I’M new to this hobby and only have space for a shelf layout of 12’ long and 30" deep. It will be a logging railroad using small cilmax loco’s and my longest car is only 24"long. I don’t really want to have a point to point scheme, I would prefer continous operation. Do I have enough space? any suggestions for minimum radius?
If you absolutely, positively, cannot go beyond even a teensy-weensy bit beyond 30" at any point, it obvioulsy limits your minimum radius to what will fit. If you have the loco(s) already your best bet would probably be to set up a test loop (or just a 180-degree curve) with flex track and see what radius the locos will negotiate. Check it with cars attached, in forward and reverse, with cars on each end, etc. That will give you an idea what your minimum radius can be.
If it’s small enough (say around 13"), you’ll be able to build turnback curves at each end of of your space and you’ll be able to have a continuous run.
If you can cheat just a little on the width in a couple of spots for turnback curves, you can go up to a larger radius, which would probably be better for appearance and reliability.
I saw a nifty little layout recently with small HO (standard gauge) locos happily running around 13" R curves with short cars, so it can be done – but a lot will depend on how willing your Climax locos are to swing around those sharp turns with cars attached.
Regards,
Byron
Model RR Blog
If you’re modeling HOn30, 30" should be more than wide enough as long as you prefer short cars and small engines.
Take a look at www.carendt.com for a large number of HOn30 track plans that will fit in a 12’x30" space several times over!
One thing I should mention, though: HOn30 is almost exclusively a scratchbuilder’s scale, as there is pretty much NO ready-to-run equipment for it aside from a couple of Roco pieces. Proceed only if you’re willing to make engines, cars, etcetera from scratch and do lots of improvising.
As to minimum radius: With 24’ cars and an 0-4-0 or Climax you can probably get down to 8" radius, but you could comfortably do 12" radius or more in a 30" wide space.
Not all is scratchbuilding (but pretty close)…Locos are brass, there are lots of kits for rolling stock and there are going to be two DCC/sound equipped RTR plastic K-27s out within the next few months…None of the kits are shake the box. I think 15" radius is tight even for narrow gauge. You probably can get away with it just barely…
Guy
Trainnut1250: Are we talking On30 or HOn30 here? I have yet to see an HOn30 rolling stock kit, and the only RTR stuff I have seen are the Roco switchers & ore cars.
I would LOVE to be proven wrong about RTR HOn30 equipment, though.
As far as minimum radius goes: I have a bunch of Kato HOn30 snap-track with 6" and 8" radius curves. My 0-6-0 critter (http://emrl.com/~jetrock/fubar/gecritter.jpg) goes around that 6" curve just fine…
Heck, I use curves tighter than 15" for my standard-gauge HO stuff!
First, thanks guys for replying to my post! All of you are correct in that there is almost nothing RTR in HOn30 available COMMERCIALLY. However, I stumbled accross someone who customs builds in this scale. I have purchased two climaxes and about 18 cars from him. Although not cheap, my RR will be very small and so it will not cost nearly as much as an empire that I don’t have the space for anyway. As mentioned before, my longest car to date is a skeleton log car (24’ long). I will be running 20’ box cars,16’ flats, short flats, and a bobber or two. It sounds as though the consensus of opion is that in a worse case senerio, I may be able to squeak by with the 30" depth I have to work with.
Jetrock,
M y Bad!! I was talking HOn3…My narrow gauge buddies will never let me hear the end of this if they should find out about my mistake!!!
Guy
Hey, that’s fine…all those HOn3 kits are just HOn30 kitbashes waiting to be born!
ukraine: Get some N scale flextrack and try laying out curves of various radii that will fit in that 30 inch width. Tack it down to some plywood and try running your Climaxes with some cars around the curve–ideally, set up a loop so you can let it run for a while. Once you’re satisfied that it will run on that diameter of curve, take up the track and try a tighter loop. Repeat until things start falling over more than you’re prepared to set them back up. The radius just before that one is your minimum radius–it may be smaller than you think!
Sounds like a neat project–I’m a fan of small, well-detailed model railroads myself, ideally with curve radii that would make articulated-steam fans wince!
I took the advice from above and laid some track today to expierment with various radius curves. Both of my climax locos had no problem negotiating an 11" radius curve with 6 cars attached.(pushing and pulling). I could probable go even tighter but it would be a moot point since the 11" is more than I need.
Thanks!