October 30, 2006

GeoTrax Track Layout Ideas - Part I

Designing a track layout is part art and part science. I remember when we bought our first GeoTrax set, the Tracktown Railway, my wife kept saying, "Don't throw the box away, we need it as a reference to put the track together."

Once you add a few sets to your collection, you quickly out grow the basic layouts and are left to your own creativity. Once I found a few resources on the web, I was able to convince my wife to release her security blanket (the box), and let her creativity flow.

I am happy to report she has become quite the designer or her own original and creative railroad track layouts. The next few posts will focus on some resources available to help any of you who are stumped to get going on creative track layouts.

First a little inspiration...queue the Zydeco music...

(Press the play button (2 times) in the center of the image to play the movie.)

Credit: YouTube user EricTimothyJessen Special Thanks to Matthew, Eric, Chad & Blake for creating this!

Fisher-Price recognized the need and added some track layouts to their site. These can be hard to find in Google because of all the flash animation that FP uses on its website. No worries, I have creative a comprehensive list of the links for you here, enjoy!

Beginner Track Layout #1
(Printer Versions: Basic (Overhead) View, Enhanced View)

Beginner Track Layout #2
(Printer Versions: Basic (Overhead) View, Enhanced View)

Intermediate Track Layout #1
(Printer Versions: Basic (Overhead) View, Enhanced View)

Intermediate Track Layout #2
(Printer Versions: Basic (Overhead) View, Enhanced View)

Advanced Track Layout #1
(Printer Versions: Basic (Overhead) View, Enhanced View)

Advanced Track Layout #2
(Printer Versions: Basic (Overhead) View, Enhanced View)

Expert Track Layout #1
(Printer Versions: Basic (Overhead) View, Enhanced View, Step-by-step Instruction Sheet (PDF))

Expert Track Layout #2
(Printer Versions: Basic (Overhead) View, Enhanced View, Step-by-step Instruction Sheet (PDF))

Or, for those who yearn for simpler times, here are the Tracktown Railway Track Layouts I mentioned earlier in this post.

No comments: