A Man and a Plan
As you may have guessed, all the work I had done up to this point has been re-imagined,
That layout, James’ layout, left a solid impression upon me. I won’t say that I lost any sleep over it. And I’m certainly not going to say that it is what filled my dreams at night, the ones that I could actually get any sleep. No, I’m not going to say it.
I didn’t say that it didn’t happen. I only said I wasn’t going to admit to any of it.
It didn’t take very long for me to contact James. I really wanted to see if I could duplicate his layout. He was kind enough to share some pictures and files of the work he had done. He used a program called SCARM (Simple Computer Aided Railway Modeller), to assist him with his layout. Not only that, but he included the files generated from this software to me as well.
I don’t use SCARM. I tried it, but I prefer a different program, I use a program called AnyRail™. It just seems to be easier to use, for me anyway.
Following James’ layout files, I recreated his layout in AnyRail™.
As you can see, it’s essentially two, separate loops and a figure-eight, with a cross-over at the bottom allowing trains to switch from one loop to the other.
This is the layout that re-ignited my burners, so to speak, and got me moving again on my layout.
To avoid any plagiarism or copyright issues, even though James encourages the use of his design, There are just a few things I wanted to change, to make it mine.
First, I “flipped” the layout, end-for-end, simple but something. I also lengthened the passing zone at the bottom, where a station will be built, and eliminated the inner passing zone.
Finally, the over-pass on the figure-eight section was straightened out for a slightly more realistic appearance.
The image also shows where the power-bus is located on the table, in relation to the track layout. Any power feeders that will be needed in the future, will be within easy reach.