Hi folks. My favorite part of modeling is the building and detailing; building and detailing a boxcar, scratchbuilding a station, modifying a steam engine, and so on. With my inability to have continuous running in my given space, plus my modeling preferences above, HO is just the winner. I love N, but I think HO is better for my desires. That being said, now for the nitty gritty. I have room for an L shaped shelf layout, 12 feet long on one leg and 4 feet on the other. No continuous running for me! I would like to do a little eastern town at the end of a branch line somewhere, or perhaps along a branchline, in the twilight years of steam; mid 50s. I would like to have 4 or 5 industries, and would like to have two distinct "forks" to take a short train down and switch, perhaps splitting at the corner of the L. Small steam; nothing bigger than a light mikado with a shortish tender, and most often 2-8-0s or even 0-8-0s. Perhaps NYC and B&O/C&O share this branch, so think G46 or E27 2-8-0s, H6 or Q4 mikados. 52' max length for cars. 4 car + caboose train lengths minimum. No 6 turnout, 24 inch radius min (and only one real curve, at the corner of the L anyway) Industries: Feed mill, stamping plant, fuel dealer, team track + station, Maybe a small engine facility (1 stall enginehouse + a RIP track perhaps, ash pit, perhaps a conveyor for coaling). The Feed Mill and Stamping Plant will have 2 tracks, perhaps, for assorted in and out traffic. Scenes: Main Street, USA. Perhaps a bit of street track somewhere. A bridge over a road and river, emblazoned with the name of the RR (perhaps!) Eastern mixed woods. Think Eastern Ohio / Western Pennsylvania. No yard. Any staging can be done on a siding near the end of the long leg of the L. Staging and yards take up precious space. So... anyone help me sort the mess in my head out? Would a sketch help?
As far as Locos. I am no expert on HO steam, but I do own the Life Like Heritage 0-8-0. I ran it in my LHS up against a BLI loco and could barely tell the difference. And the detail on the out of the box model is phenomenal. I bet you could find one used pretty cheap too. My advice is just to build as you go. Pick a tiny scene and lay down track and start on scenery and houses. And while you do that, put down some more track. Just let it evolve for the space you have.
How deep do you want it? A foot will probably allow for 2 or three parallel tracks and a building flat for your industry. You can look around for background buildings; I don't know many. You might want to scratch build them too. Regarding your bridge, I would recommend the Central Valley kit. For the price, they are pretty detailed. Rix Products makes corrugated silos that might work for a small industry. I think switching to HO was a good idea if you like building and detailing. I know it can be done in N scale, but the parts are more manageable in HO.
Thanks much! I'd probably go 16-18 inches deep, so I could have some depth to the layout as well as perhaps some staging along the rearmost track. I do love the detail and diversity of HO. I got a simply gorgeous United B&O 2-8-0 for less than the cost of the average new N scale diesel, and I would so dearly love to operate it!
THAT is a nice looking steamer!! It's your railroad....make it what you want it to be!! Good luck Jim
One of the reasons I like to be a rubber scaler is your loco model above. You can't make an N scale Steamer ever come close to an HO or larger highly detailed loco. That kind of model is what one builds a layout around, as a way to show off the loki.
No real takers on the planning side. I have been thinking about your plan idea. I need to jot down some plans though.
Thanks all. I need to decide what to do regarding scales, and focus on just one; I'm leaning toward HO, myself. The hubby prefers N. Might be two layout time?
Well there is nothing to say you have to stick to one? I am building an American-based N gauge layout here (albeit it slowly!) but I also have a. 13ft x 18" (average) O gauge British Shed layout under construction! So all depends on what you want/need?
I just mocked up a piece of HO scale track to test my new United connie, and my word does it run and pull wonderfully; just a bit of gear noise, and that may be due to lack of lubrication. I want sound and DCC in it now, and a new can motor...
Many UK based modelers can turn to the "Branch line terminus" type of layout to fit a lot of action and fun into a relatively small space; an engine shed, freight and passenger operations, and a fair amount of sidings and goods sheds, coal bunkers, and so on can fit and work quite harmoniously in a smallish area. I'd love to be able to come up with something like that here, I just don't know that it would necessarily be very prototypical for an American - themed layout; branch lines tended to perform engine service, passenger switching, and so on at junctions, not at endpoints. I have my eyes on a 2nd steamer, a United L2 0-8-0, and I'd like to be able to have enough for my steamers to do! I may ocassionally want to switch it to 199x duty and run some CSX 4 axle diesels and more colorful cars around too.
I found a wonderful article from British Railway Modeler that had been posted on RMweb about a BLT layout in 00 scale built by a UK modeler named Nick Wood, and it would make a wonderful start point for me, I believe - with modifications to structures and all to Americanize it, of course! I wonder what to use all that congested track around the station for, as American locales will not likely have a goods shed or office, nor a coal office and bunkers for private coal dealers. The latter could easily become a fuel dealer, of course, or perhaps even a small truck dump coal loading facility. The large facility on the left could be a factory of some sort.
Smaller U.S. towns often have combined stations, with less-than-carload shipments handled in the freight end and passengers accomodated in the other. Oh, U.S. locomotives run on fuel too. And homes did use coal for heat in the east, though wood and oil/natural gas were common enough in the west for coal to largely be limited to industries, electric power plants and, if course, locomotives. If you want to model the western U.S. the keyword is silo. Drive across the region and you'll discover the way you know there's a town less than twenty minutes ahead is by the grain elevator, which are the tallest thing in 90% of central U.S. communities. This is, after all, the Breadbasket of the World.
One thing to model, is the mixed train. it ads a combine to your train. the combine was used as a milk can pickup car too on smaller branches. The combine also adds moves when switching as it needs to stay in front of a station. just an idea for more ops. on the branch.
I was thinking of that! My little B&O E27 toting along a few freight cars and a combine would be a fine train.
This thread has sort of passed under my radar until now, but it sounds like you are headed in the right direction. Remembering my home town in the 60's, there was (of course) an elevator that also handled coal for home heating and used direct rail service. Additionally, there was a team track used by the lumber yard and a farm implement dealer which received loads on flat cars (some very interesting modeling opportunities there). Back during the steam era, there had also been a pea canning plant, two oil dealers and a second lumber yard as well as a woolen mill- all using rail in a town of less than 2,000 people. I would say that the plan you posted looks very usable and has great possibilities. You could take the track that enters the fiddle yard, bend it around a curve and use the short leg of the layout for your staging track, possibly making use of Ian Rice's staging cassette concept. Above all, have fun and please post photos.
'nuff talk already! Light up that brass beauty and show some photos! Not to many US modelers doing point-to-point, so this is going to be mighty interesting to follow. Sounds like the "mess in your head" is showing some pretty clear plans!
Hi folks! I am still here. The holidays, plus the loss of my job at the beginning of December, have taken much of my time. However, I think I will do a variation of the "branch line terminus" that is so popular in the UK, just set somewhere in Ohio/PA as we've discussed. As of now, my HO collection consists of this one locomotive and a pair of Branchline boxcars, all equipped with Kadee 58s. The first order of business will be to get my locomotive running as I feel it should; it can creep along at 1 tie/second, but it's noisy. A new can motor and NWSL gearbox are in the works, and I will install DCC and sound in this one! I will need to sell off some (most?) of my N scale collection and raise some money before I can do much more just now, sadly. I will probably keep my N scale brass... just in case! Here's a pic for now. Hopefully more (and paint!) coming soon!
Thanks much! The E27 is one of my favorite engines; B&O crews used to refer to them as "Sports Models" because they were quite responsive, as steam engines in general went. The joy of doing a layout in HO is the much smaller quantity of "stuff" that I will need; Two locos, 2 dozen or so freight cars, plus a couple passenger cars and cabeese, is all I'll need for a fleet!
