Why do layout planning?
From LdsigWiki
It's easy to build a model railroad. Buy a book and pick a track plan. Lay some track and run trains. Easy as pie.
You may have built a layout using this technique. Maybe more
than one. Or maybe you just put a sheet of plywood on sawhorses
and started hooking track together. You had some sort of vision
when you did this and the clarity of that vision affected the
success of the layout. For it to satisfy for any length of time,
it has to meet the needs that caused it to be built.
Thus the need for layout planning. The planning process will
help to develop and refine your vision for your model railroad
layout.
A good analogy to a model railroad layout is a vacation. Where
do you want to go? How do you want to get there? What do you
want to do along the way? What are you going to do when you get
there? How long should you stay? Can you afford it? Who will
watch the kids? Do you take them along? Will the car make it?
Will you?
Some folks plan a vacation down to the Nth degree. Others grab a
clean (optional) pair of jeans and a couple T-shirts and jump in
the car.
So it goes with layout planning. Do enough planning that you are
comfortable. You may have to make decisions along the way. You
may have a detour or a breakdown en route. Or you may change
your mind and deviate from your plan.
Or you might get lost. Getting lost is not necessarily bad.
Some of the best times I've had come from getting lost. I call
it a "scenic detour". Getting lost opens up new and unseen
avenues.
You are doing this for fun, for enjoyment, because you want to.
(If not, you are a professional and doing it for someone else.
You better meet THEIR needs or you won't get paid.)
All sorts of wonderful things await you on this journey. The
planning process is to give you an idea of the things that are
out there. Things that may attract you. Things that you'd
prefer to stay away from. (Tinplate and G-scale are that way to
me, but not because I dislike them. They are an attractive
nuisance and I have other things I'd rather do.)
Layout planning will cause you to explore a myriad of subjects.
What railroad, era, locale, type of operation, do I want to model
are all obvious first questions. But what about scale? Seems
like a no-brainer. I have all this HO equipment. But I like
running 30 and 40 car trains and the only space available is a 10
by 14 foot spare bedroom with closet and two windows that also
has to serve as (pick one or more): computer room, sewing room,
guest room, etc. Now N-scale becomes attractive or maybe a
switching layout, shorter trains don't look so bad.
Space considerations. Unless you live alone, you'll have to
negotiate for space. A land grab will likely cause that spare
bedroom to gain another use, YOUR bedroom. But without all those
pesky family obligations, think of all the time you'll have.
Time. How long will it take to build this layout? How much time
to maintain? Will I finish it in my lifetime? Do I want to and
can I devote that much time to this? (Hello, spare bedroom.)
Cost? All the same questions as for time. (Hello, poorhouse.)
And can I even build what I design? Do I have the skills
necessary? I don't know how to hand lay track, build benchwork,
wire, sculpt rocks, etc., ad nauseum.
Daunted by all of this? You might decide to take an exploratory
day trip or two to try out new techniques of acquire new skills.
Get your feet wet by building a small layout from one of the "how
to" books. Or maybe a diorama. Or a module such as N-TRAK.
Experimentation such as this IS part of the planning process.
One of these day trips could turn out to be the perfect vacation
that you go on over and over again.
Anything you might possibly want to do can be done on a model
railroad layout. Some combination of time, energy, money,
technology, knowledge and ability will get it done. You have
limited quantities of each of these available to you. By
planning you make decisions about how to use these resources to
maximize your enjoyment of the hobby.
About this content:
Original author: Drew Hackmeyer. Last revised on 10/18/96.
This LDSIG article is ©1996 by Drew Hackmeyer