A model train for a model train

Kevin Anderson Feb 24, 2014

  1. Kevin Anderson

    Kevin Anderson TrainBoard Member

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    Has anyone ever put an N scale or Z scale train on their layout in a park or anything? I just had this wierd idea of putting one on my layout. I have been thinking of placing a park on there and just didn't want boy scouts raising a flag up a pole. I want a little action in the scene so I am thinking either N or Z might fit the bill.
     
  2. TwinDad

    TwinDad TrainBoard Member

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    My friend Ray Grosser has a large scale riding layout on his farm. He has an O scale layout in the "train shed", and on that O scale layout, he has a (simplified track plan) Z scale model of his barn and his Large scale riding layout. It's quite a neat effect. Wish I had a picture to share. He even has O scale riders on the train.

    Aah. Here's one:

    [​IMG]
    Untitled by BGTwinDad, on Flickr

    Well... you can see the track oval center/right. And the guys unloading a caboose and a gondola off the truck at the end of that spur to the left... and the crew working on (arguing over?) a siding for the white grain silo. Unfortunately the train itself is inside the barn and behind the tree :(
     
  3. Kevin Anderson

    Kevin Anderson TrainBoard Member

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    That does give it a neat effect. Especially on an O guage layout. However I am modeling HO so it make me wonder how it would fit. I do have one piece of z scale track I could set on the layout and see how it fits.:)
     
  4. jimil

    jimil TrainBoard Member

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    Why not? It's just a garden layout then. Great way to add interest to the layout and also give yourself something else to run. Just make sure you have some figures, cars, or other details around in your "real" scale to keep the visual reference correct. Otherwise, you may visually force the perspective and you end up thinking you're looking at something further away, not smaller.

    Didn't lionel once have a car they sold that had a (nonoperational) model of a model layout inside of it?
     
  5. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    John Allen did on his G&D. But I do not recall if it was operable.
     
  6. TwinDad

    TwinDad TrainBoard Member

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    The only trouble is that in HO scale, Z scale is about 1:2.5, so it's going to be a REALLY BIG garden railway. That's darn close to full-scale two foot gauge track.

    Even in O scale, the Z model is 1:4.5, which is over-scale for Ray's large scale trains (which are 7.5" gauge or ~ 1:7.5 scale).

    T scale (1:450) might work... that would be ~ 1:5.2 in HO...

    I forgot about another detail Ray & Renee have on their layout. In the second floor of one of their downtown buildings is a (non-functional) 3D reproduction of their old HO scale layout... to scale in O, of course. They printed a color copy of the track diagram from a MRR mag it had been featured in, and dressed it up with bits of ground foam for the trees, etc.
     
  7. Southern Oregonian

    Southern Oregonian TrainBoard Member

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  8. JNXT 7707

    JNXT 7707 TrainBoard Member

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    Lionel has a hobby shop building with 2 or 3 model layouts - that run! - inside it. Pretty cool.
    There is a train club in Charlotte NC that puts up a big (huge) HO display for the Southern Christmas Show. One year - they may even still do it - they had a z-scle layout set up as part as a carnival display, as a train ride. The cars had seats with people and all that. I have had thoughts of utilizing my own little z-scale layout on a future HO layout like that.
     
  9. Kenneth L. Anthony

    Kenneth L. Anthony TrainBoard Member

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    I built an N scale model of a barn with a layout in it, but I cheated. The actual layout in Lat Lattimore's prototype barn in Fort Worth was HO scale, but I modeled it as Lionel O gauge. Sorry, non operating.
    [​IMG]
    I thought of doing this, and took four attempts over a period of 25 years before I satisfied myself.
     
  10. Shortround

    Shortround TrainBoard Member

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    A few years ago I saw such at a train show in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The smaller scale was part of a circus scene. I believe the main scale was 'O' but don't know what scale the circus ride was.
     

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