Have found a great 6x4 layout in OO which i have done a rough plan for above ( not fully done). Although it uses radius 1 and 2 curves the owner has little problems with stock etc. I am looking into something similar but torn between OO and N gauge. OO would be easier to build with bigger parts, but N gives me more track to play with.
Having not had much to do with OO am wondering what the best track to use for it is so i can investigate my different options first. Is it still code 100 track? Would i be better using settrack due to the tight curves, but using flexi on the not so curvy bits?
Any help much appreciated.
Last edited by barney121e on Thu Mar 24, 2022 6:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Both Hornby and Peco do code 100 sectional track in 00. Peco do N gauge but I do not know who else as when I tried N years ago I bought Peco. (Kato do N I think but I do not know a lot about their track).
In 00, Peco also do code 100 in flexible track. I would use sectional track for the curves if using 1st and 2nd radius. Through experience, I will say that only some newer locos and stock won't do 1st radius but nearly all will do 2nd radius as far as I am aware, so if you do have the odd item which does not like 1st radius you can run it on the second and keep the first radius for the stock which can run on it. This way you have the best of both worlds.
If you are constrained to a 6 by 4 foot space, and happy working in N gauge, then that will enable a far more satisfactory operational layout, roughly equivalent to OO in 12 by 8 foot. Worthwhile doing that in flexitrack for the superior appearance of larger curve radii on plain track and points. Of course there is a slight potential downside, the N gauge layout could well accomodate much more stock.
In OO, and the same space, easiest to stay with set track.
Mountain wrote:Both Hornby and Peco do code 100 sectional track in 00. Peco do N gauge but I do not know who else as when I tried N years ago I bought Peco. (Kato do N I think but I do not know a lot about their track).
In 00, Peco also do code 100 in flexible track. I would use sectional track for the curves if using 1st and 2nd radius. Through experience, I will say that only some newer locos and stock won't do 1st radius but nearly all will do 2nd radius as far as I am aware, so if you do have the odd item which does not like 1st radius you can run it on the second and keep the first radius for the stock which can run on it. This way you have the best of both worlds.
Thanks, that all helps. Have been watching a youtube video of a guy who rebuilt a 00 layout 6x4 and he mention most stock ran ok on 1st radius but of course there are exceptions.
Bigmet wrote:If you are constrained to a 6 by 4 foot space, and happy working in N gauge, then that will enable a far more satisfactory operational layout, roughly equivalent to OO in 12 by 8 foot. Worthwhile doing that in flexitrack for the superior appearance of larger curve radii on plain track and points. Of course there is a slight potential downside, the N gauge layout could well accomodate much more stock.
In OO, and the same space, easiest to stay with set track.
My only concern is i'm not getting any younger and N is on the small side. So thinking of future proofing. This is link to guy i have watched, seems to work well, and would keep me happy.
If you have space for a 6x4 table and the access aisles around three sides, you have an actual space of 8x8. Turn this "inside out", putting track on a series of shelves around the edge and the operator in the middle. If necessary, you can have two sides fixed against the walls in the corner of the room, and the other two sides can be removable and stored under the layout. You get a better length of run and the space beneath the layout can be efficiently used for storage. The layout also seems bigger as, with your back to part of the layout and looking along the radius of the curve, the effect of the curve is lessened and it looks less like the train is chasing its own tail.
6x4 or 8x4 tables date from the days of Tri-Ang train sets set up on the kitchen table and packed away in time for dinner. They're overall a poor choice for a serious layout- many people build one, but fewer build a second.
pete12345 wrote:If you have space for a 6x4 table and the access aisles around three sides, you have an actual space of 8x8. Turn this "inside out", putting track on a series of shelves around the edge and the operator in the middle. If necessary, you can have two sides fixed against the walls in the corner of the room, and the other two sides can be removable and stored under the layout. You get a better length of run and the space beneath the layout can be efficiently used for storage. The layout also seems bigger as, with your back to part of the layout and looking along the radius of the curve, the effect of the curve is lessened and it looks less like the train is chasing its own tail.
6x4 or 8x4 tables date from the days of Tri-Ang train sets set up on the kitchen table and packed away in time for dinner. They're overall a poor choice for a serious layout- many people build one, but fewer build a second.
Sadly this will be a layout that i will need to fold down after use, so this is biggest size i can do.
Just a question. Do you have in mind what sort of trains you want to run? Are you trying to recreate something specific such as LNER or LMS or BR etc, or do you just want to build a model railway for thw joy of it and don't mind what you run?
Are you any good with your hands or/and do you like making things?
Would narrow gauge suit what you want to achieve? The reason why I say this is that though I appreciate that it may not be ideal for some, it does have a lot to offer in that one can model in a larger scale in a smaller space with other useful benefits.
Mountain wrote:Just a question. Do you have in mind what sort of trains you want to run? Are you trying to recreate something specific such as LNER or LMS or BR etc, or do you just want to build a model railway for thw joy of it and don't mind what you run?
Are you any good with your hands or/and do you like making things?
Would narrow gauge suit what you want to achieve? The reason why I say this is that though I appreciate that it may not be ideal for some, it does have a lot to offer in that one can model in a larger scale in a smaller space with other useful benefits.
Just a run what i like layout really. What do you mean by narrow gauge?
Real life narrow gauge are railways like the Tal-Y-Llyn or the many other narrow gauge railways in the UK. At one time due to the many industrial lines, there were more narrow gauge railways in the UK than there were standard gauge lines.
The national railway network is standard gauge which is four foot eight and a half inches wide. Narrow gauges are anything less than this and broad gauge is seven foot and a quarter inch wide which was once used many years ago by a few railway companies, the Great Western Railway being the most well known. (They changed to standard gauge around the 1860's or thereabouts by an act of parliament designed to make a compatable railway network between the many main railway companies of their day).
Narrow gauges were built for a few different reasons. One of the reasons was that narrow gauge can turn much sharper corners which came in handy when trying to build railways on the sides of steep mountainous valleys. Another reason is that small narrow gauge waggons of just two tons in weight can be pushed by a single person by hand. Thie was ideal for going in and out of small industrial buildings along with going down mines.
The other main reasons were costs and permissions. Narrow gauge lines cost a lot less to build and mintain and the government made the "Light Railways Act" which made narrow gauge lines exempt from such strict regulations as the standard gauge lines were. A few standard gauge lines also came under the light railways act but not many.
Most of the lighter weight narrow gauge railways sprang up and dissapeared after use where little is known about them. Most of these were horse drawn or people pushed. Forestry lines were lines which are good examples of this as they would move the lightweight track to where it was needed, and a good horse can pull a waggon up a slope as steep as a 1 in 4 (25%).
The narrow gauge lines that handled far greater tonnages needed locomotives and some of these lines like the Ffestiniog Railway were pretty big and needed some powerful locomotives to pull great loads. The waggons themselves may just be 2 tons each (There was a 3 ton waggon but was less popular as two pwople were needed to push them) but the locos like the Double Farlies could pull well over 100 empty waggons a time... (The loaded waggons could go down line using gravity if needed but needed to be towed back up. They did use gravity trains of waggons at certain times but due to the cost of employing so many breaksmen it was cheaper to use the loco)).
A few of us model in narrow gauge. A link to my thread is in the signature at the bottom of what I type.
I model in 7mm scale narrow gauge which runs on 00 gauge track width. (Narrow gauge of 0 gauge known as 0-16.5 in the UK, 0e in the EU and 0n30 in the USA). There is a narrow gauge of 00 known as 009 (Or H0e etc) which runs on N gauge track width. I used to have H0e and while it was fin, I found the tiny intricate mechanisms a little too small for my liking. Good stuff though and is made in ready to run form. 7mm narrow gauge like I model with is generally made from converting 00 via either scratchbuilding or via a kit. Fleishmann used to once make ready made models in this scale and Bachmann still do but of much larger American locos. I will say though that resin kits are reasonably priced and generally pretty easy to make.
One can use 00 gauge track or buy 7mm narrow gauge track or make ones own from 00 gauge track to save costs.
For 009 and one can either buy 009 track or use N gauge track. Understandably N gauge track (Or 00 for 7mm scale narrow gauge) will have the wrong size sleepers for narrow gauge use but these can be hidden under ballast.
Although i like the idea of narrow gauge think i will stick to OO or N gauge. Think i have finally cracked the trackplan from the youtube guy, which is above. Will try and work it out in n gauge and see which i prefer. I have left the fiddle yard at moment, just wanted to get the basic plan sorted.
What is a good idea is to go and see either a model railway shop or an exhibition and see both 00 and N gauge to see which you like the best. Both are good. Both have their positives and negatives... N makes better use of space. 00 being a larger size can be easier to handle and service. Putting things on the track is not a problem because in both 00 and N gauge one can buy a railing device which can make things easier for those who may struggle.I have found that 00 gauge is easier to find on the secondhand market as there is more of it so if one is on a budget 00 can be an advantage in this way, not to say that one can't find some lovely N gauge bargains!
These days I am tempted the next scale up from 00 which is 0 gauge but one will need even more space unless one just wants a micro layout version with just straight track.
All are nice though. Whichever scale and gauge you end up with enjoy!
Well baseboard arrived today. Need to put it together but down with Covid at moment so no energy to do anything. Looks like it will go together quite easy. And only took a week to come.
There are a few little things one can do when building the layout where one can decieve the eye into thinking "Trainset" and start thinking "Model railway" and these can be quite subtle and interesting because one has not done a lot to so this.
The first comes to laying the track itself and that is that if you can shift the trackplan slightly so that when one fits the pieces together the straight edge does not follow the straight side of the board but is a slight angle to it, this avoids one seeing straight lines. If one can't do this due to space, a slight curve instead of straight can give a similar effect.
The second thing one can do, and this helps if one happens to have a half broken point which works one way but not the other is to make it look as if a track goes somewhere off the edge of the board. This makes one feel like there is the rest of the railway out there somewhere and therefore takes the psycological thought away from thinking "Trainset oval" and towards "Model railway". Now looking at your plan, you can do this by extending your bottom siding to the edge of the board and instead of using a buffer, glue a few sleepers across the track (Not right at the edge. Glue the sleepers a little further back from the edge) to make it look like the line used to go somehwere else and paint the rails a rusty brown the closed line side of the sleepers. Just make sure no trains can come and plough off the edge of the layout so the last piece (Or two pieces if they are short track sections) of track needs to be electrically isolated as an extra precaution just incase.
Then comes finding a way of visually interupting the oval by hiding part of ones view of trains going past such as a tunnel, a cutting or tall buildings... And with this another element to add to this is to try and add a few contours into the otherwize dead flat baseboard which do not have to be much but enough to distract ones eyes from seeing the "Dead flat" look.
Well while covid still hangs around, have come up with the n gauge version of the track plan. Appreciate there is only a small fiddle yard at moment, but that can be adjusted further down the line.
The front part looks fine, although i am sure there is an odd improvement or two that can be done. Any suggestions always appreciated.
