My facebook friend Rob Chant in the Canada has produced this fantastic collection of layout designs. Yes they are predominately of North American/Canadian design, but they are fantastic to look at. I'm sure they could be adapted for any region around the world. http://www.jomrd.com/index.php?page=Blog Cheers, Gary.
I too have been following Robs designs and he dose a great job plenty of inspiration for any one new or old in the hobby esp if your limited on space for a layout.
There is something to be said for learning from the American methods - they tend to be more accepting of compression of train length if needs be. Although to be fair the rather spartan operating infrastructure can help there. If a railway in Britain tried to open with hand operated points everywhere the Board of Trade would have had a fit.
Yet at the same time, there are 100's of smaller railroad companies operating on a small mileage of track, serving a few customers, hence the smaller trains. These small companies are just picking up or dropping off loaded/unloaded cars from an interchange with a Class A railroad. It seems to work quite well in the USA. Cheers, Gary.
Brilliant find Gary, I will need some time to look through all of the plans but first impressions are really good... Gormo
Rob is a great track planner/designer. I would say I have read a comment every 3-4 weeks where someone, somewhere is building one of his track plans, either in N scale or HO. The way Rob puts each design into perspective with a 3D rendered drawing, from various angles is also a bonus as it gives the modeller an idea of siding length, run-a-rounds etc. Cheers, Gary.
Rob's JOMRD Facebook page is excellent. Having been friends with Rob for quite some time, I have been a member of his group for the best part of 3 1/2 years. In fact, I introduced Rob to the Pompano Spur in Miami, to which he redesigned a plan I came up with and named it in honour of me ! Cheers, Gary.