Rijkvv

Digital Designed Layouts and Track Plans

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traintech1.jpg

I think the topic description is clear. Show your designs designed with TrackDesigner, TrackDraw, BlueBrick or a similar program.

I'll kick off with my design:

lay-out_v2.jpg

It's more or less the maximum space I can use. I want to add poles for signals and electricity, and the wall of my room is sloped. It's designed after Ede, the city where I live. The names are in Dutch, I see now.

-Riedel becomes a juice factory, with loading docks and trucks. In real this company makes Appelsientje, Taksi and Coolbest, well-known drinks in the Netherlands;

-Station Ede-Wageningen: this will be the main train station, where an intercity passes by and sometimes stops;

-Station Ede Centrum is smaller. Here come only regional trains;

-Gemeentehuis is the city hall. The one from Ede is built over the road, so that's what I'm gonna do;

-Onderstation is an electrical substation.

I designed this with BlueBrick, but I used the 1997 road plates. The real one will have the 2002 road plates, but they are not in the program.

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My current home layout:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/12534314@N04/...57617311825496/

Also created using BlueBrick.

The mainline is electrically isolated from the yard so that I can run a train on the loop while switching (shunting) cars in the yard. The yard is also isolated into three sections. The arrival/departure track off the mainline is isolated from both the locomotive area (to the right), and the switching yard (lower). I also run RC and now PF trains along with my 9v, so in theory I could have three or four trains running at once if I could keep track of them all.

The layout is changing slightly as I've had to combine my Lego room with my layout area (http://www.flickr.com/photos/12534314@N04/...57621928414174/), so I'm losing some table space on one end of the yard. I have more track now, though, so I'll likely add more to the industrial section, or reconfigure that side of the layout in some way.

-Elroy

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2139755712_5550090d5a.jpg

I don't own a layout, nor do I even have room for one. But this is a design that Rocketseason helped me come up with over time. The whole idea is a small town like the ones out in east Texas, old towns with their ornately style buildings (Cafe Corner) but struggling economies. My town has moved on to tourism as their greatest commodity, based entirely around a heritage railway - "Sava Railways" - which makes steam engine excursions on a daily basis.

It'd be a fun project, and I do plan on making a layout someday... I just hope I can get started sooner (in a few years) rather than later (when my kids are grown and gone).

--Tony

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My current home layout:

Wow :thumbup: impressive.

I am really interested to see the bridge you have planned to cross the tables on the left side.

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I am really interested to see the bridge you have planned to cross the tables on the left side.

Before I started moving my Lego storage to the layout area, it looked like this:

3_layout1.jpg

The rainbow bridge wasn't pretty, but it was functional. Now that I've brought my bins to the basement, I needed to cut off a baseplate and a half of table space in order to make room for people to walk between the layout and the basement stairs, so I'll need to reconfigure the bridge somehow.

It is a lot of fun to run a train on the outer loop while making up and breaking down other trains in the yard though, so I'm hoping to stick to a similar track plan.

-Elroy

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Cool and indeed ... colourfull bridge

I did use the same idea to make a crossing, not that long, but I had to implement 2 tracks wide

img_3335_resize.jpg

I guess you need a good solution that gives you easy access to the inside area ... that will be an interesting challenge

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Stacy and I use BlueBrick to design all of our layouts and we have been through a number of designs as we have grown and done more shows. I find that BlueBrick works great to allow me to fit my layout to whatever table space I have allotted. I have made custom graphics for BlueBrick to represent the various non-LEGO table sizes I have encountered (such as hotel tables at Brickworld). The two layouts below are the latest two layouts that we have built.

The first is the layout we took with us and dis played at Brickworld 2009. Size of that layout was approximately 12' x 18'. Pictures of this layout can be found on my Flickr Photostream.

bw_2009.jpg

The second layout is our current home layout that resides in our basement, affectionately known as 'The LEGO Lair'. This layout uses the PNLTC-style 30" x 30" tables and the total size is a little larger than 15' x 17'. With the new layout configuration in the basement, we still have some open space on the layout and will be adding new buildings to some of the areas that are currently 'green space'. We also have a little more room to add tables, but maybe only 2-3 more before we run out of space. As such, I think the size will stay about where it is until we decide to move to a bigger house. I do not have pictures of this layout yet, but I hope to get some taken this weekend and post them.

basement_layout.jpg

I hope you guys like what we've put together so far! Keep watching Eurobricks and our Flickr Photostream for more!

UPDATE 8/8/09: I finally managed to get photos of our current home layout. Check them out here.

-Dave

tot-lug_100x40.jpg

Edited by Cyclone Breezerider

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Well, as mentioned before I have recently moved to a new home. I have the addict of the garage planned for my lego room.

However I still have to isolate it and make it ready to be a real hobby room.

I did work a bit on a layout, to see how much space I have got, here my bluebrick picture

addict.jpg

the brown parts are tables, in the inside is some room for more tables, but I am not sure if I need/want them

I still have to figure out a layout, with lots of track ofcourse.

These are at least some of the things that are planned;

- industrial part

- farm

- train station

- mountain (with rail tunnel)

- city

- train shed +large yard (to store my mocs)

- airport

- small docs (maybe at the industrial part

any ideas for the track plan are welcome.

I will post some updates when I have some time :)

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I only have a small area, so my layout is compressed into a 2.5' by 5' space.

Happily I have some 12v track and the point geometry is more compact.

I'm also more interested in shunting and tootling about rather than running long trains.

Using 16stud long cars the lower point sets form a 2,2,4 Inglenook

(see http://www.wymann.info/ShuntingPuzzles/sw-inglenook.html )

And the layout as a whole approximates a (rather warped)

Timesaver ( http://www.wymann.info/ShuntingPuzzles/Tim...-trackplan.html )

This means I can have a lot of fun in a small space.

The next step in the project is to add some loading/unloading functionalities.

I'll take photos soon!

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layout_mckenna.jpg

This is the last track I had which was taken apart about 10 years ago when I moved out. :cry_sad: Everything you'll see in the Brickshelf pictures has been in storage since. It all started when my brother, at the age of 10, saved up his pocket money to buy me the football stadium which Lego released for the 1996 Eurpean Football Championships (I think it was for my birthday).

That got me motivated to finally make a proper layout with mountains, bridges etc. It was an interesting layout as about 2/3 was my lego from the early to mid 80s and the other 3rd was my brothers which he had recently started collecting. The 10+ year difference made a great contrast. As my 12 Volt track no longer wanted to work I bought the same amount of track again in 9V and converted my 12V trains. You can also see some of my classic space, technic and model team collection on the shelves in the background as well as the 12V trains which were not often on the track (like the 7740).

I apologize for the very average quality of the pictures. They were taken, and scanned a loooooong time ago (yes... we are talking analog cameras!). One of these days I will scan them in with a high resolution scanner.

By they way, for those of you who use BlueBrick for your layouts , I have been helping Alban Nanty to write a pretty detailed help file over the past weeks. The English version should be available on the the BlueBrick website in the not too distant future, which will then be followed by a tutorial. Versions in other languages will be made available as soon as possible. (BlueBrick wasn't around at the time I made the layout posted above... just in case you're wondering :sweet: )

Happy building!!

Edited by missouri_bb63

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freebee-layoutplan.jpg

I'm planning a layout for my legoroom and this is what i've come up with.

It has two levels.

- bottom -

two complete circles - a town - station

- top -

roundhouse - "mountain"

It's not finished yet so .............

Edited by FreeBee

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Well, that sounds like a good plan, if you working with multiple levels, you can use the multiple layers in bluebrick to show this.

I have my upper level in a different layer, and therefor I can make it visible/invisble if I want to make screenshots or work on the layout.

At the moment your layout is puzzling me a bit, because it is hard to see the connection points and to see where your layout goes up en down.

but it looks like a good start :thumbup:

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I need to modify some switches to join the inner loop and outer loop unless someone has a

better idea??

Not sure why you need to modify, it seems there is enough space between the top 2 tracks to insert 2 switches ....

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Is it a RC or 9V lay-out? If it's RC, the crossing can be very useful, because it's very compact and you can keep all the long straight parts of the layout.

I've edited my lay-out, see below.

layout.jpg

The red supports are just an identification for me where to place the poles for the overhead wire.

Edited by Richie

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Well, that sounds like a good plan, if you working with multiple levels, you can use the multiple layers in bluebrick to show this.I have my upper level in a different layer, and therefor I can make it visible/invisble if I want to make screenshots or work on the layout. At the moment your layout is puzzling me a bit, because it is hard to see the connection points and to see where your layout goes up en down. but it looks like a good start :thumbup:

Thanx, i know about the multilayers and i also use them.

That puzzle-feeling is just what i want. i like it when at first

u cant tell how the layout is build up. it ads to excitement for people visiting.

I need to modify some switches to join the inner loop and outer loop unless someone has a

better idea??

Maybe like this ?

paulf.jpg

Edited by FreeBee

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Maybe like this ?

paulf.jpg

Thanks, I like that idea. I still may modify a set of switches to allow mainline

crossing as the switches would be useful at train shows with double track lines.

Paul

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I did a small update of the layout. I added the airport area and figured out the amount of space I need for the industrial part.

layout-20091010.jpg

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Well, that sounds like a good plan, if you working with multiple levels, you can use the multiple layers in bluebrick to show this.

I have my upper level in a different layer, and therefor I can make it visible/invisble if I want to make screenshots or work on the layout.

...

Does bluebrick allow different places on the track to be given different plate heights above the base in a better way than Track Designer?

I had to abandon the slope function in Track Designer because it would not fix what I'd done when I changed something else and it would only set heights at the ends of track pieces and to a single slope and slope change.

There are places on my layout where I need slopes of 1 plate per 12 studs (4 plates per 48x48 baseplate over 3 straights) or even 1 plate in 3 straights, changing to 1 plate per piece and 0.5 plate per piece in other places. The slope change is 0.5 plate per piece per piece, so some track piece ends are at heights of 0.5 plates or 0.333 plates! Unless bluebrick copes with this, there would be no point me redrawing my layout in bluebrick!

Till I have a package that does these things, I'll not publish my latest layout online, but here are a couple I've exhibited before:

derby_2001_12v_layout.jpg

This was the layout for my 4th exhibition, in April 2001. 12V with two main line trains running in opposite directions.

Station at the top. Isolation at the crossovers between each main line and the yard.

The yard has a loop to run round, and a gantry crane along one of the diagonal sidings.

A level crossing at the top of the diagonal bit, just after the double bends.

8 8ft x 2ft sheets of chipboard, coloured tan.

Soon after that I moved over to 9V (keeping the 12V for London Underground trains).

I designed the 9V layout for easy swapping of trains, so that the public always see something moving:

16ft_x_12ft_layout_track_plan.jpg

Size 16ft x 12ft with 8ft x 4ft operating well in the middle.

Station on the right, 4 through platforms plus a bay platform for the Hogwarts Express (I had built just 1 coach then)

Again 2 concentric main lines. 3 trains on the outer track, 5 on the inner track, plus more from the sidings in the yard.

The bottom road at the top had a goods shed. The top road at the bottom was adjacent to a gas holder.

Points electric (modded sliders and with micro motors) except for a few in the yard sidings.

20 tables 4ft x 2ft, painted green.

A smaller layout 8ft x 6ft on some of the same tables.

One running line with station passing loop and sidings.

Fits in a large estate car (we couldn't do so many shows with the large layout, hiring a van, 8hr setup etc..., so this works well).

I used the small layout to test the addition of trackbed to the track pieces. Each grey plates pack 10148 did 1 straight + 1 curve, or 1 switch point.

I should publish this plan.

Since then I have aspired to build a multi-layer fully scenic modular layout. For exhibiting at a model railway show, the standard for a LEGO railway should be as good as that for a railway of any other scale or gauge, especially since OO gauge has its own scale and gauge compromises. I doubt LEGO will ever compete with EM, P4 or O-gauge in scale accuracy, but elements of it will have no more compromises than OO. HO is probably more accurate than OO. To that end I have stuck to some standards in model railway books, such as a maximum slope of 1 in 30.

So far I'm 4.5 years into the project. It was originally planned for 5 years but will probably be about 9 years!

Plan not published yet but pictures are here.

Mark

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I have finally started re-creating the last layout I had (back in 2000), in BlueBrick thanks to all the new GIF additions. There are quite a few missing but I will update this image as I create the remaining GIFs. This brings back memories. :classic:

Pictures of the original layout are here. (might take a while until the folder becomes public.)

niederpoecking0.png

Edited by missouri_bb63

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Since then I have aspired to build a multi-layer fully scenic modular layout. For exhibiting at a model railway show, the standard for a LEGO railway should be as good as that for a railway of any other scale or gauge, especially since OO gauge has its own scale and gauge compromises. I doubt LEGO will ever compete with EM, P4 or O-gauge in scale accuracy, but elements of it will have no more compromises than OO. HO is probably more accurate than OO. To that end I have stuck to some standards in model railway books, such as a maximum slope of 1 in 30.

So far I'm 4.5 years into the project. It was originally planned for 5 years but will probably be about 9 years!

Wow Mark, those layouts look really great. I guess you figured out allready that at the moment BlueBrick does not support heights. I also use heights in my layout, but I have used different layers in BlueBrick to support this.

I have finally started re-creating the last layout I had (back in 2000) in BlueBrick thanks to all the new GIF additions. There are quite a few missing but I will update this image as I create the remaining GIFs. This brings back memories. :classic:

He Missouri_bb63, this is the way memories are brought back :classic: Now you have the chance to make a layout and look in a virual way if everything fits in there. Really cool.

I also created some new gifs and added them to my layout, which is still work in progress.

layout-20091013.jpg

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I have added the Shell promotional football stadium today. My brother gave me these sets (3308-3314), as a present during the beginning of my dark ages and it actually got me back into Lego for a year or so during which time I made this layout. With a bit of photoshop and images of the original stickers provided by the brick factory, I mananged to place them on the GIFs as they were on the original models. The GIFs will be available in the BlueBrick index this weekend.

niederpoecking2.png

Edited by missouri_bb63

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Not many folks making virtual layouts at the moment? Hopefully seeing this long lost topic again will encourage all of you to share your virtual layouts.

I have just added the 6597 Century Skyway to my layout. Slowly but surely it his turning out to be just how I remember it.

The Original photos are here.

niederpoecking3.png

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