Description
Have an extra spare room in your house? Downsizing your layout? Building The Right-Sized Layout is the perfect book to help with planning a room-sized layout for your home. This new book features 5 track plans covering details on how to create a manageable layout with space, time, and resources in mind.
You’ll find:
- Track planning strategies
- Construction techniques
- Room-planning concepts
- Tips on operating once your layout is built
- And more!
Featuring author Thomas Klimoski’s Georgia Northeastern Railroad, as well as 3 other examples of small layouts, this planning book is a must-have for model railroaders.
Author: Thomas Klimoski
Size: 8.25 x 10.75
Pages: 112
Author Bio
Thomas Klimoski has always enjoyed model and prototype trains. From his first Lionel train set to the current Georgia Northeastern Railroad layout, model trains have been a part of his life. After retiring as a firefighter from the City of Miami Fire-Rescue Department, Thomas was able to work part time as a trainman for the Blue Ridge Scenic Railroad and learned a lot about prototype railroad operations. This experience has helped him focus on what he enjoys most about model railroading: local switching operations on a shortline railroad. Thomas is a frequent contributor to Model Railroader magazine and has had his layout featured in Model Railroad Planning as well as Great Model Railroads 2020. This is Thomas’ first book for Kalmbach Media.
Table of Contents
Introduction What is a right-sized layout?
Chapter 1 The Right-Sized Layout
Determining the right-sized layout for you
Chapter 2 Track planning
Factors to consider when designing your track plan
Chapter 3 Layout construction
Efficient use of space, benchwork, and layout room aesthetics
Chapter 4 Prototype inspired track plans
Looking to the prototype for layout design ideas
Chapter 5 Prototype operations
Prototype rules and procedures that can be applied to model railroading
Chapter 6 Detailing operations
Adopting prototype practices can enhance your operating session
Chapter 7 Operating session paperwork
You need to know where the trains are supposed to go,
and what to do when they get there
Chapter 8 Conducting operating sessions
Making your guests feel comfortable and welcome on your layout
Reviews
Author Thomas Klimoski has done a very credible job defining what constitutes the right-sized model layout for your personal needs. Of course, the overall question is a complicated one, but Klimoski sorts through the many variables you want to consider before building, such as amount of space you have for a layout, the kind of operation you desire, the equipment you want to run, the length of trains you wish to operate, and many more important aspects.
But beyond answering the questions above, the author has broadened the scope of this 112-page book considerably. Following the maze of initial questions he leads readers through to answer the main question, he then proceeds to explain in detail about track planning, layout construction, layout room aesthetics, observing the prototype for layout deigns that you might consider, how to adopt prototype practices and applying prototype train rules to your model layout for more realism.
He goes on to explain how to plan and execute an operating session, keeping in mind if its a smaller switching layout, you’ll want your operators to have enough room to get around the room, you’ll want to plan sessions ahead of time to make them interesting, and give each member of the switching team satisfying work assignments.
The book is loaded with numerous color photos of model and prototype operations throughout the country, plus a number of scale layout diagrams that are helpful in planning your own layout.
In all, this book actually goes beyond the scope of its title, and is a very helpful and entertaining volume.
—Don Heimburger—Heimburger House Publishing Company