Driving the first spike

 Just in-case if some are wondering what the layout looks like here is some photos and drawings of how I did the planing.

My first layout plan was to use the whole basement of my new house but after discussing the plan with some fellow modelers they said, although quite elaborate it would take a lot of time to complete. I planned to use one of  Ian Rice's plans from his book Mid-sized and Manageable Track Plans "Portland Maine to the Notch". After studying the plan and doing more research I decided to down size the layout greatly. Some major contributing factors were future family plans and expansion of our home as our basement is at present unfinished.

So I went to plan B an old Model Railroader Magazine article that featured Crawford Notch but again I deemed this layout too big for the space I wanted to use. Also I didn't feel that this plan had what I wanted in the new layout. So on to plan C I searched the many plan books and magazine articles I have and came up with a free lanced plan loosely based in the southern foot hills of New Hampshire.

The plan I came up with has a single track mainline in a bent dog bone configuration with 22" radius on the main and 18" radius on the branch lines. I choose to focus on branch line and small town operations with an interchange with one or two other roads. The turnouts are #4 and all the track is either snap track or flex track from Atlas. The maximum grade is 4%. The table construction is 2x4 legs and 1/4 inch plywood top with  2" foam board as a scenery base.