Planning a layout...

Planning a layout is a topic often discussed on forums and in magazines, and everyone seems to have their own take on the subject...

Here I have tried to describe both the process, and some of the considerations I made when designing Creech Bottom.

As usual things start in my sketchbook which I often take away on holiday or when travelling with work and find I can spend plenty of time happily sketching ideas and concepts for layouts. For me this is an important part of the creative process, and without spending this time up front, scheming on what the layout will look and feel like, I loose interest and never finish.

You can see that top, the trackplanning is also surrounded by construction notes, ideas and the start of sketching out scenes that I want to create. Below is the first 'complete' sketch of the layout concept and surprisingly close to the finished result (bottom).

From this I start to draw some parts of the layout in greater detail. You might say 'but I can't draw' - that might be the case, so what else can you do to begin to visualise a plan or concept? Perhaps you could model it in card, or plasticine - or even in 3D CAD in free software like Sketchup. Perhaps you could build a mock up to scale, or print out templates and move them around on the floor, with boxes and rolling stock to get a feel. This process is capturing the essence of what you want to achieve, you brain is saving these images and feelings even if you don't take a photo and save it forever. For me the sketchbook is a companion and something I like to use - but it is not the only way to successfully visualise the layout you're trying to achieve.

Note also that I annotate these drawings. Sometimes with descriptions of materials, or design ideas - sometimes with emotive words - eg. 'bucolic' 'rural' - these evoke a feeling of what you're trying to achieve.

The key principles I followed in this simple layout are:

• manual points for ease and speed of construction.
• simple wiring with just two feeds and some isolation switches in the fiddle yard.
• three points ONLY for a spacious feel on a small board.
• no track would be parallel to another, or to the baseboard edge.

The last point is particularly effective in creating a more natural appearance and one that the eye seems to appreciate and accept as realism. In a future article I will describe the construction processes starting first with baseboard, tracklaying and wiring, then on track detailing and ballasting, and finally on scenic finishing.