Great Layouts

[Cody J]

Does Anybody have any great floor layouts that have little to no scenery

-trainsrock

Go Trains

[Terry Toenges]

"Great" is in the eye of the beholder. For some, a figure 8 is great.  For others, a large layout with multiple turnouts, sidings, spurs, and switchbacks is great layout.
What type of running are you looking for - Continuous loop? Switching operations? Point to point?
About the best book out there is the "101 Track Plans".

[Yampa Bob]

I recently designed a folded loop with a figure 8, and a second 30 degree crossing that can also be made into an over/under.  I call it a "Scenic" route, has a lot of running on a 4 X 8 with a double return track on one side.  Not much room for scenery, but would be great for a display layout.  No turnouts or sidings, just a very interesting running pattern.  You could add a few trees, and a loading station  for an "excursion" theme.

I designed it in Atlas Right Track Software, can either send you the .ral file or as a .jpg.

[Santa Fe buff]

I go with a simple oval with some spurs and or some switching tracks. Bachmann makes some good track plan suggestments on the back of their sets. Now for something good, I just combined the track from my standard Bachmann circle with a $60.00 Bachmann E-Z track Steel Alloy expansion kit. (The booklet with it was quite usefull.) My straights are mostly 1-2 9"s on each side only because I only have 4 of them. My switches make it about 3 9"s on each side. I also have some snap-fit Bachmann Plastic-ville, that really works well for low shag and hard floor! Good Luck!

[Running Bear]

Sounds like a good track plan Santa Fe Buff. The only problem I have with it is the steel-alloy track. I used to use that years ago. It worked OK at first but over time became harder and harder to keep clean, until I was having to clean it every few days. Nickel-silver works a lot better. It costs a little more but the extra expense is worth it.