Hallo from Pretoria, South Africa

[Johan]

Hallo David and Forum Members,

My name is Johan de Villiers from Pretoria in South Africa.  Have been in model rains for 20 years now enjoying every minute of it.  Myself and my wife Anne are modelling the German Railways Epoche V.

I am at the moment involved in developing a huge layout for a private enthusiast who is new to model trains but would like to have this layout and I will be using AnyRail in designing the layout.

David - congratulations!  I think you and your team have developed an excellent product that is user friendly and easy to use.  I have just purchased the program and are looking forward to future developments and upgrades.

BTW - Interesting news about Fleischmann having been aquired by the same company that now owns Roco.

Looking forward to sharing questions and ideas with the forum members.

Enjoy our wonderful and rewarding hobby.

Kind regards.

Johan

[David]

Hi Johan,

Welcome to the forum!
Are you modeling a certain region of Germany, like the sea harbors in the north, or rather the Bavarian hills?

I'm looking forward to your first attempts at a track plan. Of course, you're free to post them here and see if forum members can help you!
What I discovered is that there are great opportunities when mixing American/English ideas about track planning with the German/Austrian/Swiss approach.

BTW, what do you mean by a 'huge' layout? Could you give us a hint on the size of your project?

Regards, David.

[Johan]

Hi David,

The layout will be freelance and will contain several aspects of modern Germany. There will be a harbour area, coal mines, industries, part of an inland city, villages, farms and rural areas.  The owner of the layout is fascinated by the ICE and the layout is therefore planned to accommodate the ICE together with the normal passenger and freight services.  There is of course also the steam preservation group with their steam specials over weekends.  When completed the layout should offer some interesting and challenging operating opportunities.

I am busy working on a section of the track plan  (2.5m x 7m) and will post it soon for comments.

Maybe the word "huge" is a bit misleading but here are the approximate sizes - the model train room is a odd sized room with a total floor area of approx. 206 sq m whilst the workshop area is approx 23 sq m.  The helix is situated in the workshop and we are also considering having a hidden stage in the workshop.

Maybe I should have said a rather big layout?

Kind regards.

Johan

[David]

Well, this sounds like moderately huge to me!

It's funny that the owner is interested in the ICE, which passes at about 5 km from our office a couple of times per day.
It runs from Amsterdam, via Arnhem to Duesseldorf, and further towards Koeln.

Good luck with your planning, I'm looking forward to it!

David.

[kimbo]

Hello Johan,

Welcome to the Any Rail english speaking forums
I too look forward to seeing your first designs - looks like there's loads of ideas already in your heads!

[Johan]

Hi David,

Is there a way to draw the exact outline of the layout table and can these outlines be bold?

Looking forward to your reply.

Thanks and regards.

Johan

[David]

You  can draw an outline with the 'line/surface' tool.
Right click on the workspace, and select 'Add line/surface'.
Right clicking on the endpoints, you can place them where you want, add points, and close the figure.
You can also fill it with a color. With the left mouse button, you can drag the points around.

It is not yet possible to draw the lines bold. There are plans to greatly improve the free drawing facilities of the software, but that might take a while to develop!

David.

[Vintage64]

Johan,

use Google Sketchup (free download), create your benchwork and manually transfer coordinates into AnyRail. See http://www.anyrail.com/forum_en/tips_and_tricks/room_dimensions_and_work_bench-t16.0.html.

After the procedure it looks like this.

[Johan]

Hi Vintage64,

Thanks for the info.  I will try it soon.

I will maybe have to contact you to get clarification on the procedures.

Kind regards.

Johan

[Vintage64]

I am not an expert but that being said, I am glad to help where I can. You will find that Sketchup is really easy to use.

This post may explain a little better:
http://www.anyrail.com/forum_en/track_plans/no_track_plan_yet-t25.0.html

With the size of your job, I would strongly recommend to "build" a 3d version of the room including bench work in Sketchup. The exercise helped me with the following:

A) realize that the pool table had to go in order to get a decent size layout area.
B) make sure that I can access every part of the layout. (I can reach 2' 7" with relative ease.)
C) decide that I had to custom-build cabinets that fit underneath the bench.
D) it would be really cool if I could break through the wall and put a hidden track into the garage
E) that D) would get me in trouble with the generalissimo.

[William]

Hi Johan,

Welcome to the forum!
Are you modeling a certain region of Germany, like the sea harbors in the north, or rather the Bavarian hills?

I'm looking forward to your first attempts at a track plan. Of course, you're free to post them here and see if forum members can help you!
What I discovered is that there are great opportunities when mixing American/English ideas about track planning with the German/Austrian/Swiss approach.

BTW, what do you mean by a 'huge' layout? Could you give us a hint on the size of your project?




Regards, David.

Hi Johan.

I too am starting afresh... Had a small layout years ago, but now wanting to build a new, 'N' gauge layout based loosely on German stock, Epoch IV. This gives me the chance to have Diesel, Steam and Electic if I so wish. It is to be an 'L' shape with the length of the 'arms' 7 metres and a width of 1 metre. Should keep me busy for a while. Fleischmann will be my main supplier of track, rolling stock and locomotives and (of course) it will be DCC. Uhlenbrock (?) is the control gear that I have chosen.