14 June 2007

I've been using XTrkCAD for several months, lurking on this group for most of that time.  I'd like to give something back to the group.  The first things I'm posting here are :
   
o The beginnings of a parameter file for HO scale buildings by Atlas, and
   
o  A complex track plan I've come up with making use of a Bachmann
   Christmas train set given me by my brother-in-law, set on a 4' x 3.5'
   piece of scrap plywood I happen to have.
   
My plan for the latter is to build something quickly (this would be my first
layout in about 30 years), so as to get familiar with laying track (this
would be Bachmann EZ Track, which seems to match Atlas code 100 sections),
building models (structures and car kits), and operations (I thought I would
try using 4-step waybills).  The layout depicts a small town, with a few
industries, served by a railroad that connects west and south.  These connections
would be Iain Rice type 4' cassettes - the poor man's staging and fiddle yard.

I plan to design and build something more extensive, based on the ideas in
Tony Koester's "Realistic Operations" quick start, substituting the town of
Unity, Maine on the Belfast and Moosehead Lake railroad for his Wingate, 
Indiana.  This would make my second step more realistic without making it
significantly larger or more expensive (the complete layout would be built
on a 4' x 8' divided into the town (2'x8'), with a 1'x8' staging yard at
each end.

I plan to post XTrkCAD designs for the prototype town (which could be modelled
on a 2' x 16' space, based on a 1911 yard plan drawn by the road's Chief Engineer) and my "extended subset" - a fictional version that shrinks to fit
2' x 8', but include more industrial switching - sometime in the next month.