Layout Design Process 3 - Model Railroading

In the late 70's the focus of track planning expanded to the concept of layout design. Those books were oriented primarily toward club sized layouts, but the concepts presented were appropriate for any sized layout. Two that I purchased and used for guides were Creative Model Railroad Design and (Armstrong) and Design Handbook of Model Railroads (Mallery).

It was during this time that John Armstrong's  'Given and Druthers' approach to layout design was popular.  'Givens' were the layout parameters that can't or won't change. 'Druthers' were the layout features that we we would like to have but are willing to negotiate. Both represented hard choices that layout designers had to make from a wide variety of possibilities.

In the August 1986 Prototype Modeler magazine Mike Schafer identified a suggested methodology for layout design (he called it track planning) that he used when he was stumped trying to design his layout. That methodology assisted him in focusing on what he wanted to achieve on his layout. I have published a flow chart of that process in the Layout Design Reference Pages section.