I am just beginning to get involved in model railroading and decided to sketch my layout before jumping in to the deep end. Since I don’t have a CAD systems I use Excel for drawing layouts. Just set the column width to 2.57 for column A-CZ and row height to 15.75 for rows 1-100 and you have a large drawing board. I use each square as 1″, but you can go larger or smaller scale depending on your needs. With a little imagination you can make curves, circles, and other shapes quite easily.
I have used this to do detailed drawings for years. My first railroad layout is in progress and I would be happy to share.
chester.chism@fmcti.com