I have been wanting to try my hand in this again and would like to know how many feet does it take to make a mile in HO scale on the mainline, and also about how far should I place signals and passing sidings based on this measurement?? I appreciate any info on this, thnks in advance…
12 inches per foot times 5280 feet per mile divided by the scale (1" in HO = 87" in the real world) 87 yields 728.3" rounded. You’ll need a space measuring about 15’ square, and even then you’ll have at least one overpass.
Since scaling down railways doesn’t work too well for the vast majority of us, you should place as many passing sidings as you can without reducing them to 3’ in length. They should ideally be about 8-10’ long if you like medium-sized consists. If you want to try to duplicate modern longer trains, you will realistically need sidings about 18’ long as a minimum, so that should place it all into perspective for you. My longest siding can barely allow an oncoming steamer to clear a PRR J1 and 12 coal hoppers minus a caboose. Any longer and I would have had to consider a whole different approach to my track-plan, and that was not going to happen. So, we do a single saw-by on my main.
Well HO is 1:87.1 of full size; a mile is 5280 ft so:
(5280/x)=(87.1/1)
x=60’ 7 1/2"
As for sidings, good luck. I’d think that the prototype sidings are capable of handling mile long trains… You could just double track the entire layout. You have to scale down the prototype a bit unless you are quite fortunate.
I wouldn’t rely on scale miles on where to put your signals at. Our club layout has about 4 scale miles of track on the main and we have the second largest club layout in Oregon. If you were to place a signal one per mile, you’d only have 4. In contrast, we have about 10 signals, most of which are in separate scenes and may be anywhere from 10 to 30 (actual) feet apart. I railfan in Albany, Oregon, and there are 3 signals all within a half a mile strecth. Given also, they are signals within yard limits.
In short, although it seems realistic to place one signal per mile, often times, they are closer together.
hope this helps
PS. our website is www.csme1959.org
Your siding length will be determined by the length of the trains you’ll be running. Figure 1 foot per 2 cars w/ 3 ft for the engine if you run mostly 40 ft cars. You will need at least 2 sidings for a continuous loop (if you only have one siding train A takes siding to meet train B. On train B’s arrival train A runs around loop while train B waits and so on.) Ideally the single track between sidings is at least as long as longest trains although shorter will work if necessary. When I was working for the BN the east end of the siding at Sandpoint was about 50 feet from the west end of the siding at Kootenai. I never could figure out why. Signals should be spaced (again ideally) at least as far apart as the longest train w/ enough blocks so that a sinal when passed will clear before the train shows up again, that is go from red to yellow to green which means that you should have at least for blocks. Notice that for many MRRs these two criteria are mutually exclusive.
Short answer. HO mile is 60’7", siding length and signal spacing are a compromise between what you want and what you can have,
Ok, thank you Brian. I was trying to come up with a realistic idea about the length and was wanting to know approximatly how many feet of mainline it took to make a mile in HO and your answer out oof the four was the best one so far. I was thinking along the lines of the typical locations on the real mainlines as far apart that signals would normally be spaced. As far as for yard signals and passing siding signals that should be fairly easy knowing where to place those as well, thanks again
A scale mile tranlates to just over 60’ in HO, and 30’ in ‘N’ - unrealistic for most all. ‘Selective Compression’ becomes the Key word. A 4’x8’ takes up 10’X 12’ of basement
BEST BETS: figure passing sidings limit your length of trains. Go from there.
HO PASSING sidings on a 4X8 board use 4’ straights, (or 3 full-length passenger cars or 6 freight cars max) + 1 engine.
‘N’ gauge straights, 6 cars + 2 engines .
The real question is whether these are decorative or you intend to use them to operate your trains. If you are using them to operate, then put them wherever you need to control train movement. If they’re decorative, then apply your artistic talents to put them where they look good.
Enjoy
Paul
David:
Place signals at the beginning and ends of passing tracks, at any junctions, and where the yard enters the mainline. (If the signals are operating, these should be interlocking and thus be affected by turnout setting in addition to just train occupation.) After doing that, you’ll probably find little need for others unless you have a long stretch (2.5 or more train lengths) between sidings.
Mark
Allways eemed that you ought to scale back time in conjunction with scale feet to come up with a formula that works (kinda like compresion of scenery).
People do it all the time. That is why layouts are often operated on “fast clocks”. I believe we use 1:8 at the club. Another layout I operate on runs the clock at 1:12 (talk about humming along).
The idea is the “distance” a train travels is determine by the clock, not the track covered. So running a fast clock at 1:12 means that a train going a scale 60 mph would travel “60” miles in an actual 5 minutes of time.