HOn 2 1/2 OO9 HOe whatever you want to call it thoughts please

Model Railroader Layouts and layout building
1

Hi guys

I am thinking of building a small narrow gauge line which at the moment I am jokingly calling The Moo Lines

Based on the fact its primary freight will be milk and cows

Well having never though of narrow gauge before are there any obviouse traps I should know about other than don’t hit the rustic button to hard

What structures are avalable can’t find referance to much particularly railway buildings.

Other buildings well that depends on which and where it turns out to be OO or HO but non railway buildings are plentiful enough.

But then I am also not real sure what to use as a search fraise iether

Any thoughts on a track plan would be helpfull.

My first though for this was to go for a rabbit warren type layout with it diving in and out of tunnels to get some track milage though given the primary freight this might not look quite right

Deffinatly no slate will be moving on this line I want something different

I have found a WWI Pershing car so that means I am totaly spoilt for posible locations as this is being written a gondola and a very freelance 4wh caboose are being packed.

For posting to me so I can see if this is a size of train that could work for me as suitable for a largeish railroad that doesn’t consume equally large amounts of real estate.

Any thoughts at this point in time would be most welcome

regards John

2

OO9 and HOn2 1/2 (HOn30) or not the same! OO9 represents a 2ft. narrow gauge railroad in OO scale, which is 1/76 and thus slightly larger than regualr HO scale. OO9 is commonly used in the UK and if that´s of interest to you, a Google search will result in tons of info for you on that gauge and scale.

For HOn30, there is Minitrains, offering a small but interesting selection of US-style locos and cars. Any HO scale building will fit!

A suggestion for a track plan - impossible without knowing how much space you can dedicate to a layout.

If you are interested in an ingenious modular set-up, check this:

Enjoy!

3

John,

You may want to give some more detail as to the size of your room, era, location and all to get some of the help you seek.

Searches for HOn2 1/2 or HOn30 should bring up quite a few items. As to OO I don’t know. On30 or On2 1/2 will bring good results too.

There are commercial kits for most HOn30 items you would need including steam & diesel locos and rolling stock. Most are based on Maine 2 FT railroads or industrial equipment. Conversion of N scale mechanisms isn’t hard and is more limited to your imagination. If you wanted to go On30 then Bachmann has a great line of reliable equipment to choose from or you can convert some of the great HO stuff.

As to structures it depends on the scale you choose. All HO or O structures will work as the SCALE doesn’t change only your GAUGE. Here are some links that may help.

http://www.hon30.org/maine-two-foot-articles/

http://www.maine2footquarterly.com/plw.htm

Keep searching and checking out links in these sites.

Roger Huber

4

I had the HOn2 1/2 trains that came out in the late 1960’s. I had a loop of track connecting a coal mine to my HO standard gauge. The locomotives really only had two speeds: stop and fast (and sometimes it took a finger nudge to get them off of “stop”). All of the equipment offered at that time was industrial in style, and as far as I know the models based upon Maine 2-footers that were advertised never were produced.

So now the new line of HOn2 1/2 is out, and yes, I had to get some. I have not built a layout to run these. I did lay a 3 foot section of flex track parallel to my HO line and connect jumper cables to test the new releases. I have one 4-wheel diesel and one 0-4-0 saddletank steamer. Both operated quite nicely - far better than the originals. Speed control was well within “acceptable” using a DC control.

In addition to the vastly improved motor/mechanism, one now also has a far better grade of track, as Peco offers appropriate narrow-gauge track with proper tie spacing. Back in '69 I had to use “N” track with ties that didn’t look proper. I think that the Peco HOe track uses Code 80 rail.

On the down side, most of the commercially offered items in this scale/gauge are still of the same industrial type of equipment. Here in the States, Big City Hobbies is the major supplier or advertiser for this equipment. A goodly amount of scratchbuilding or kit-bashing would likely be needed to assemble a fleet of rolling stock that would be similar to the Maine 2-footers’ equipment. Also, at this time all of the equipment that I have seen comes equipped with the “hook and loop” couplers that does not lend itself well to switching operations.

Last month at the Great Scale Model Train Show in Maryland, Big City Hobbies was there with a little portable layout of these trains. The locomotives went around all day long without any trouble, a

5

Hi Guys

OOP"S sorry meant to say max layout size is 5’ by 2’6"

As I am experementing I don’t want to go to big at the moment and @ 2’6" wide I can have it up against a wall out the way and still reach the back to work on it

I also realize the size of domestic and comercial buildings won’t change

However the railway ones will smaller loco shed doors for instance lower loading areas ect.

If there is a passenger platform its going to be lower as well.

I am not confused about the smaller gauge its about 2’ 3" in one scale OO9 and

only just over 2’6" in the other HOn2 1/2

But anything else well who knows as I have never seriously concidered narrow gauge as an option before.

The two items on there way are Mini Trains items so that makes them HO scale

2’6" gauge[:D] so I have got that bit at least.

regards John

6

Hi Sir Madog

Something isn’t showing in your post

Yes the Mini Trains Forney looks interesting no turn table needed.

So did an Egger pretend US 0-4-0 untill I was told should that be reminded the early narrow gauge just like the early “N” was not so crash hot motor wize.

regards John

7

The Minitrains locos cannot be compared with the old Egger Bahn breed, which had a rather random performance. Providing that you lay your track with care, you won´t be disappointed in the Minitrains offerings.

btw, the link I posted works, so what is it exactly that´s not showing?

8

Try some more searches with HOe. That’s the European equivalent of HOn30. There are some really nice locos out by Liliput/Bachman. The model of the Austrian Gemeinder modern diesel retails for ~US$150. It comes as HOe, can be easily converted with a kit that Liliput sells to HOm (12 mm gauge), and is not too much more difficult to convert to HOn3. A loco for 3 gauges, if you want. Takes a 21-pin decoder and with the Lenz Silver is smooth as butter. Here’s mine:

Liliput English website: http://liliput.de/en/products/liliput/h0e.html

Note it’s just sorta English, but you can figure it out. They have a nice little 4-wheel diesel and a small motorcar, as well as steam and rolling stock, etc.

9

Hi Sir Madog

What I can see at the botom of your post is

“if you are interested in an ingenious modular set up check this”

HUGE BLANK SPACE

enjoy!

The reply page indicates something should be in the blank space but not what

regards John

10

Content removed due to a completely fucked up and incompetent Kalmbach customer service.

11

That´s odd, because the video appears on my screen. Maybe your browser settings vary from mine.

12

Hi Sir Madoc

Its possible my settings are different ever since micro soft sneakely put its d%%%d windows ten Icon on my computer hidden in an Auto down load,

Not only can’t I get rid of it but setings seem to be changing on me I am having a devil of a job puting things right.

Ask me about trains you might just get a sensible answer, but when it comes to computors I get lost real quick.

regards John

13

Hi Guys

Well I have had a bit of a look at some of the links and video’s on line. Well that’s made things harder.

There is everything from a decrepit industrial tip ready for the scrap yard, to a main line railway where I assume up to something like 40 or possibly 50 mph could quite possibly be achieved for short distances.

One thing I have worked out is that 9" curves while the trains will go round them. On anything other than a tight industrial line or really cramped space look well YUK!!.

So how does 12’ sound as a minimum and is an “N” gauge track setta available in that radius curve

It looks like its the same code rail as std off the shelf “N” gauge track so that’s a cheap option for any out of sight track As that’s easier to get than the narrow gauge track.

I think save the narrow gauge for visible in scene track.

WOW! looks like the first decision has been made.

It would seem track cleaning is going to have to be kept up even with the newer loco’s

regards John

14

12" R is still pretty sharp. Works best with 4-wheel rolling stock. If you plan to use double-bogie wagons (as they say outside the US), then you may want wider curves.

Clean track is always a good thing, but really important if you use some of the smaller 0-4-0s or 4-wheeled diesels.

Kind of a tangent, but I use CRC 2-26 contact cleaner and lube based on a recommendation from an online pal, Laurie McClean, who is an Australian MMR. You can see his voluminous videos on YouTube as user name narrowgaugetrain. Here’s a link to the one on CRC 2-26:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ReSUSruSVVY

15

I found the small block N mechanisms usually repurposed for small locos in HOn30 to be just short of useless. Be sure what ever you buy has a good track record for reliability. I was doing that gauge back in the 90s and found it a path to Madness. But there is a lot better stuff on the market today, the BCH stuff in particular.

16

Hi John:

I am going to assume that by “largeish” you mean a railroad with lots of rolling stock, as opposed to “largeish” engines. To me HOn30 suggests small locomotives.

The challenge with small locomotives, as I’m sure you are aware, is reliable operation. You will not get that from 4 wheel locomotives unless you can find space for either a keep alive and a decoder, or if you can add more wheels. Adding more wheels sounds ridiculous at first, but actually it is quite feasible. Adding more axles to a locomotive is obviously a non-starter, but you can get lots more wheels into play if you add a permanently attached follower car. The ‘critter’ in my avatar is HOn30. My critter has 12 wheel pick-up when you include the eight wheels on the gondola that is attached to it. It actually runs quite reliably. It is DC, and it will stay DC because there is absolutely no space for a decoder, let alone a keep alive:

The reason there is no space is that the motor is in the gondola. I used an older Bachmann N scale 4-4-0 steamer for the drive. The original tender has been re-worked to look like a work gondola.

In your case however, if you use locomotives with the motor installed in them instead of a follower car, then you can add a follower car with lots of space for both a decoder and a keep alive.

I should also mention that I have done some experimenting where I have removed the flywheel from a couple of very small HO switchers and replaced it with a keep alive from Loksound (Loksound Select Micro decoder used too). The performance has been nothing short of amazing. They will not stop for anything!

Just some experience and ideas to share.

Regards

Dave

17

Hi HOn30critter

By largish I mean a layout that takes more space than what appears to be the very small layouts normaly built in HOn30.

One that apears to serve the area its in and has some operational interest as well so can’t have less than two stations.

DCC forget it to expencive, I don’t understand it and cannot fix it if it breaks down.

Oh and then there is that most un-desirable feature sound, I learned to hate and despise that being on the operating side of an exhibition layout and I only helped out for just the one afernoon.

So it will be electronc DC, I know what to do with that when problems happen.

The needed rolling stock list is rather small at the moment and I am going to try and do the impossible and keep the list short

Three cattle cars three low side gondolas two cabboses two passanger cars

one tipper (might have no choice but to have two) not sure how they are packed.

one steam Loco size yet to be determined (but a Fourney looks interesting)

One motor car ( Tin Hare to small to be called a Goose[:D] ) saw this on shapeways have to talk to an “N” scale friend of mine to find out about the recomended Kato 4wheel chassis.

I have seen a steam rail motor that looked interesting but given the age of the model not so sure that one is a good idea.

regards John

18

Hi John:

No DCC. That’s absolutely OK as far as I’m concerned. My Hon30 stuff is DC too, despite my love for sound in my HO locomotives (we will have to politely disagree on the attributes of sound, but for what its worth, I turn the volumes way way down).

My mine is very small so the rolling stock is small too. For my coal hoppers I acquired a bunch of Graham Farish N scale gondolas and just painted them flat black. I stripped the lettering first so the outline of the letters wouldn’t show. The N scale gons won’t work very well for the cattle industry but I’m sure there must be lots of N scale box cars and stock cars that could be good fodder (pardon the pun) for making your own rolling stock.

There used to be a few HOn30 locomotive kits available that used N scale mechanisms but I can’t seem to find any current listings. eBay only shows one locomotive currently but it is a Thomas The Tank Engine model. I suppose the mechanism could be used for a scratch build.

Again, I look forward to seeing more of your excellent work.

Regards

Dave

19

Hi Hon30critter

That would be Scarloey?? or Peter Sam?? I did not know any one made Mid Sodor Railway (Err I think working on memory) trains.

Come to think of it I did not know the book wrecking, TV don’t let the stories stand in the way of a show people, had done any of the narrow gauge stories[soapbox].

I don’t like the TV show its nothing like the books no propper UK railway practices.

Also some added characters that never existed in the books.

If its a good mech worth getting for the unlikely show at exhibition or to 3D print or other scource a smoke box door for, and use as a normal loco even if the colour is a bit odd.

Think I might wait for a review on that loco.

Just have to come up with a viable track plan now.

regards John

20

Hi Guys

I have found what I think is a suitable track arangement for the right hand end of the layout.

http://www.disused-stations.org.uk/g/gorey_pier/index.shtml

I find using real track plans usualy results in a more workable layout

its already tried and tested[:D] I even like the name.

This one has the following going for it.

Its in a tight confined space (sound familier)

Can very easily be adapted to any national out line by changing the buildings around it without changing the track plan in any way

example) for the US the castle would become an 18th or 19th centuy star fortification

buildings would look very English and very French with some features that would point to it being in the US

The track arangement is very simple therfore not to expencive

Has a mystery line (translation can’t be bothered to find out where it goes) that diverges to the left disapears behind buildings and a hill is on the other side so its hidden.

I found this mystery line in an other scource, but am a bit dubious of its validity its usefull and I can use it so I am not going to ask to many questions on it.

But this line allows for a continuose run almost completely by passing the terminal and or to hidden staging without stretching reality to much.

Its location is scenicaly interesting hills one side the sea the other.

No signals to complicate things.

What do you think as a good starting point to develop a larger track plan from

it could be one end of the railway planned, and I have not picked up the pencil yet

Not that it matters but the Jersey Eastern Railway was narrow gauge, just wider than the one I am building and locationaly wrong.

regards John