n vs. ho
- Thread starter MitchyG
- Start date
tooter
play every day
Hi Mitchy,
Yes... hundreds of suggestions from all over the world.
Check out this:
Small Layout Scrapbook
There are some mindblowing small layout ideas there. I'm also planning a small layout and will definitely incorporate many of the clever creative inspiring ideas found on this site.
Greg
Littlefoot14
Active Member
size matters!!!
i can have more with N then HO
two ac4400's
Is the CP one Kato or Athearn?
Start by showing us the room you want to have your layout in, and explain what features you want in your layout.
A 5x8 foot table takes up 9 x 10 foot of floor space, if you add 2 foot aisles around three sides, so you can reach things on your layout.
Do you actually *have* a room with a 9 x 10 foot area that can be dedicated to a model railroad layout?
If you just want a small layout that will fit into e.g. your bedroom while still allowing you to have a bed, a cupboard, shelves, a work desk etc, there is almost no limit to how small you can go.
If you want continuous run - a loop on a rectangular table (where everything is seen from the front), you can put an N scale layout on a 30" x 80" hollow core door, or do a layout that runs down along a wall, with the layout getting 26-30" deep at the ends to allow turnback curves.
If you want continuous run and have walls where you can put up shelves all around the room, you can build a layout on narrow shelves around the whole room (or most of the room), using liftout sections to bridge the openings you need to get into or out of the layout operator pit.
If you don't need continuous run (or can live with pendulum traffic that first moves right, then stops at the end of the track, then moves left etc), you can do a shelf along one or more walls.
Lots and lots of options. But we need to know what the room where you want to put your layout looks like, and we need to know what kind of model railroad you want to do.
What era? What kind of place do you want to model? What type of trains do you want to run?
If you just want to build a generic toy train loop on a rectangular table (and you have room for a rectangular table and aisles), then there are tons of such plans in those "how to build a layout" books you can buy in a hobby store or bookstore or at amazon.com or at www.modelrailroader.com or borrow in the library. E.g. this one: http://www.amazon.com/Railroad-Start-Finish-Model-Handbook/dp/0890241554
Time to do some reading and thinking, and then come back to tell us how much space you really have, and what you would like to model.
Smile,
Stein
Last edited by a moderator:
I plan to have mostly freight opperations, but I would like to have 2 towns and a passenger train connecting them. I was thinking a sort of 8'x8' bent dogbone thingy in a corner would work well, with a town at each turn around.
As far as era, I was thinking early 50's/late 40's, when both steam and diesel were in prime. Another idea I had was to have a narrow-guage short line off of the standard guage, for logging, maybe? I have limited space, so I would like to have this be colapseable/ sectional.
Any ideas?
As far as era, I was thinking early 50's/late 40's, when both steam and diesel were in prime. Another idea I had was to have a narrow-guage short line off of the standard guage, for logging, maybe? I have limited space, so I would like to have this be colapseable/ sectional.
Any ideas?
Last attempt: if you want specific advice for your circumstances, please describe the room you want to build your layout in.
I presume you know what a room is. It is a part of a house enclosed in walls.
A couple of pictures or a drawing of the room with dimensions indicated would also be nice, but a clear verbal description will have to suffice if you have not yet been able to learn how to make or upload pictures.
Include in your description at a minimum how big the entire room is, where doors and windows are located, how big a part of the room you think you can use for your layout, and other uses of the room the layout will have to coexist with.
And again - if you do not really want any advice specifically targeted at your circumstances, that's fine, too. In that case - just go buy or borrow a starter's book and get going on your own.
Smile,
Stein
Will_annand
Member
I would go N Scale, with only 8x8, in HO, your two towns would either be on top of each other or only represented by a station.
