After being an armchair model railroader for many years I am finally ready to build my first layout. I was thinking of building the Kanawha Creek Railway in HO from the November 2000 Model Railroader. I was wanting opinions as to the difficulty for what will essentially be a beginner, will this layout be too difficult? I want to be able to complete the railroad and hone my skills in order to move up in difficulty. In addition I was wondering if I should build the trackplan with sectional track or flextrack? I have looked for the layout in done in sectional track but so far I’ve been unsuccessful. I look forward to hear you opinions.
What era do you plan to model? This looks like a basic 4’x8’ table with some added benchwork to add some operation and interest. It will have some tight curves by the looks to me. Longer passenger cars or modern cars could give you some trouble and not look very realistic.
The problem with sectional track is the number of gaps between sections. Rail joiners are not considered reliable, long term electrical connectors. Soldering the pieces together, whether sectional or flex track is a preferred method. At the moment my original sectional track layout, unsoldered, is still holding up. I do have 7 blocks on my 4’x6’, so none are very long, each has one feeder wire. Larger layouts recommend a feeder wire every 6’ or closer.
My little layout has proven to be an excellent learning tool. It is a simple loop with a passing siding on each side of the scenic divider and one, two track stub siding off from one of them. It offers an opportunity for praticing scenery techiniques as well as some operation’ The original plan in life was that it would have been replaced by a larger layout by now, but the return of a son to the nest changed that. I am now having to plan a much smaller layout in a different location, which needs some work.
If you have the space to put up an around the room shelf layout they offer the opportunity for much larger curves. Do not have a shelf over 2’ wide, unless you are tall with very long arms. Any layout offers the chance to improve your skills as you go. On mine, one side is quite well sceniced, while the other side is still pink foam. I plan to try some new techniques there, moving water for one. Many folks go back and redo areas where they started, once they improve their skills, so replacing or rebuilding parts of a layout are a common occurance.
While sectional track will certainly work like it has for decades why not use flex track and sectional track as needed?
No need to cut a 36" piece of flex track for a 6" section since nothing is gain as far as eliminating rail joints.Use the full section of flex elsewhere.
IIRC the Kanawha Creek Railway was a nice small layout that was easy to build.
I would use Peco #6 switch instead of the size four the plan calls for since both is the same size as I recently learned from Rich(richhotrain) in another discussion.
Thanks for the reply. I plan on modeling a frelanced Erie Lackawanna in the mid 70’s just before Conrail. I would like to run a GP 35, a U 25B and a few switch engines. I’m putting in the basement of the home my wife and I are renting and I really don’t want to make it too permanent. I am looking forward to learning on this layout and eventually (hopefully) building a much larger layout.
Thank you for your input. I guess my concern with flex track is because it’s outside my comfort zone. Anything I’ve ever done has always been with sectional track, not flex track. But as I said I want to learn so I will probably give it a try. What makes the Peco trunouts better than the Atlas turnoutsS
Those “B truck” units should work fine on that track plan. Due to the curvature, however, I’d suggest avoiding long freight cars such as trailer-train cars or those auto parts box cars. A fine RR can be made with 50’ (and under) freight cars.