Layout Design

Work continues on a number of projects mentioned in these pages earlier, but it's also been rewarding to receive construction updates on a couple of my designs which are now being built. So far, the CAD designs have been working well and elements are fitting in as was intended!   Quite a few interesting new projects are in discussion as well, including a port-themed switcher and a metro NYC-themed layout to meet the needs of a wide range of owners, operators, and casual visitors. The vision for the latter is quite intriguing because the vision and concept take into account the varying interests and degrees of involvement of all these different constituents.   If you are interested in how we might build upon your own unique layout vision, see these pages for more information.

Things are a little quieter in the Ops area lately, but one project that's been a very engaging challenge is developing an operations plan that does not involve switchlists, car cards and waybills, or other typical car-routing schemes. Instead, we'll be using information on the cars themselves, along with a set of simple instructions, to move cars around the layout purposefully.   Layout owners in the area are also busy preparing for upcoming guest sessions associated with the Bay Area SIG Meeting in February and BayRails in March (see below for more on these events). I helped with operating plans for three of these layouts, so it's always fun for me when visitors have a chance to "put 'em through their paces".   If you're interested in hosting visitors or a regular crew of your own, the Operations Planning pages offer some ideas on how we might work together to make it happen.

Ops Plans

There are a couple of new Layout Gallery designs this time around. One was inspired by the new "Turtle Creek Extension" series which began in the January 2005 issue of Model Railroader. This is a small (2'X6') addition to the Turtle Creek Central 4X8 from a series which began in the January 2003 MR. Jim Kelly authored both series, and he developed and built a very attractive scene on the extension. But I thought that the 2'X6' space, though fairly compact, might also offer enough room for a an "al-turtle-tive" approach that maximized operating potential while compromising a bit on scenery.   The other new design in the gallery came from a custom design assignment. One of my clients wanted to combine the convenience and flexibility of KATO Unitrack with some craftsman structure kits built-up as complete scenes. But there didn't seem to be room for these existing scenicked sections on the main deck. And some of the completed scenes were also a bit too quaint and "backwoodsy" to fit in with the heavy industrial theme of the rest of the layout. So we developed a separate deck which offered a bonus switching area and a good home for these fine models.   (Note: I'd be really pleased if someone built one of these designs as-is or modified, but all other rights, particularly publication rights in any form, are reserved by me).

I'll be in the Los Angeles area in mid-January. If you are in the area and would like to meet to discuss a project, please contact me.   Bay Area Activities A couple of reminders on upcoming bay area events. The Layout Design Special Interest Group and Operations Special Interest Group, along with NMRA/PCR will be holding their annual regional combined meeting in the Bay Area on the weekend of February 12th and 13th. As usual, there will be clinics Saturday, layout tours Saturday evening, and op sessions Sunday. The Saturday sessions will be held at the South Bay Historical Railroad Society's wonderful venue in Santa Clara, CA. Operating slots at these sessions are open to locals and out-of-town visitors alike, with some sessions specifically geared to ops novices. BayRails 2005 is the inaugural session of what we hope will be a biannual (every other year, in the odd years) operating event. This year BayRails will be taking place March 9-12. That's the same weekend as the Winterail railfan photo and video festival, so it’s a great time to visit. You are welcome to register for the BayRails operating meet, although operating slots are going fast. Click for the BayRails homepage, which has all the information, a list of the 18 participating layouts, and even an on-line registration form. BayRails 2005 News from the land of CAD   At the end of December, the XtrkCAD website posted an announcement that indicated that the program was moving to an open source model and offering (for now, at least) free registration. What this means for users of XTrkCAD in terms of future upgrades and support is not clear from reading the website. The last official update to the program seems to have come more than one year ago, so it remains to be seen what the long-term viability of this business model may be. That having been said, I have tested a demo of XTrkCAD and found it very full-featured.   Postings by the developer of 3rd PlanIt on the program's unofficial YahooGroup suggest that the next version for the program (v8.0) has been delayed until later this year (March to June?). This is the program I use and the current released (7.10) version works well. A number of users had moved to unsupported Beta versions and there will be compatibility issues between those Beta releases, future production releases, and the current production release. That's unfortunate for those like me who work with others' files, but will have little impact on most users.   Best advice for most users of these Model RR CAD programs, and in fact of any program supported by hard-working individuals or small companies, is to stay with production releases, back up often, and occasionally export versions of your files to standards-based formats like .dxf and .dwg -- just in case.   Finding the anchor -- and letting it go   One of the interesting things about working on a large number and a wide variety of layouts as I do now is that I have become more aware of my own layout design tendencies and idiosyncrasies. In the middle of a couple of recent custom designs and while working on my own N scale design, I noticed that I felt like I had drawn myself into a bit of corner. No matter what I tried, I seemed to be coming to "dead ends" as I tried to extend tracks or move into new areas in the space. Ever feel that way?   As I analyzed what was happening, I discovered that in each case there was some critical section of trackwork, an "anchor", that I felt locked into and was reluctant to change. And these weren't always the kind of locations you'd expect, like yard throats, entries and exits from staging, or helixes. Often it was just a particular curve in a corner or an arrangement of turnouts leading into a curve that was cramping my degrees of design freedom elsewhere.   Once I finally goaded myself into changing that one anchor point, the rest of the layout seemed to open up and I was able to create a much more interesting design. But it was surprisingly difficult to motivate myself to change those anchor sections. I just had a gut feeling that they were a key element and that making a change there would open broad sections of the layout to revision. And even though in this case making broad revisions was exactly what I needed to do, I was reluctant to open "Pandora's Box".   I should note that I'm not writing here about the layout vision I mentioned in the last newsletter. That overall vision and concept is the key to an effective design and should be changed rarely and only with due consideration. In this case, I'm talking about a physical track configuration -- sometimes a very small segment of the overall plan -- that affects a much larger portion of the layout. The overall vision was the same before and after changing the anchor trackage, but the specific pattern of turnouts and tracks was limiting the effectiveness of the rest of the layout in meeting that vision.   Sometimes these anchor locations are obvious: curves in turnback "blobs", the angle of approach to a lift-out or duck-under section across a fixed doorway location, or connections to previously-existing layouts or benchwork. But other times the anchors are very subtle and inconspicuous.   Once I discovered these anchors, I was smart enough to exercise good "version control". I saved new versions of my files, moved critical sections to different layers in the software where they would be "safe" if I went down the wrong path, etc. (Paper-and-pencil designers might want to use tracing paper overlays and "Xerox" copies to preserve layout segments while exploring alternatives). But the biggest obstacles weren't in the mechanics of drawing, they were in my mind!   I should also say that anchors aren't always a bad thing. Picking a place to start and just getting on with it has been a really important part of increasing my layout design productivity. Staring at a blank screen or empty piece of paper worrying about designing yourself into a corner much later doesn't lead to a better design -- you've got to start somewhere. I'm convinced that there's no such thing as a "perfect" design: there are always multiple ways to achieve a particular vision in a given space. So there's no use in staying in the armchair until the cobwebs grow -- starting is key. Pick a spot and start working! Sometimes an anchor gives you a place to begin ... and that's always a good thing.   But if you start to feel "hemmed in" later, there's no shame in looking over the design to see if maybe some of those anchor locations are candidates for a change. Seeing and identifying the anchors -- and being prepared to abandon those that limit you -- can make for a much better design. Sometimes the best thing you can do is swallow hard, save a new version, delete those oh-so-comfortable anchors, and try an alternative. It's a little unsettling, but you might find an interesting and unexpected solution.   Need some help in cutting the chain to your personal anchors? Just contact me and let's see what we can do together.   Copyright © 2005 by Byron Henderson