Hi! After spending a half century with HO, most of which time involving detailed layout operations, and realizing that eye sight and steady hands really belong to a younger generation, I have begun to “play with” traditional O27 Lionel trains mainly to enjoy and not be bothered any more with “scale specifications”. So, here is my question: Does anyone know of Web Sites that show pictures of O27 layouts that just feature the trains and accessories without regard to “scale” or “realistic” scenic designs. ie. Layouts put together by people who just like to see the trains go around and the accessories work? Many thanks.
A good many people on this forum, including myself, would fit that description. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and give comments. I looked at a few Yahoo groups that were supposed to be geared to postwar/O27, but they had very little activity, and were a “pain” to read. Welcome to the group! Joe
Welcome traindaddy1,
You are at the right place. I to was an HO rivet counter many years ago. Now I just like to run them and have fun. Don’t limit yourself to 027 unless space is a problem. There is a lot of nice equipment out there that needs a little bigger radius than that. Check out the other threads as a lot of the guys have web sites with pictures of their layouts.
John
lots of track plans here:
Many thanks to all.
Traindaddy,
I would consider 031 and even greater if you can.
I run 031 and am getting ready to wire my medium sized layout. It pretty much fits your description. POstwar inspired–lot of switches and a lot of accessories which equal a lot of fun. I could care less about scale and I am not overly concerned with real railroad or prototypical operation either.
Mike S.
In defense of O27, you can get wider-radius track in O27 profile. If you already have some O27 track, this lets you upgrade without having to discard all of what you already have. I started out with a couple of ovals of O27, and gradually accumulated some O34 and O42 and even a small quantity of O54 curves. My layout uses my old O27 straights, but the only O27 curves on it anymore are the switches. Everything I have is capable of running on O27 track and most of it was designed for it, but of course it runs more smoothly on those O42 curves. I saved quite a bit of money (O27-profile switches cost quite a bit less than their O31-profile counterparts) and the result works well.