Compact Layout Design

I should admit up front I'm a bit of a fan of Iain Rice's work. His illustration style of water colors on ink is one of the best layout presentation styles being published today. Of course when another book of his came up I had to pick it up.Regarding this book, there are a few things to be aware of. As are most Kalmbach books of the last few years, this is a thin soft cover book with the glue typed binding and a glossy cover. The content within could roughly be divided into two parts. The first part covers the concepts of "compact" layout design and the second part is about a half dozen examples of compact layout design. As Iain is a well published author in the model railroading space a fairly decent amount of part one has been published elsewhere. I don't mean to say the content is completely a word-for-word re-print, but many of the ideas aren't exactly new either.If you've read "Mid-Sized and Manageable" a decent portion of the conversation about the pros and cons of layout size will sound familiar. Additionally if you've read "Shelf Layouts" or any of his numerous articles in "Model Railroad Planning" then the strategies for dealing with the challenges of compact layouts will likewise sound familiar.As is true for most Kalmbach books, there are many pictures of model railroads throughout. Many of these pictures were re-prints from other Kalmbach publications but I will give the editors credit for including a really wide variety. For example John Olson's HOn30 Blackhole Mine from the early 1980's is featured just a few pages away from Mike Confalone's HO Woodsville Terminal. The breadth of layout themes and styles displayed in the photos is excellent. However if you've been reading Model Railroader for a while you've probably seen many of them.Before buying this book you should be clear on what exactly constitutes a "compact layout". To be honest, I was assuming the author was talking about "compact" in the sense of "portable" or "semi-portable"; maybe something nice to adorn a home office or a sectional layout to take to a model railroading show. However by the author's own words "compact" means 100-200 square feet. For reference the average bedroom is in the 100 to 120 square foot range. Many of the plans presented in part 2 will require a slightly larger den to accommodate (think 10x15 ft).The themes included in the book are representation of the author's typical tendency towards slower-paced, "intimate" railroads, though there one or two plans that represent larger regional lines. There is a fairly even distribution of HO and N scale plans, with a single On30 plan at the end.Regarding the plans, one thing I was slightly disappointed in was the complexity of the benchwork. Perhaps this relates back to my initial expectation of the book being about semi-portable layouts, but several of the track plans given require things like smoothly curving fascias, narrow peninsulas, multi-level benchwork (ala hidden staging), and swinging entry gates. I've tried all of the major benchwork building styles and have attempted several of the elements previously mentioned and call tell you that things like these add considerable complexity to layout construction and are notably more demanding in terms of the engineering precision. "Compact" in the case of this book apparently does not translate to "simple". (As an aside if simple is more in your target, Lance Mindeim's shelf layout books are probably a better pick).Still, it's hard not to appreciate the pure presentational power this book. The water colored illustrations are fabulous. It's always a treat to spend time studying the work of someone who is undoubtably a model railroading design master. Even if I never build any of these layouts at $18 it's still a book that I will likely continue to enjoy as I come back to it from time to time to study the work in it.

Great ideas for "compact" layouts. I figured the layouts featured would be "small" but they are between small and a large layout. The basic size is about a spare bedroom.The author provides insights from years of modeling and there are ideas here for people with smaller or larger layouts.

A compact layout in my mind would be small shelf or switching layouts for limited space situations., or 4x8 and smaller table top plans. The layouts in this book are all room sized 10'+ x 10'+ huge walk around pikes. Very misleading Title.

I model in N scale and this book addresses model train layouts much larger than I would have thought. The problem is what does "Compact" mean?

this book is a waste of time....not ONE compact layout in this book.

Good comments about small railroading, but didn't learn anything I didn't already know, got some small useful idea's, railroads depicted still look like more medium sized then compact.

It’s a good book for those who want a pro typical layouts. There are not many track plans, and if you are looking for layout designs smaller than a 10 x 10 bedroom I would get the shelf layout book!

Bought this as a gift for my husband. He says it has some great designs and will come in handy as he creates his lay out in our basement.

This latest book (2015) by Iain Rice is aimed at "compact" layouts, defined here as occupying between 100 and 200 square feet as compared to smaller layouts discussed in his previous books. After discussing the aspects of compact layouts (benefits and drawback) he goes on to cover their design, construction and operation. Much of the general information on his approach to layout design can be found in his previous books so some of this is a repeat, but there is no harm in reading his philosophy again. The book then goes on to present designs for 8 different layouts covering both N and HO as well as one On30 scale layouts. However, because this is a US publication, the layouts are typically North American in design. Although there is some overlap with previous books by Iain Rice, because this addresses larger layouts than past books on "small" and "shelf" layouts, it does provide concentrate on larger layouts and aspects not covered in his other books. For this reason, it is a worthwhile addition to the library.

A really good Book by the Master of Layout Design Iain Rice outlining what kind of Model Railway can be achieved in a small Space.

Always readable and interesting is Iain. Good ideas, although the idea of 'compact' is stretched in some of the designs, but they are designed to be adaptable depending on all the usual factors of space, time, ££ and so on.

Almost all the ideas are based in the US.I like them: 40 years ago I modelled in HO scale, using US prototypes; would have been wonderful for me then, before I reverted to UK prototype in '0' scale.

An excellent book. As always, Iain writes engagingly and clearly.