i am a rookie & happy about getting startted with my ho rail set . i have a 10" shelf all around my basement were i would like to build my track. can anybody give me some advice on what i should do 1st , or what i should not do ,any sugestions on lighting or structures that i can do myself. any good spots to order from any help would be great .
Lots of really great books from KALMBACH on the subject at the hobby shop, always use NICKELSILVER Track, never brass, and remember this, that just like building a house, take your time and don’t ru***hings. Do everything you can, right the first time around, because you may not get a second chance without ripping up a lot of realestate. Design preservation makes a really great line of structures, small and perfect for your use. Try to keep wiring color coded and you may want to make a diagram as you go along. Stay with smaller rolling stock, 40ft boxcars etc, and diesels with 4 wheels per truck IE; GP-9, GP-20, F-7 etc. You may also want to try some of the newer foam techniques and so forth. If you like steam engs, keep them on the small size.
Hello Big G,
Welcome back. I recommend buiding a small layout first. Something to learn on. Something you can throw away or give away to a child when you are finished. Build something 4x6, 3x6. I would use 2" thick foam as a base. Building something small will not overwhelm you. And you wouldn’t feel bad about your mistakes. It is a great way to learn. Their are several books that have track plans for small layouts.
For very small layouts visit
http://www.carendt.com/
Jerry
On your first layout, don’t make anything too permanent. If you glue your track down, use a glue that will come apart later. Use the largest radius track and biggest number of switch you can fit in. Try different things to see what you like – both what era and area you model, what type of modelling you want to do (running, building, collecting or a combination).
Remember that everyone’s suggestion works for HIM, but something else may work better for you. Be polite about it, though.
Also remember that, unless you do your scenery in cast bronze, none of it needs to be permanent.
Look at all the magazines you can find in the store; they all have some ideas that you can use.
Everything you’ve read so far is good advice. If you are limited to a 10" shelf you might want to limit yourself to a portion of one wall. There have been some terrific articles recently in Model Railroader on shelf type layouts. Starting small and learning how to do the things you need to do like laying track and turnouts, scenery, structures, etc. is something you’ve read in almost every reply because it’s a good guess we all learned the hard way. I did! Good Luck and just have fun.
As far as ordering stuff, you can feel pretty secure ordering anything from an advertiser in Model Railroader. I think it is their policy that if an advertiser doesn’t deliver their product they will no longer be allowed to advertise in the magazine. I’ve ordered from many vendors in MR most notably Standard Hobby Supply and Walthers and never had a problem. I’ve also ordered stuff from advertisers right here on this website without any problems. As much as I’d like to support my local hobby shop (great advice) the nearest one is 100 miles away.
Jerry,
thanks for posting that micro layouts webpage, I love that stuff.
I had forgotten about the micro-layout (6"x8"HOn30) I started a while ago, am going to pull it out and finish it now, Vic.
thanks to all that replied . as i get started i’m sure that there will be many more questions .this site is great
About that 10" shelf: see if you can get a bit more space in the corners. Do a little drawing and you will see that it doesn’t take much more space out from the wall to put in a 24" radius curve and then not much to do 36" radius. A small triangular piece will help you cut the corner.
Well Big B I would advise that since you have such a small space as far as width I would stick with small locos. Such as small 4 axle units or small steam locos. Maybe even using 40’ boxcars instead of the bigger more moder cars out on the market. Gives you the illusion of a bigger space. But you could add some width to your shelf in which case you would have a lot more room for bigger turnouts (track switches) and more space for buildings. But thats just my two cents, there is no wrong way to build a model railroad. I’ll write later about some of the ideas I used on my 5’ x 12 HO layout but I got to goto work right now.
I would suggest a 6 or 8 foot long shelf section with one “town”, that is, a passing siding, a small town station if you are modeling the era when depots were common, a couple of industrial sidings, and most of the structures would be flat or nearly flat building fronts and backs. Also build a couple of “blank” modules-- same height as your town module but just a flat surface, and tack a couple 3-foot sections of straight flex track down. Now you can run a short train through your town and do in-town switching. When you have your town module running satisfactorily, add another track or two on one of the end pieces and it becames a basic staging yard. Now you can start with one train on the single track at one end and another train on one of the tracks. Now you can run two trains, but the one on the single track has to run first to leave an open place for the second train to go. You could stage a meet on the passing siding. When that is working well, you could make the second end module into a two or three track staging yard and run several trains in both directions through your modeled town. Eventually, you will be ready to disconnect one of the staging yards and put in another 4, 6 or 8 foot section. You’ve already got one town with a passing siding so you might want a section with a track that just runs through the countryside. Maybe a river crossing or agricultural scene. Of course, you have moved the staging yard section and re-used it further down. You could keep adding sections one at a time. The drawback is that you have to enjoy watching a train run by once and run only a few feet, instead of just being able to turn it on and watch it run around and around. But someday those trains will be running all around the room and your shelf layout will have a real sense of going somewhere.
can you run 2 trains at the same time on the same track with turn outs so that they don’t hit one another at different speeds? i did put a piece of wood in the corners to make my corners bigger . how do you know how big your cars are?how many cars can you run together? what should you use for a base? my track is going to be about 80’ total in length, shoud i put some extra power somewhere along the track?