TPBO

[FCIN]

If your industries aren't built yet, start there. Leave your temporary track in place and play, while the structures are being built.
As each structure is done, place it on the "layout". At some point there will be several structures on the layout, that you can move about, and lay temporary sidings to.
Then, with a little research, you can think about what industries should never be close to each other and insure you don't have that going on. get all your structures placed in a pleasing arrangement.........and then lay your track to fit the "topography".....kind of like what happens in the prototype world.

Good idea! Might just have to head over to the LHS tomorrow and pick up a truck load of styrene sheets and shapes. I have some structure designs in mind so maybe that's the way I should go. To keep things down to a realistic look, I only plan on having at most 5 industries on the layout. One large one that would hold 5 or 6 cars at specific spots and then a few smaller prototypes that only spot 2 or 3 cars at any time.

I agree that planning may be over rated. You can sure spend a lot of time trying to come up with that "perfect" (non-existent) plan - I know! Without a specific prototype to follow, there is a tendency to make the industries fit the track plan rather than the track fitting the industry layout.

Most of the plans I've come up with thus far, tend to have a similar arrangement of tracks for the proposed industries - mostly because prototype industrial spurs have sort of a standardized look as to how they are laid out. Most prototype industrial spurs were first built to serve one industry, and then as the area developed, more tracks were added as needed.

The idea of making the track plan fit the structure arrangement as on the prototype is a good idea that sure bears investigating. I would like to have at least one structure that is not just a box, but is angled on at least one end to fit the area or existing rail line. You sure see plenty like that on the prototype.