Track plans: 1

I wonder if I've set a record for unbuilt track plans.

I fell in love with model railroading in around 7th or 8th grade. We lived in a small house on a college campus, so space to build a railroad was a challenge, to say the least. That didn't stop me from attempting various designs, some of which got as far as benchwork.

One of the earliest model railroading articles I recall was a Model Railroader feature depicting a passenger train run on the Gorre and Daphetid, John Allen's great model railroad. With Allen's spectacular scenery, whimsical touches and stellar photography, the piece was absolutely amazing. Perhaps it set a standard so high that I was bound to be intimidated.

(Update: videos here, here, here, and here, all assembled from stills Allen shot himself, give a good look at the Allen layout.)

Allen's work was also included in one of the first model railroading books I read, Bill McClanahan's book on scenery. But another image that especially captured my attention was of a layout built by one C.B. Baird. No track plan, but from the image I was able to contrive a likely possibility of one, and soon I was envisioning it to be built on our screened in back porch.

Lately I've been thinking about that design again, and wondering if I might try to revive it. A Model Railroader story last year helped trigger that. I've tried to find the real plan, but to no avail. Still, from this video, I think that maybe I can get a pretty good idea of the design.

(Updated with additional links on 11/23/09