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 Pratt Truss Bridge

Baltimore & Ohio Pratt Truss Bridge No. 451/1

Baltimore & Ohio Bridge No. 451/1

There's nothing like a truss bridge to add character to a model railroad layout. The seeming complexity of the structure is impressive, but actually easy to model.

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. 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. This bridge is the ideal size to recreate in scale for a model railroad layout and our Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Bridge No. 451/1 page features five plans including detailed exploded isometric views.

This bridge would be a great addition to any model railroad layout, without being too large to create a scale model.

Deciding What is "Available Space" for a Model Railroad Layout

Designing an O Gauge Model Railroad Layout for a Spare Bedroom

What is the "available" space in a room?

Spare Bedroom will be Model Railroad Layout site.

After deliberating between the two O gauge model railroad locations: garage or spare bedroom (discussed on Page 1), I decided to build it in the spare bedroom, which is 14′ 10” by 11′ 6” .

So, now that the location is chosen, how big of an O gauge model railroad layout can we cram into it? 
My first inclination was to completely fill the area with benchwork. The advantages of this would be that I could not only use 72” curves, but even broad 96” or 120” curves on the outer main line.

I finally settled on a more realistic plan. Read more on Page 2 of the O Gauge Model Railroad Layout Project.

Free Plans of an A.T.S.F. Railroad Depot

Give Your Model Railroad a Destination

Depots handle both freight and passengers

A.T.S.F. depot at Hardeman Pass, Texas

Every model railroad needs a depot. If you are modeling the desert Southwest, you’d have a hard time finding a better depot to model than the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad depot at Hardeman Pass, Texas. These free plans of the depot are mostly in 1/8″ = 1 foot scale, which is half size for O gauge.

Creating plaster casts of the brick walls would be an interesting scratch-building project, or commercially available brick sheets would simplify construction of this depot for your model railroad layout

Plans of Monongahela Railroad's Erecting and Machine Shops

Keep the Trains Rolling on Your Model Railroad Layout

Modeling railroad maintenance facilities adds authenticity 

Monongahela Erecting and Machine Shops

Roundhouses for locomotive maintenance are common on steam-era model railroad layouts, but heavy rebuilding work was done in a separate erecting shop, which usually had a machine shop attached or very close nearby for fabricating the many replacement parts needed by a steam locomotive.

The Monongahela Railroad erecting shop at Brownsville, Pennsylvania is a great example of an erecting shop that could be built on a model railroad layout. Unlike many of the larger railroads, the Monon facilities are small enough that they don’t have to be “selectively compressed” to fit on a model railroad layout as would be required to fit facilities modeled on a major railroad’s shops.

Erecting shops outlived roundhouses, which were mostly demolished when railroads "dieselized." So where a roundhouse marks a model railroad as being set no later than the late 1950s, erecting shops are much less limiting to a model railroad "theme."

With the large window areas, the Monongahela Railroad erecting and machine shops would be a perfect model to create with detailed interiors. Placed close to the front of a model railroad layout and provided with interior lighting, the models would be an impressive focal point on any model pike.

Model Railroad Decisions, Decisions ...

Designing a Model Railroad Layout requires many decisions

*UPDATE: I picked the site, and am working on layout design!*
Having moved into a new house that has enough room for an O gauge model railroad layout, I've got a major decision to make: location, location, location.

For possible locations, I have to decide between the third garage stall, or one of the spare bedrooms, that also would double as the office for my freelance writing work. Both sites have pros and cons:

Garage Model Railroad Layout:

Pro:

• More space;
• Less worry about mess-making

Con:

• May be difficult to keep cool in a New Mexico summer;
• Requires building a wall to separate it from the other stalls;

Spare Room Model Railroad Layout:

Pro:

• Climate controlled;
• Easier access may encourage more frequent use;

Con:

• Less space;
• More worry about mess-making;

To assist with the decision-making process, I've been looking at classic and new layouts, trying to find one that just begs for one space over the other. Anyone who has searched O Gauge layout designs will attest, they tend to fall into two categories: 4x8 plywood sheet spaghetti bowls, or mammoth, meandering pikes that would require an a vacant ICBM silo to fit.

So, it's almost a certainty that a published plan must be adapted to the space available. So you must look at published model railroad layout plan not as the finish point, but the starting point of creating your own pike.

I look for features I am interested in recreating, and how I can increase or decrease the plan to fit the space I have. In my case, I want a model railroad layout that offers continuous running, preferably for two trains, but also has operational features such as sidings. I'd also like a railroad yard, but will probably have to settle for a passing track with a spur. Reversing loops would be nice so I can turn my model train locomotives with out relying on the "hand of God" to pick them up and flip them.

That's a lot to ask for a model railroad layout that must fit in a 14 x 8 kidney-shaped area in the spare room, or the slightly larger spare garage stall. So, I've been surfing the 'net looking for inspiration. One particularly good site I've found is Mark DiVecchio's Lionel O-Gauge Train Layouts. He chronicles building his latest layout with a clear set of photos and drawings showing how he took the layout he had, and using a published plan as a starting point, adapted the two into a stunning O gauge model railroad layout in his garage.

Of course, he had more room than I do, so I still have a lot of work to do, but his page inspired me to keep plugging along, and reach a solution to my model railroad decisions.

*UPDATE: I picked the site, and am working on layout design!*

Free Plans of Western Maryland Railroad Deck Plate Girder Bridge

A Great Scratch-Building or Kit-Bashing Project for Your Model Railroad Layout

Western Maryland Railroad Bridge No. 1276, the Sideling Hill Creek Crossing

Western Maryland Railroad Bridge No. 1276, the Sideling Hill Crossing

The westward expansion of the Western Maryland Railway after the Civil War ran smack dab into the Allegheny Mountains in the Cumberland Division.

However, using modern construction materials and steam-powered construction equipment, engineers were able to force their way through the rugged terrain, creating a railroad with six major bridges, three tunnels, and extensive earthworks while achieving an average 0.5 percent grade (although it did have some tight curves).

Bridge No. 1276, the Sideling Hill Creek Crossing, is small by comparison with some of the other bridges on the Cumberland division, but that small size makes it perfect for inclusion on a model railroad. The Sideling Hill Creek Crossing is a 145′-long bridge consisting of two deck plate girder spans carrying a single track on a slight curve, nearly 50′ above the creek bed.

These free plans would be a great way to scratch-built a prototype bridge for your model railroad layout, or you could modify commercially available structures, kit-bashing an accurate replica.

Free Plans of A.T.S.F. Interlocking Tower

Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Control Tower 19

Free Plans of an A.T.S.F. Interlocking Tower!


Ubiquitous during the steam era and into the modern diesel railroad era, Control towers were placed wherever railroads needed to control a number of switches, such as the entrance to a yard, or a junction. A Control tower is a great structure for your model railroad that will give lend authenticity without taking up too much real estate.

There are many kits available, but with these free building plans, the average model railroader can make a scratch-built structure that will far surpass the results of all but the most expensive craftsman kits.

These free plans are of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Control Tower 19, Santa Fe Railway Milepost 51, Dallas, TX.

New Track Plan Adds Fun to O Gauge Model Railroad

Once you get your first O gauge train set you imagine hours of enjoyment hauling freight across the country behind a smoking locomotive.

27" O gauge track oval on a 4x8 sheet of plywood

Then you set up the small 27-inch or 36-inch oval that comes with the set, and watch your train chase its tail. That's interesting for a couple minutes. What now? It's off to the local hobby shop to buy more track and expand your iron horse empire.
Add a couple more curves and a crossing, and you now have a figure 8. As your train runs around this track it seems to reverse itself, and crosses back and forth. Interesting for a bit longer, but still it loses its luster after a while.

What to do next? Your first step should probably be to get lumber to build a semi-permanent train table so you don't have to disassemble your track at the end of each operating session. The easiest method is to just put a 4-foot by 8-foot piece of plywood on a pair of sawhorses. For O gauge trains, we recommend 3/4-inch thick plywood. This will work for a while, but without a frame to stiffen it, even this thick plywood will eventually warp.

27-inch figure 8 O gauge track plan on a 4x8 sheet of plywood

In later articles, we will show how to build a much sturdier train table as we explore more complex track layouts and start adding accessories.
For us, that's half the fun of O Gauge model railroading: trying to plan what to do next to make your layout even more interesting. And, there's a lot of accessories to choose from. Lionel, MTH, Atlas, and many other companies manufacture accessories ranging from buildings to create an urban environment to operating accessories that can add the action of unloading and loading train cars on your railroad.

For more visit our simple 4x8 layouts page at FreeModelRailroadPlans.com