W
hen you look at a track plan, can you readily iden-
tify every track’s purpose? Real railroads don’t select
track arrangements because they “look cool,” they
put tracks where they do because every track has a purpose.
I remember the very first track plan I ever drew. First, I just
knew
the plan had to fit onto a ping-pong sized table, so obviously it
needed to be a loop of track. Next, I thought a crossing would be
cool, so I tried to work that in. Then I had an exciting prototype
photo of a double-track line with a crossover, so I added a sec-
ond track and a crossover …
I ended up with a total mess, crossings and crossovers helter-
skelter on the plan. I had no sense of why those track arrange-
ments existed, except that they looked cool.
I now realize that I had no sense of how a railroad really did what
it did. I didn’t have a clue of how to do a decent track plan that
would give me a satisfying layout.
So what’s it take to learn how to do track planning right, where
every track has a realistic sense of purpose and no track is
wasted or excess?
Assistant Editors editorial - 1
Publisher’s Musings
by Joe Fugate
Designing for operation
Making sure every track has a
well-understood purpose
