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For anyone who has this book, are all 21 layouts presented for both Atlas and Fastrack?  

I have enjoyed many of Ken's plans posted here on OGR, and would purchase the eBook, however I plan to use Atlas track for my next layout.

Also wondering if the eBook version has links to download the plans for AnyRail?

Thanks!
Alan

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Four of the layouts are for Atlas track, the rest are only shown with a Lionel Fastrack  list of materials. I really don't think it would be that hard to figure out how to build any of these layouts using the track material of your choice. In fact, I think I am going too pick one and build it with Lionel tubular track. It will take a little experimenting and planning, but should come out almost the same when I am done.

Jeff

As a new person back to the hobby, found this book helpful. Especially the specific track suggestions for designing layouts. So much has changed over time, the track highlights presented will be a big help to me. Overall the book will be referenced by me often. Purchased the download version.

Thank you for the book

Last edited by 60-66

Keep in mind that most of the track plans, even if initially designed for a specific brand of track (Atlas or FasTrack), can very easily be modified to adapt to just about any brand of 3-rail track, including Atlas, Lionel FasTrack and conventional O/O27, MTH RealTrax, GarGraves, Ross, or whatever.

The overriding intent of the book is to show what can be accomplished with 3-rail O gauge in a modest amount of space, and it covers two of the most widely used brands of track. I use GarGraves track and Ross switches on my own layout, but if I wanted to follow one of the plans Ken presents in the book, I don''t think I would have much trouble at all following the diagrams for a very close fit.

I am hoping that a good many of our fellow forum members will elect to purchase at least one copy of this book, either print or digital. Successful sales of this book might--just might--lead to other books to help inform and expand our O gauge community. For example, I really would like to see us do a new, comprehensive, up-to-date book for folks just getting their feet wet in the hobby, similar to the very successful Getting Started with Lionel Trains book that I did with another publisher some years ago. That book, like our former OGR Primer, is now very outdated.

I am a fan of printed reference works myself because I like to maintain a permanent library of model railroading reference materials and I don't want to go searching for things online several years or more down the road hoping that they are still available. The digital version can be printed on your home printer, of course, but if you have such a device, you know full well how costly ink and paper is. That said, either version is certainly fine. I placed an order for a print copy through our web store this past week just to see how efficiently the process works, and received my book on Thursday. Not too shabby considered it came via USPS.

@GVDobler posted:

I just received my print edition. Way more content and info than I could have hoped for. Very nice book with great details. About 1/2 inch thick. I would think anyone in this hobby could benefit from owning it.

Thanks very much for buying the book, Jon. I feel it would be a very good idea-generating reference work for anyone's train-book library, and especially for someone who is new to the hobby or just thinking about getting into O gauge model railroading. I've long proposed that the best way to grow our hobby is to do it via personal contact, one person at a time. It would be great if a good many of our forum members would consider giving someone they know, or know about, a copy of this book as a Christmas gift. That might be just what is needed to inspire someone to get their feet wet in the world of O gauge.

Last edited by Allan Miller

I only use RealTrax but this sounds like it’s worth the investment. Converting a good plan to a different track system is easy. Conceiving a good plan is not.

That is exactly right, Mark! There are some interesting track design concepts presented in Ken's book, and they would be easily adaptable to other track systems such as RealTrax, GarGraves, tubular O, and others. It would be great to see our magazine readers and forum participants support this book so we can consider the possibility of publishing additional nooks in the future. Best of all, this book should help convert some "armchair modelers" into active participants in our hobby because it demonstrates that you don't need a whole lot of space to have a fun-filled O gauge layout.

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