I am looking at starting a HO layout ( after several N layouts) and wanted to ask 3 basic questions (ok, maybe more). 1. turn radius - what is the minimum turn radius that operates well? The turns will be in concealed staging, so the cars don't have to look super realistic, but need to operate well. Keep in mind, I may run some double stack cars. Other than that it would be 50 ft. box cars. 2. grade - in N scale 2% is the rule of thumb on grade. What is it in HO scale? 3. engines - in N scale its kato and atlas well in the lead. Who are the trusted manufacturers of HO engines? 4 - layout location. I'm looking at a layout in the garage. concerns are humidity and dust. What are your suggestions? Should I even consider it? I'm concerned not just about the track, but engines and DCC equipment if its left out there. I'd appreciate your input.
I personally have a minimum radius of 24" plus I always use a transition curve. Using a transition curve is even more important than the minimum radius when it comes to smooth reliable operation. 2% is also a good grade in HO scale but I do have some short segmets of 2.5%. Atlas, P2K, Stewart, and Athearn Genesis are my favorites in that order. Locating in a garage in an area like yours (TX) could be a real problem. In addition to the humidity and dust that you talk about, temperature change is another big problem. Also, it won't be very comfortable for you to work in so you may not enjoy it much. If you do decide to build in the garage, be sure not to solder your rail joints. If you lay track in the winter leave gaps at the joints for expansion in the winter. If you lay track in the summer be sure you butt the joints. Even then you may have problems with expansion and contraction. Also, because you won't be soldering your joints, be sure to solder feeders to every piece of track.
You've asked a lot of the basic questions, are you sure you're just getting started in this stuff?? Curves.... 18" is the minimum, as all equipment for the most part is SUPPOSED to be able to handle it. Bigger IS better. I have a layout with 18" curves, it works, but doesn't look "right", especially with longer cars. If you keep it to the earlier steam era cars, and smaller steamers, you're O.K. More modern stuff is longer and wants larger curves. Articulated steamers for the most part demand the larger curves. My next layout will have as a minimum 28" curves, but 24" or even 22" doesn't look all that bad. Grade. 2% is good, 4% is pushing it. Depending on the length of your trains and the curve radius you can handle steeper grades. 4% does give you a compressed look to the layout. I'm shooting for 1" climb in 3' of track. A nice even number to work with. Still a bit steep, but that's all the space I have. 1" in 4' would look a bunch better. Engines. I have a bunch of Athearn units. athearn makes a decent locomotive with some well known weaknesses, as well as some well known "tweaks" to make them run better. P2K makes a great unit that runs slower than the rest. Hard to mix with other manufacturers. There was a thread on this subject quite a few months back where we did a survey on both diesel and steamer locomotives. Location. Pick a spot you feel comfortable spending time. If it's comfortable to you, then it's going to probably be comfortable to the train, except if it's in your hot tub! Clean, preferrably not too hot of cold. Dirt and moisture are the enemies of the layout. Hot and cold rarely cause problems. Contrary to popular belief, the apparent swelling and contracting of the track with the weather is actually the swelling and contracting of the layout under the track from moisture. If you keep it clean and dry, your other problems should go away. And always remember one thing, HAVE FUN! Mark
ahhhhhhhh yes. Good questions 18" is minimum. I have a 23ft long "dogbone" layout. Most of my curves are 20" or greater. I have a hidden, double track turnaround that hits close to 18". Additionally, on my mainline, I have Walthers-Shinohara curved turnouts, #7 that hit somewhere in the low 20's on the inside track. My engines run well on this with absolutely no derailments caused by radius. My longest, and largest engine is an Allegheny 2-6-6-6 which is happy running around doing its thing. I suspect if I had a rigid wheelbase engine of say... a Texas w/ 10 drivers non-articulated, it may have a problem. But.. I dont plan to go there. My max grades I have calc'd at 2.8%. My Bachman 2-8-0 and Life-Like 0-8-0 do a little complaining when climbing such a grade w/ too many cars. If they are small consists of say............3 to 7 cars, they can do it. However, when I have two diesels pulling long freights or my Allegheny doing a loaded coal drag... those engines have no problems whatsoever on the 2.8%. HOWEVER I would be reluctant to exceed 2.8%. I have the radius and grade I have due to layout space constraints. Given a little more space in my basement, I would have designed the layout w/ about 22" - 24" ABSOLUTE min curves and 2% ABSOLUTE max grade. The parameters I have are trade-offs to space available and the design and action I wanted on my layout. Therein lies your answer I think. One has to consider what they want in a layout and then pick your design parameters from there. Good luck! -Kitbash
