The graphics that are referenced on this page are all pretty big ( > 80 kbytes). This is so that the details of the designs can be seen. But be aware, they will take some time to download once selected, unless of course you have DSL or Cable modem - in which case - surf with abandon!

Current Design (and under Construction!)

What a journey. I have now packed a phenomenal amount of operational possibilty and fun into the available space. Well except for the "helix" that has escaped the room's confines in design 6.

The inspiration for this came from another member of the Marklin Mailing List who mentioned an interesting station arrangement in which the tracks split around the station building and then end up going to two different destinations. He faxed me the article in Eisenbahn Journal about Goldshoefe, and I studied the track arrangement, to see how I could accomodate such an interesting prototypical setting. By combining what I had previously planned I also managed to increase the staging tracks to 16 including interchange between the staging yards so that I can simulate unit trains that are always seen going north-south or south-north, or passenger trains that leave to Destination A and return from that direction.

The gradient between the main parts of the layout and the staging is a maximum of 4% which is a little steep, but I think the Marklin locomotives should be able to handle it with the 2m train length restriction imposed by the length of station tracks and staging yard tracks. Any visible grades are limited to less than1.5 %

The track plan is 95% complete - some tinkering remains, and some additional annotation particularly for the web site is required. Meanwhile I am working on finishing the room the layout will be built in, and I will be mocking up the roadbed for the tracks with corrugated cardboard to help visualize the completed project.

Layout Particulars/Features:

I will be fully documenting the project of building this layout on these web pages so if you come back in a couple of months you might see some progress, although I think it'll probably be slow progress since you can also see that I have 3 little boys that like to play Brio trains.

Layout Construction Progress... It has started!!!!

Previous Designs:

Design 1 - Square Loop

This first track plan was designed to fit into my parents' basement. I had a 3m x 6m room to use, but was only allowed about half for the railroad. The resulting design, was not bad for a kid designer, but let's face it, the trains were obviously not going anywhere. Just round and round and round.... By the way it was drawn using the Marklin K-Track template on drafting vellum. I'll be posting some pictures of this layout when it was under construction if I ever find the pictures again.

Design 2 - Modified Loop

This second track plan was an attempt to rescue what I had built in my parents' basement (see Design 1), and locate it in my family's basement. The existing shape couldn't be used, so just some of the design elements were reused. This is probably one of the most complete drawings I've done. I was pretty happy with the layout, until I considered trying to put a staging yard somewhere... This design was created using Railways 3.08 by Sebastien Marchant.

Design 3 - Modified Loop w. Staging Yard, and Stub Branch Station

This was an evolution of Design 2. It was influenced by what I had at that time read about "shadow" stations aka. staging yards. It provided a bit of room for extra trains. I like a lot of elements of this design, however,it is still just two independent loops, and there really isn't much in the way of visible main line. So I moved on to the next design... This design was created using Railways 3.08 by Sebastien Marchant.

Design 4 - Dog Bone w. Large Main Terminal.

This was a flyer. I was just trying out some different arrangments of where I could fit a large main station. The room shape is really constrictive. It's not a classic rectangle which would be preferrable. Sometimes, necessity is the mother of invention. This shape ended up being a three tier design, with staging yards at each end of the dog bone on the lowest level (no picture), and a branch line running up on a second deck above the main level. This would be a serious challenge to pull off in my train room because of the low ceiling. This was a really good design in that there was plenty of mainline, a big station, and lots of room for staging yards. This design was created using Railways 3.08 by Sebastien Marchant.

Design 5 - Dog Bone Using other half of the room

Once I'd realized that the Dog Bone design would do what I need for operational satisfaction. I wanted to see if there was a way to avoid the double deck design, and still have the large terminal, and a branch line station. This is what I came up with.

Design 6 - Dog Bone with a branch line.

This is an evolution of Design 5. The passenger station now holds trains up to 2 m or 6 ft 6 in. in length. The peninsula provides a longer mainline run, as well as some intersting terrain for the branchline to traverse. . This layout was designed with CadRail by Sandia Software. See below if you need an upgraded CadRail template for Märklin K-Track.

Design 7 - Almost exactly the same as Design 6

This is the same as Design 6 - I was experimenting with a few small changes to provide more/better industry connections on the layout. But I soon wanted to try a larger peninsula with a different track arrangement.

Design 8 - Peninsula Bw Experiment

Here I left the main station in roughly the same position, but moved the engine servicing area to the peninsula. I had the interesting idea of a wye that crossed over itself, and I went out of my way to fit this on the peninsula as well - unfortunately the grades ended up in excess of 5%. I also started toying with additional staging for the branch line on the additional shelf at the top of the room.

Design 9 - Main Station on Peninsula

This partially completed layout shows another experimint I tried with a larger peninsula. The main station was relocated to the peninsula, while the engine servicing facility and the classification yard and industrial area were on the shelf along the top of the room. The incomplete area along the bottom would have contained a sawmill in a forested area and a quarry. I abandoned the design because the helix required directly to the right of the main station didn't fit without an unreasonable gradient.

CadRail Märklin Templates

Click on the picture or here to download the template for CadRail.

If there is interest I can generate C-Track and M-Track templates and post them here as well.