Many of the scenes on my layout are based as closely as possible on the actual, or prototype, locations. I have found this approach to be very rewarding. While is has not been possible to model the prototype inch for inch due to space limitations, I have been able to use a number of sources of information to build my layout.
Track maps to track plans
One of the most important pieces of information to be used in developing a track plan is, well, a track plan. Track maps when available take a lot of the guess work out of layout design. They can have their limitations though. The real world is not a static place, railroads are profit driven businesses, and requirements change over time. This means that track arrangements will too. Piecing together just what the arrangement was in the time period you are looking for can be a challenge. I was lucky to have access to and copy the original NYO&W track maps now in the possession of the O&W Historical Society and kept at their archives center. These maps were drawn around the turn of the century and were extremely detailed including all properties and structures adjoining the right-of-way. If I were modeling 1906 I could have used them as. However, in 1906 a new station building was built in Livingston Manor to replace the one shown on the track maps, and in 1947 the O&W was single tracked and converted to CTC operation. This combined with the general downturn in railroad business over the years meant that there would be many changes. Confirmation of these changes would come from some unexpected sources.
Early on a friend and O&W fanatic extraordinaire, Allan Seebach, loaned me a copy of a set of the original architectural drawings for Livingston Manor station for use in construction of my model. A small notation in the corner of the foundation plan indicated tracks that were to be removed or re-aligned to make way for the new structure. This gave me my first indication of the later, post track map layout. In the archives center there was a group of photos of The Manor that I could use to verify the track layouts shown on the maps. Interestingly, comparison with later photos indicated that not all of the tracks marked for removal on the building plan were modified, so be sure to double check your resources whenever possible! A later trip to the archive center turned up two fairly minor documents that would prove to be invaluable in finalizing the track plan. The first was a set of drawings done for the State of New York indicating placement and details of the installation of crossing gates in Livingston Manor and Roscoe. These drawings were dated 1954, a year later than I was modeling, but clearly showed both the crossing and the adjacent areas to scale. Also indicated on the Livingston Manor drawing was the use of various tracks such as "main", "passing", etc. This helped confirm which tracks were given what functions when CTC went in. The other document that I found was buried in a notebook of track maps of the railroad in 1952. Although these letter size pages were not to scale, they looked for all the world like some modeler's control panel schematic complete with sidings and spurs Lengths of sidings and industrial tracks were also noted.
The internet can also be a surprisingly good resource for track planning. Aerial photography and map sites such as Terraserver.com can provide overhead views of the towns you're interested in. Even with a railroad that is gone nearly 50 years there is a surprising amount of right of way detail visible from the air. If you happy to be lucky enough to model a railroad that actually still exists you may even be able to deduce the track layouts! Also available on some of these sites are topographical maps of the area, a great tool when trying to plan scenery.
Armed with all this information it was not difficult to work out the final schematic for the layout which was then twisted and modified to fit the space available.
