I have been away for a long time, I had a 4x8 for my son, but when the pellet furnace came in, we needed room for all the bags of pellets, so the layout was taken down. We have a G scale layout in the yard, and didnt have any HO running for years. I have finally gotten around to work on a HO layout and have made a large amount of progress this fall.
My son likes the layout but is not happy that his trains will run on it. the curves are way too sharp. The pics of this layout can show you what kind of engines and cars can run on it. the layout size is 2’x4’.
We are now going to work on trees, and two small shacks, one at the quarry and one at the bottom yard.
not only are the curves less than 12" radius, but the grade is steep. that engine can not push more than 3 cars up the hill, two if they are loaded, wheel slip makes a lot of noise if they are overloaded.
it will be a light traveled layout, one maybe 2 cars at a time. one empty up, two full down, maybe, we’ll see.
I am going to bash a passenger car I have, shorten it, and do a separate train for tourists. I hope the sound in that one comes out louder than the one in the pic…the sound is almost drowned out by the travel noise. maybe if the layout is on the carpeted floor it will be better. as i have run it, its been sitting on the table saw, so maybe that has echoed the noise.
Nice! What an inspiration. I no longer have the space for a large layout and I refuse to ditch my HO trains. I’m headed in the direction several compact layouts like this.
Do you have any photos of the pre-scenery construction of this layout? Updated photos would of course be exciting too!
Our local short line has a grade it can’t navigate normaly. At the bottom haff of the cars are disconnected. The engine then pulls the front half up the grade to a siding. The loco then backs down and picks up the other cut of cars.
Your limitations reminded me of this.
After looking at you results with only on a 2’ X 4’ I can only imagine what you would accomplish with a bigger one.
Looks very good! As you add more share more pics. To help with the extra steep grades have you tried Bullfrog Snot? If not check out the link. Basically what it is is a “grippy” traction tire that does a great job of getting rid of wheel slip.
For your passenger cars, this would be an ideal setting for the Walther’s “Oscar and Piker” cars.
They are single truck passenger cars and really look cool. They would be sweet on your layout.
They did come in several road names.
They are a little hard to find right now. I think the last time they were made was about ten years ago. You could put out a wanted ad in a few of the forums and HOYARDSALE and keep an eye out on the Bay. Or you could test your skills kit bashing from a full sized heavyweight car.
Looks great! Some puffball trees would work great on those hills, and they would cost less than complete trees. Additionally, not having a complete tree would make the hills look more realistic, since there would be no “yardstick” to measure the hills.
Ok, so bicycle racing season is here, and I started training back in November actually, and once January hit, I haven’t done a single thing to this layout. I was asked for a picture of the layout before all the scenery was down. I had some, but failed to find them. I did find one though, so I will post it now. I have some more trees on the layout, I am not spending any $ on trees, I have some plants around the house that when dried out, look pretty good to me. also I have scrounged up some bushes, that when the branches are snapped off just right, look good too. Those will be my trees. actually, in the pic of the work in process, there is one of the trees I plan on using…it wasn’t quite right, a bit too tall, so its been shortened, but it might give an idea. I cant remember the name of the plant, but when I bunch them together, they create a great canopy. I just noticed that there is a tree in the other pics too, I don’t think its the same one
Mine? 3.5 feet x5.1 feet HO scale. A tad bigger, but it works.
I have a 15"r inside oval interconnected via switches to an 18"r outer oval. Inside the inner oval is a 4 spur mini yard and a 2 spur engine storage/servicing facility.
I only used the WS risers/incline system to varry the terrain some by an inch or two, and I did not go crazy with hills as I found out the hard way steep inclines are NOT for me, my engines or layout!. {I started off with an over & under that didn’t work so well}.
I planned on expanding it to 4.4 feet x 6.4 feet, but have run into a snag with the available space in the room! I wanted either an 18"r inside and 22"r outside, or two 18"r with spacers on the outside oval to seperate the two.
