How do I convert H.O. scale track plan to N scale? Thanks!
Several ways to answer this.
Divide by .6 and adjust the track centers.
Better yet, just build the plan the same size and adjust the track centers. The plan will be vastly improved for it!
Imagine that small one door warehouse now has a quarter mile long spur to it!
Seriously, I was thinking the same thing. Sadly, I think the reason people are going to use an HO track plan for N is because they don’t have the 100 X 50 ft basement like I only wish I also had.
Phil…divide by 0.6? Ahhh…I don’t think so. Reduce by multiplying the demensions by 0.6.
For a lot of reasons, many already mentioned, a direct translation isn’t the best plan. Better would be to tale your space, or the space you want to use, and drawn soemthing like the HO plan in it. A direct translation can lead to trouble with any places where the humans have to fit, since they don’t scale down. Also, places where an HO plan had to compromise due to reach can be made a bit bigger in N.
Walk in type plans would tend to shrink the aisles, yes. Perhaps we need to discover the original posters more detailed intents.
And access hatches become too small or, hopefully, unnecessary. Part of my point is that when a plan is drawn for any scale there are a certain set of compromises and accomodations made to fit that scale. If you change that plan to another scale there is almost certainly have to adopt a different set of compromises and accomodations. So even if you intend to ‘just’ scale the plan, you are probably better off to redraw it in the new space, even if the space is just the scaled original. You will probably find things that should change, both ‘good’ and ‘bad’.
Since I have a house purchase looming currently, I have also been looking at this same conversion. I have very detailed 14x16 L shaped HO plan that I would like to fit in a 11x11 room. Here has been my thought process:
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Keeping the benchwork the exact same size, convert all track to N. HO is 1:87.1 and N is 1:160. 87.1 / 160 = .5443 (round to .55 for easy math). Aka, 18" HO radius curves become 18" N radius, etc, etc. (For equivilency, an 18" N curve is the equivlient of a 32.72" HO curve)
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Now only very simple track plans can be automatically converted like this without any tweeking. You will see misalignments form near turnouts and crossings that need to be fixed. Also, since radius is measured from center of track, parallel tracks will now be 1.81x farther apart when measure in N scale feet. (1 / 0.55 = 1.81818181) This should be corrected as well.
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Now that I have taken care of the initial conversion, I can start scaling down the whole layout. I tried several different scalings (80%, 60%, 55% etc) but ultimately chose 65%. Its very close to 2/3s the size of the HO bench work but still larger than taking the HO layout and going straight to the equivlient N (55%)
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Again, the turnouts, crossings and parallel tracks will need to be tweeked, but since you are already familiar with where the changes need to be, it should be quick!
Back in the late 60’s early 70’s I had a 16x16 room in the back yard of the home we puchased in 68. I found an HO track plan that would basically fit that room, but it would be too crowded for my wants as I was also into the airplane thing also. I did what is stated above and shrunk it down by about 1/2 and found it would fit onto a 5x9 table. I drew the layout on the table with the original HO plan as a guide only. One thing I wanted was broad curves so 14" radius was the minimum. I placed turnouts and cross overs where they would be, drew the curves where they would be, then drew the rest of the layout connecting every thing. I used flex track so this was easy and where the track paralleled the table I but gentle curves in . Not really scientific but it worked. One thing I learned a long time ago that track plans are drawn by people with their ideas in mind which is fine, but I have no problem in changeing them to fit my needs. I use them as a guide only. Yes, my layout was on a table, but same ideas would also apply to almost any layout configuration. Ken
Yeah, that too! My bad!
For what it’s worth, if you have room for a small HO layout, just build the plan as-is, except lay N scale track instead of HO. That way you can use #8-10 turnouts and have 18" radius curves (like 36" in HO - nice and broad!).
I’ve thought about doing that for my future layout. A moderate-sized double-track HO layout could be made into an outstanding 4-track PRR in N scale. That way you needn’t worry about curve radii and aisle width.
Just a thought…