kept the Water Flowing to Railroad Steam Locomotives During Harsh Pennsylvania Winters

Cole's Station Water Tower, East Broad Top Railroad

The Coles Station, Pennsylvania, water tank is the last surviving enclosed water station along the East Broad Top narrow gauge railroad. The tanks were enclosed so that the water could be kept from freezing during winter months by use of a small stove.

This tank was built in 1919 to replace an older tank that had deteriorated beyond use. The structure includes a tub-style wood tank of approximately 8,000 gallons capacity that is elevated on heavy wood framing set in a concrete foundation.

Our Coles Station Enclosed Water Tower Plans Page includes site plans, elevations, floor plans, and details as well as photos from all sides.