All about the Readers’ Choice RR

The Readers’ Choice Railroad
Tailor-made to what our readers said they wanted in a layout

We were encouraged to find that many of you are reading and willing to build a layout when you’re inspired by numerous how-to ideas, simple instructions, and intriguing photographs, much like those we’ve included in CTT’s Retro Railroad (2009) and The Cascade & Timber Trail Ry. (2008-2009) project railroads.

Watch the video above of the finished railroad in action, and start getting your tools ready!

For the Readers’ Choice RR we chose a benchwork option that was new to us, and found the Mianne benchwork system an ideal solution for many of our readers.

Once the benchwork was completed, Kent Johnson created a template to use as a construction aid for the railroad. Download and print the template, created in full-scale (1 inch equals 1 inch), showing the precise placement of track and accessories.

In the final installment of our series we decided to add a 3 x 8-foot extension to address your secondary interest in a layout that features urban scenery.

Just like the original section of our project railroad, our preferred method of transferring a track plan to a flat tabletop uses a computer to download and print out the full-scale template of the 3 x 8-foot extension to our Readers’ Choice RR.

For the complete series on building the Readers’ Choice RR, here is a list of the issues and which topic was covered in each one. Visit our archive to see the back issues.

February 2011 We introduced the track plan and benchwork, with a list of Lionel FasTrack components, an alternate list of Lionel O gauge track components, and a list of suggested modern-era accessories.

March 2011 This installment discussed the tabletop, terrain, track, and wiring.

May 2011 Here we added mountainside scenery and magic water to our coal-mine themed railroad.

July 2011 This issue covers setting the scene. We included a list of suggested scenery supplements…and still excited by the layout we made plans for an extension.

September 2011 About that extension! The second interest expressed in the survey was for a layout featuring urban scenery.  So, unwilling to have the layout come to an end we decided to continue building.