Curse You Mike Danneman!

Unbidden yesterday, I was thinking about the possibilities for a North American themed layout as a "what if I wasn't doing Shintahara" post. That said, it got me thinking about the NA prototypes available, and with F7's, E8's, passenger coaches and RDC's, I thought "Alaska Railroad". Innocent enough... then track plan ideas started rolling through my head, not so innocent. Let it be known that I love designing track plans. Apparently even moreso than building them. The plans I've designed over the years would fill a storage locker I'm sure...

I remembered Mike Danneman's small 5'X9' N Scale Rio Grande layout from MR and Model Railroad Planning. After finding an image of an expanded version on Google Books, I set about to adapting it to T Gauge. I drew it manually first, and then loaded up Anyrail. Below is the result.


The layout is designed as two 18" X 30" sections that mate to form the full layout. Now I'm looking at it going "Hmmmmm" and just like that my shelf module plans go into doubt.

This is what happens when I have too much time. I still want to model the Shintahara line as I've planned, but what if Baiji became a station on a 48X30 inch layout with a branch off the edge. I've already adapted it with the branch line off to the right from the short siding. Possibly the long stretch along the back could be hidden behind a backdrop and used as a storage yard. Even if I don't build this layout, I put it out there for others to mull over. Mr. Danneman's small plan has alot of potential, even though now he's moved onto bigger and better things.

Enjoy