I am brand new to model railroading. I want to run a simple loop tack around the top of my kitchen cupboards. As people will not see the layout, only the train running by, I don’t care if it is prototypical.
I only have 14.5 inches to turn my train around in. My question: which gauge of model railway should I use to turn my train in this narrow space?
With only 14.5’ width, the maximum radius curve you could fit would be 6" radius.
This would limit you to Z scale (gauge) or smaller . Z scale (1:220 porportion, that is 1" = 220"). Tthe trains are only about 0.6" tall. Not very visible overhead.
If you were satisified with running a 4 wheel trolley car, you could go to HO scale (1:87). Abour 1.3" 2" tall.
If you have enough length, you could build a single track (no turn around) with automatic reversing and have the train run back and fourth. You could then go to O gauge (1:48). Approximately 3.5" tall. Or possibly even G gauge. Approximately 6" tall.
Continuing Brother Schmitt’s thoughts.
If the train is going to be visible from the floor for anyone but an NBA center, you will want something big enough to see. Even HO is a bit small when seen from below, especially if the viewer is a child.
That trolley car running back and forth will be fine, if it’s S scale or bigger. If it doesn’t have to take curves, you can even run a longer 8-wheeler - but not a PCC car. PCCs were single-ended.
Considering the goop (cooking residue) that I’ve cleaned off the top of kitchen cabinets, I could think of a better venue for trains.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - but never in the kitchen)
Not only that, the cooking residue that is, but the location you are proposing, and the space you are considering. Where would you place the power pack? What about the wiring? 14.5" width to turn trains around? The top of your kitchen cabinets?
At the risk of offending you, and others who consider these types of inaccessible and confining locations, what are you thinking? Wouldn’t you be better off running an around-the-room shelf layout? Up near the ceiling if that is where the most open space is located?
Rich
National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) Recommended Practices #11 (RP-11) goes into great detail on the matter of how sharp a curve can be. It is on the web here.
This particular question has been of great interest to all model railroaders since the very beginning of the hobby, and RP-11 represents the distillation of experience gathered from many people over 80 years.
I hate to rain upon your parade, but your project sounds a more than a little impractical. The grease and crud atop the ordinary kitchen cabinet is bad enough to turn your stomach or stop a train. A derailment can send your train into freefall to the floor. You can’t see it very well. Getting even short N scale trains to handle a 7 inch radius curve is problematical.
Have you considered carpet running around the Christmas tree? Or a 4 foot by 8 foot layout that slides under a bed, or stands up against the wall when not in use? Or putting in a loft bed and putting a 4 by 8 layout underneath? Or a narrow around-the-walls layout with a duckunder or liftout section across the doorway?
You can do sharp radius curves.
But it is very likely to be a suboptimal idea to do it on top of a tall cupboard in the kitchen.
If you want a train to run in a loop, why not make a pizza layout and put it on a table or shelf somewhere else in your home, where it can be displayed at a viewable height?Pizza layouts on the late Carl Arendt’s magnificent micro layouts website:
http://www.carendt.com/scrapbook/page102a/index.html
Or turn your living room table into a table with a layout inside, under a glass lid?
http://www.thewhistlepost.com/forums/n-scale/7437-coffee-table-layout.html
Or a narrow shelf layout with automated pendulum running instead of a loop of track - can fit into one of the shelves in a bookshelf: http://www.scottpages.net/Newbury.html
Or build 4 foot x 20" modules and go run trains with others:
Usually there are a lot more options that you might think about as your first idea.
Smile,
Stein
At a pizza shop near my house, they have two layouts built by Steve Cryan (whose wife has had the misfortune to have all 3 of my boys in her class…[:)]). Upstairs: two large HO layouts (I’m guessing 4x10 and 6x12 in size), connected by a long run of track that runs the length of the restaurant (maybe 100’). Around the lower dining area, there is a loop of track with a G scale train on it.
No guard rails on either, and I’ve never heard of an accident. But based on my experience with this setup, I’d say go no smaller than O scale.
Using an auto-reversing module would be the way to go, if you can’t take it all the way around (although judiciously-placed shelving might enable a continuous loop… you are talking about kitchen cabinets (the tops of mine are a good 8’ up, so there’d be no vertical clearance issues, even if that proverbial NBA player came over).
Hi
[#welcome]
I see you want a train layout in your kitchen.
First, I will second/third/fourth the idea that you are asking for trouble doing it in there as the grease and oils from cooking will not only coat the track making electrical connection all but impossible, but will allow for the slippage of locos on the track and will most like gunk up the loco’s gears before you know it, rendering your trains useless. Even with direct-out-of-house ventilation hood, there is still a fil of oil and grease that gets dispersed intohte air when cooking.
Secondly, as mentioned in a tight 14.5" turn around, you may have to pick a “micro scale” that will be hard to see way up there.A Z scale {as suggested} loco is about the size of your little finger. N scale is larger, but still small. A single trolley in Nscale, or very short locos and RR cars COULD possibly turn around in that tight radius, but I make no guarantees. The narrowest generally accepted radius for N scale is 11.75" {requiring about 24 inches for full circle}, but with flex track, you can squeeze it down…
Third, With the layout way up there it will be harder to see anyway…unless it is the very big G scale. I WAS gonna build an “around the walls” HO scale layout up near the ceiling of my LR, but I planned on using plexiglass for the tracks so one could see the trains “way up there”, not just hear them. I nixed the whole idea, though.
If you attempt it, though, I wish you good luck.
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