Is this an HO forum?
I know squat about HO and I am building a shelf O Ga. layout and want to add HO to it.
Where can I find an explanation of track curve radiuses should I wi***o lay two separate sets of tracks?
Also who make a reasonable, read that to say cheap brand of coal hoppers?
My hobby shop has packs of Walthers but $70 is not in my budget.
Thanks you,
Gilbet J Finn
This is not really an HO forum, but a good number of the contributors are HO modelers (as would be expected). For the curvature question, try:
http://www.nmra.org/standards/rp-11.html
That will either answer some questions or confuse the daylights out of you. The NMRA site is a pretty good reference for things like clearances and track centers, as well.
I am an N scale modeler so I can’t be of much help with the coal hoppers.
Good luck.
Hello Steve,
The NMRA site as Mark said ,is the best place to go for infomation on HO and other scales. As for the HO hopper outlook, there are many different brands of hoppers. Something you might want to think about is …e-bay. E-bay has hundreds of auctions going on at any given time. On e-bay you can find some really great deals on freight cars,locomotives ,structures and tools ECT.
Start small and buy only what you need to get started. Then later on , you can build your empire to your own standards. Freight cars and locomotives are pretty much the bulk of the cash flow. It all depends on what your willing to spend on the hobby. Freight car kits are very easy to build and will last a long time if you take care of them.
Try surfing e-bay under HO scale for hoppers, should be quite a few pages of hoppers listed.
Patrick
Beaufort,SC
Dragon River Steel Corp {DRSC}
Making HO scale steel by the ton!!!
There are members here for N-scale, HO scale, O scale and we even have some G scalers here. If you have a question, throw it out there and somebody will jump on it.
Well Steve, now you know why I switched from O Gauge to HO 60 years ago. O gauge is just too darn expensive. HO offers twice the layout in the same space, twice (or more) the engines and rolling stock for the buck and the ability to run LONG trains. Not to mention the HUGE assortment of models available that will never hapen in any other gauge because the market for them just isn’t there. Go with the winner Steve. I could go on and on, but take it from an old timer, the time to switch is NOW, before it is too late. I never looked back. Just giving the facts, maam.
[#ditto]
Some great advice there.
At the hobby shop I go to are two aisles commited to model railroading. Each aisle is 20 feet long. Aisle one has shelves on both sides. The left side of the aisle is for O scale. There are 1 or 2 sets, some structure kits, some rolling stock, several types of track, some accessories and catalogs. The right side of the aisle is for N scale. One or two sets, some track and accessories, a fair amount of rolling stock, a few locos from assorted manufacturers, preassembled structures, kits, track of different types.
Now for aisle 2. this aisle has shelves on one side and a peg board wall on the other. On the left are the shelves. Here there are a few sets, lots of rolling stock, lots of rolling stock kits, lots of structure kits, some preassembled structures, lots of accessories, cases of flex-track and roadbed material, power packs, catalogs, super-detail items, Woodland Scenics items and that’s just what I remember. On the right is the wall. Here are more sets, more detail items, Every Kadee coupler known to man, track items and accessories, track out the wazoo, loco from Athearn, Kato, Proto2000 and several others.
See the point? HO is where you’re going to find the most to work with in most cases.
Welcome to the forums. You might try train shows. I picked up several coal cars with loads and Kedee couplers very cheap. Of course they came from the estate of a railroader that is no longer with us. But he had good taste. Phil