Iain Rice books

Hi, I can currently afford either "Designs for urban layouts" or Mainlines in modest spaces". What are the experiences of others on these titles? I assume "Designs..." covers yards etc as well as stations, using more of those cramped sites prevalent in urban areas and that "Mainlines..." does not necessarily cover the terminus/cityscape layout that would interset me more?

TIA, Del

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Reply to
Del The Obscure
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"Del The Obscure" skrev i meddelandet news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Kalmbach produce one of his books Beowulf

Reply to
Beowulf

Del The Obscure

The deciding factor may be how much room you have in which to build a layout. In "Designs for Urban Layouts", the plans range from tiny 5 ft x 1 ft layouts to 16 ft x 9 ft. This book has goods yards, urban stations, a mini-MPD and three of the city terminus layouts that you are looking for, although one ("Bank Street") is in N gauge, but could be modelled in 4mm if you have the room.

"Mainlines in Modest Spaces" has some good ideas, but the term "modest spaces" is relative! The smallest layout is 8ft x 6ft while the largest is

17ft x 11ft. The emphasis is on through stations, to allow continuous runs. However, one of the plans ("Rutford Market") has a through station *and* a terminus goods yard, which could be adapted. The drawbacks with this layout are that it requires 16ft x 9ft and is a multi level layout.

Hope this helps

Reply to
Enzo Matrix

In that case, you want "Designs for Urban Layouts", which deals mainly with terminus-fiddleyard layouts, rather than "Mainlines in Modest Spaces", which deals more with continuous runs, and also with layouts that take up larger spaces.

The Kalmbach books mentioned by another poster are "Small, Smart & Practical Track Plans" and "Mid-sized and Manageable Track Plans", both available from Amazon.

Tim

Reply to
Tim Illingworth

Why not go down to your nearest library, borrow both, if you find a layout you like, photocopy the relevant pages, thus saving yourself some money. If they haven't got either they can probably obtain them via the "inter library loan" system. HTH Barry

Reply to
Barry steventon

'Twas Tue, 30 Dec 2003 13:24:13 -0000, when "Enzo Matrix" decided to declare:

(snip)

It does indeed, Enzo. Many thanks. 'Designs...' it is then.

Del.

Reply to
Del The Obscure

'Twas Tue, 30 Dec 2003 20:13:48 -0000, when "Barry steventon" decided to declare:

Hi Barry, Normally I would but a) I like to have planbooks on the shelf and b) rural Irish libraries are not too hot on model railway titles! I work for a bookshop, so I can get them, it's just a question of which one. But that's sorted now. Thanks anyway!

Del.

Reply to
Del The Obscure

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