How to design a model railroad using SCARM

Does it only allows 50 free track peaces or 50 types of track parts

does this software have anything showing how much the track would cost by chance?

Lovely tutorial! 😌💚 I will definitely try this with some of my ideas!💡

Hi, can I combine atlas track with petco turnouts in a scarf layout?

I have SCARM and have found out how to make the table boundaries. I am having trouble working track elevations and planning scenery. I get the track work laid out and I use text to plot where I want certain structures and scenery. I am using Atlas' Code 100 HO track as that is what I have for planning my On30 Kansas River and Southern. I want to design in a river front dock scene in the lower right hand corner of my 4x8 plan. To get an Idea I am reworking David Meek's Rimfire and Latigo RR from his Thunder Mesa Studios website. I am modifying yard on the bottom of the plan, turning the cattle pen spur into the river boat landing spur, adding a spur to the right hand curve to suggest off layout traffic, modifying the back spur into passing track with spur to function as a second station with a coal mine as a customer of the KR&S. The main yard on the front of the layout has a switch back that services a hardware store/ lumber yard, a feed mill, a bulk oil distributor and a spur off of a passing siding servicing a freight house and passenger station with Water Tower.

The KS&R services Eastern Shawnee County and Eastern Osage County of Kansas. This was farming and coal mining country up to the late 1960s and early 1970s. Clear Air laws pretty much killed the Kansas Coal industry. Historically the last coal mine in this part of Kansas closed in 1964, but I am running this as an alternative history story. The last riverboat on the Kansas River sailed or rather steamed up and down the river from Kansas City to Junction City in 1866. Historically the river was declared by the Kansas Legislature to be non-navigable by law in 1864 thanks to lobbying by representatives of the AT&SF and the UP. These railroads did not want to spend the money to pay for the construction of bridges that would allow riverboat traffic to continue on the Kansas River.

In my alternate history I have the Riverboat companies being more successful in defeating the 1864 legislation, but also in 1872 a young Bostonian Police Officer seeking a place to settle where the risk of becoming an alcoholic in minimal (Kansas voted to go dry in the very early 1870s) came to Kansas. In the actual history this man was my great-great grandfather William Jones Bodge who at 13 was a 49'er and actually made a fortune in the gold fields that he and his friend who went with him spent within a year. In my alternate history W. J. Bodge invests much of his gold into his family's shipping company, but to strike his own trail he becomes first a Boston Cop and I am not sure, but perhaps also a Mass. Militiaman in the Civil War. After the war the alternate W. J. Bodge returns to being a Bostonian Cop until migrating to Kansas, becoming a farmer and a riverboat operator. His riverboat in this alternate history navigates the Solomon River down to the Saline River and down to the Kansas River becoming the Kaw Valley Navigation Company. To ensure a supply of coal for his riverboats Wm. Jones Bodge invests along with men by the names of David Meek and Brent Underwood and C. K. Holliday of the AT&SF and form the Kansas River and Southern Railroad. They choose to build it as a 2.5 foot narrow gauge to save money on construction. David Meek, Brent Underwood and Wm. Bodge establish the town of Meek on the Kansas River between the towns of Big Springs in Douglas County and Tecumseh in Shawnee County. From Meek they have crews lay track southward to Brent Underwood's mines on the Wakarusa River in Southern Shawnee county and in the hills of northern Osage County.

My KR&S will be modeled for the mid-20th Century though its motive power will include two 2-6-0 Moguls based on the C&S C-16, a 2 truck Climax and a small 0-4-0 side rod diesel locomotive. I am designing the mainline to have 18 inch minimum radius curves and most of the industrial trackage has the same minimum radius. I am thinking by the time I am ready to detail the riverboat landing it will be more a transfer dock for coal into barges. The space there is not big enough even for the Kitwood Hill Models' 50th River Steamer, though an earlier design I did based on a Lionel version of the Gold Hill Central did accommodate the Kitwood Hill riverboat. I had an 1.5 x 4 foot riverboat landing scene on that railroad. Thinking it over I may go and look that plan over again. It too was designed in SCARM.

Me I am using SCARM since more than a decade for my trackplanning work.
Best method of myself is to elevate the first track and going from there.
To elevate a section of track first it works better using a turnout so all three ends of the tournout would be elevated to the same hight, because in SCARM any kind of turnouts could be set in horizontal position only.
Another nice helper is the small toolbox which you can activating, there are some baseboard figures inside to create more complex baseboard figures or for laying flex tracks it is very helpful, too as well es for starting points by track laying.

Just now running across this video. The software has a similar look to the old Xtrackcad. Thanks for showing this.

Well that worked well! I have to say, I'm not one for reading reference materials. I installed SCARM and couldn't figure out how to make a single thing happen on the screen, but your video took me from 0 to 100 in minutes!

There are many keyboard shortcuts like pressing the spacebar to repeat the last track piece placed.

Gym Locker room storage? Lol

Does it show you what does not work? I wish it had Sn3, but I guess i could use HO.

Hello Jim. I have had Scarm for a while. My problem is that I want to place my railroad around the walls of my 12' x12' room with a peninsula off of one side of the room. Too your knowledge can this be done. Thank You

Just what I’m looking for..thanks 🙏

Hello, tell me where to choose PIKO old rails. In this program

I barely had to watch the video to figure it out. Once I know how to scale the baseboard, place track, and place buildings it was game over. The only problem I had was figuring out if I have lionel o gauge or o-27 guage track

Great stuff Jimmy, so I tried inputting my current Bachmann track layout into Scarm, but I just can't get the final two pieces to join, very close, any suggestions?

Wow! Thanks for sharing this. I've been using AnyRail to plan my layout. Just downloaded SCARM. You're a great teacher.

Is it possible to copy and paste a layout design from Kato onto scarm?

What incline/ decline would be best for Kato trains?

Very informative overview video. You make it look easy after everybody said it was hard. I'm new to modeling. I want to build out my Christmas Village come which of course has a train track. When it comes to the buildings, can you use pictures somehow? Other other features that are good to know while I'm planning this Christmas Village? Department 56 options? Snow feature, or something like that. Thanks

did you pay for the subscription? I can't right click and "move" the track after downloading scarm...

I use this software - it is great. It might look a bit old school in context, but don't be put off by that... it is very user friendly and does the job, perfectly.

That was so interesting. Would like to find out how to delete some things. Guess I will experiment. Thanks again for a wonderful video!!

This software sucks! I'm just trying to figure out how it works and it tells me I used to many track pieces! Horrible experience bye bye. Scarm blocked me from his FB page when asked some questions! Terrible people.

A little late to the party, hope you are still on, Jimmy. Laying baseboard using SCARM...what I see is just a length of 48 in going across and yet your vid shows going beyond that to 72 in. What am I missing? Do I need the paid subscription for the program?

What n scale do you run?

Just got SCARM, thanks for the video

It seems like you are using felt underneath the track. Is that so? I bought felt but railroader friends are trying to dissuade me from using it and to just use the Homasote directly.

I just purchased railmodeller pro. when I launch the app ago to the Home screen and can't get to the welcome screen. What am I doing wrong?

I am very new to the hobby. I have always (35 years) wanted to have a coffee table with a running train under the glass tabletop. Now Im actually going to do it! I bought the Thomas the tank engine set from Bachman on Amazon. But I do want more interest than a 24" oval. I downloaded SCARM but...I cant quite figure out how to get it all to connect properly. my available size in 30" x 36". Any ideas where I can download an plan for that size? Its the ez snap track.

I wish there was a version of SCARM for Linux!

Is it possible to "blend" the hill, not have straight walls? I have the free version and have not figured it out yet.

I use atlas Right track which works out really well. It's very close to this program.

I use atlas Right track which works out really well. It's very close to this program.

I use atlas Right track which works out really well. It's very close to this program.

I use atlas Right track which works out really well. This really does lokk like the EXACT SAME as right track.

I use atlas Right track which works out really well. This really does lokk like the EXACT SAME as right track.

I use atlas Right track which works out really well. This really does look like the EXACT SAME as right track, I bet they are the same program. I used the prjgram to reproduce older MR mag plans thet didn't give all the info or could rotate the plan tn see it 3d on inclines etc. i have a current 1980s MR plan layour and used Right track to check everything before i started construction.

Hi Jimmy, Im just getting ready to re-enter the hobby and have SO MUCH to catch up on!
Im using Scarm and I found a layout I really like but its all ROCO track, is there a way to convert it to KATO?
Thanks! Love the channel!

Thanks for the tuto! I am about to re-enter the hobby but using Z gauge due to the lack of space (I still have all the trains fron my chilhood in my country, but the scale is huge, so I decided to keep it small now that I am so far away). I wanted to start designing something tiny with SCARM and this is super useful 😊

76 years old and trying to gain back my childhood where I was lucky enough to get a clockwork run-around-in-a-circle trainset. Now I have the time, this is my target for frustration and satisfaction (hopefully more of the latter than the former!). I have SCARM and have not been able to work it out... then I found you! Thank you for a great blow-by-blow build and absolutely blown away with your 3D renderings!

I'm having a problem, Windows 10 has changed things around and I can't seem to get everything to work as your tutorial states. Could you RE-post your instructional video for an updated version ? Thank you ....

I used the Atlas version of Scarm to design my Atlas code 65 N scale layout. I need to get the full version so I can complete and share it. The layout came out nearly perfect, fitting the board with about an inch and a half of clearance all the way around (just enough to prevent stuff from landing on the floor). I actually purchased the Atlas version but for some reason the key would not work, and long story short, I ended up getting a refund. Maybe I will try Scarm next time instead.

Hi Jimmy

I have been working on the SCARM but I don't seem to be able to put tracks on top of hills or mountains, could you pass bu the SCARM again and touch up on how to fit tracks on layers.

I used SCARM to design the HO model railroad that I'm currently building but before I go completely HO trains, I have as much HO Aurora T-Jet cars and track as I do trains. Is there anything like SCARM that I could use to design a layout that incorporates HO trains and HO slot cars?

Hi. How do I build a locomotive or wagon model for SCARM?

Why did you skip over N scale in the menu... Didn't even mention it?!

Wow!!! Thanks for this!

Outstanding overview! New to railroading and just heard about SCARM. My first reaction or thought was whether or not it was safe to download. I pretty much confirmed that it is, then I wanted to know how friendly it is to work with and use, and whether or not I should purchase the full version or start with the free version. I have a feeling though I am going to need the licensed version, I have to compare the differences. I used software (purchased) for my slot car track and it was invaluable, a much needed and helpful resource for planning. This is the same, a must have. Thank you for putting this out there. 👍

Thank you! I think I will now create my 1960s dream model railroad in its entirety...virtually...rather than just a portion of it in real life. For years, I've been fighting with which scale I can use to fit in the most parts of it, but with SCARM, Iit appears will be able to model the WHOLE thing...20 miles...to scale, without needing to buy a bigger house! Of course I will do that one section at a time, but now I can relive my childhood in full!