This is one of the best plans I have seen for 2 4x8s. I was going to build it and discovered I had more room than I thought so I used some ideas from this plan but not the plan itself. I want to model a full size steam and diesel engine service facility. I couldn't find any reasonable way to fit that in or add that on here. But this plan is really sharp.
Don
Thanks Don, much appreciated! If you happen to have a track plan for your layout, I would be interested in seeing it. -Ken
I don't have a track plan regretably. I bought RR Track and then just didn't Have the chops to wade through it. My primary plan is from CTT Feb 2013 "A Rocky Mountain RR". My space is 17'x16' in a sideways U-shape. My yard closely follows the CTT plan and is in the "backbone" of the U, as it is in CTT. The right hand arm of the U is a mix of the CTT plan and the North Ridge plan. I added an extra outer loop and made the mainline O-72. That has worked out great. I cut off the engine terminal shown in CTT because I have big plans for the terminal on the left hand arm of the U.
Unlike the CTT plan, the left hand arm of the U is very complex now. It has a 4-track staging loop hidden underneath. Connections to staging come from the right hand arm of the U and from the last track in the yard. The left hand arm of the U is primarily my engine terminal. I am putting in a 7-stall Brennan roundhouse and I have a 26 inch Bowser turntable that I found used at a train meet. The main does not loop around the engine terminal as it does in SO MANY plans. Instead the main only goes underneath through staging. I didn't want to have to look over that loop of track to see my engine terminal. The engine terminal plan I am adapting to my space is from 103 Realistic Track Plans, on page 13 "Junction City Locomotive terminal" but without the transfer table.
My helix is moved over to be more behind the yard. The helix is accessible from either direction on Ross curved switches. Most of the layout is Gargraves flexible track and Gargraves switches. But I find the Grargrave flex track to be hard to bend accurately. I even built a wooden jig and I still struggle with it. So on the helix, I chickened out from all that bending and bought Ross 054 track sections. That is SO much easier. My helix construction is mostly from MR's Digital Download "Guide to helix and staging design". This assumes you've already read Jim Hediger's classic "How to build a helix" that has been republished by MR in so many diffeent guises that it is all over the place. But I saw it in MR's How to Build More Layout In Less Space" which I think is still available through Kalmbach.
Anyway, that is the whole picture. I am taking my time. I am retired. I am not in a hurry. Taking time is the whole point! Right now I am working on setting up DCS. The entire road is DCS. TMCC locos will be run through DCS, No conventional operation is allowed for. We'll see how that goes.
Don
Don, thanks, that sounds really cool! Sounds like a fairly large space? Any pics you can post?
Here is an illustration very close to, but not quite the same as the final diagram that appeared with the OGR article. I used AnyRail to create the diagram, then adjusted the contrast and color of the image, then imported it and the layout into TrainPlayer to add the trains on the track, then exported an image, and then a final coloring.
Again, hats off to Allan and his team, for a lovely article in the magazine!
I have submitted another design and article for Allan's consideration, which has not yet appeared in this forum. Its one I have worked on on-and-off over the last three years. We shall see what happens!
Ken-Oscale posted:...I have submitted another design and article for Allan's consideration, which has not yet appeared in this forum. Its one I have worked on on-and-off over the last three years. We shall see what happens!
Readers of the magazine can be sure that the track plan mentioned WILL appear in a future issue (near future). 
Wow! Thanks Allan, great news and very exciting! I look forward to it! -Ken
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