Hi all. I bet this forum gets a lot around the holidays. Every year I set up a little Christmas village and this year I only have a 60 x 20 inch surface. I want to have a little railroad to go around it. So, my question is, is there a small inexpensive train set to fit within the space?
Your space is too small for an oval of O-27 track. You might consider a trolley line in O-27 with bumpers at both ends. Trolleys are often available on eBay from Lionel or Industrial Rails. Bachman makes an On30 ( O scale on HO gauge track) Trolley set for Christmas villages under their brand name and also through Dept. 56 (although the Dept. 56 version may have been discontinued)
Another alternative would be to have an N scale layout, but that might be too small for your Christmas village.
And by the way, welcome to the forum!
Thanks for response. Size doesn’t matter, but I would like to turn it on and leave it going for a while.
The Bachmann On30 sets won’t fare much better than O gauge (or O27) on that 20" measure–just too tight a measure for O27 track, and pretty darn close to the edge of the platform for the HO track you would need for the On30 trains. You’re okay as far as the five-foot measure is concerned, but it sure would be good if you could work in a few more inches on that other measure.
I know that if I was absolutely restricted to 20x60 dimensions, I wouild elect to go with N scale. At least the trains would appear to be getting a decent run, and not just chasing their tails around and around. There are all kinds of very affordable and reliable N gauge train sets out there. Pick up a copy of “Model Railroader” magazine and check through the ads to get an idea of what’s available and the prices. Check Trainworld’s ad, in particular, since they usually offer very good pricing.
I just installed a Bachmann On30 trolley “reversing” set on my Christmas layout. I think it’s new this year, and uses special Bachmann reversing track. It runs in a straight or curving line, so it will fit anywhere. You can set the electronics in the “trolley barn” from a short delay before reversing, to a looooong one. Got mine at Boscovs, but they now seem to be sold out ($79.). Nicholas Smith Trains may still have them at $79. Micro-Mark had them for $99. A very neat item. Joe
Search the web for ETS trolleys. Their track is 13.5" diameter measured at the center of the rails. There are a number of trolleys including their own that will run on this track. It is roughly O gauge.
Pete
I’m curious about the radius of Kline’s SuperStreets. It looks as if an oval might fit your needs along with Kline’s Trolley. I’m sure someone here in the forum knows if this would work or not. Best of luck.
Is anyone actually SELLING SuperStreets? I sure have’nt seen any except for catalog and K-Line booth at York.
for that space I’d go N scale if I were you.
But the trolley would be nice; along with Christmas buildings.
No offense meant to anyone here who has suggested trollies, but I’ve read several stories in CTT of O gauge trollies catching fire the past few months. The trollie on fire is obviously bad enough, but placing one under a Christmas tree could start a confligration. Especially where you want to just turn it on and leave it going for a while. No way would I even think of doing that.
Jim
Jim
I saw that in Jan CTT. The mini article (or letter) left me a bit confused.
The article stated that there was a trolley fire, but no reason was given.
It would be nice to know what or how the fire started so that similar incidents can be avoided.
Talk about a hot trolley, tho (or Streetcar burning w/desire)
David,
That incident was only the latest. Kent Johnson’s dad had a trolley burn up. It was written about several issues back on the editorial page. Since then, several others have written in to tell of similar experiences. Say what you will. I wouldn’t run one of them period, let alone under a dried out Christmas tree. I just wouldn’t chance it.
Jim
Ditto about N scale. If you have a little more space, you might want to consider building a small layout on a hollow door. The sizes range from 26"x80" to 36"x80". You could do a loop of O27 track on one of these doors and even a siding is possible. The hollow doors are available at places like Lowes and Home Depot. They are very lightweight and portable. Good luck!
Both articles about burning trollies seemed to have stressed that they were just turned on and left to run unattended. To me it seems this is the dangerous part.
I got some of the K-line Superstreets over the summer from Trainworld in Brooklyn and really like it. I can hardly wait for more releases. The first release is the tight radius that makes a 16" circle this could be expanded with streghts to make a longer run. The K-line Porter or Plymouth will run just fine on this tight curve as will any 4 wheel trolley and many 8 wheel ones. The short 4 wheel ore cars they sell with some of the Plymouths make a good looking train.
You can get 24-inch doors; but even a 26-inch door is too small for O27.
Going to a smaller scale won’t help as much as it might seem, because the minimum radius tends to be about the same all the way down. Atlas does apparently make a 9 3/4-inch n-scale curve, which would almost fit in 20 inches (allowing for the length of the ties). Notice that this is not much smaller than the 12 1/2 inches of O27.
The ETS set is number 5051. It has a Prague-style streetcar, a complete 170-mm-radius circle (6.693 inches), two 120-mm (4.724 inches) straights, and a transformer (probably a DC supply) for 199 euros. I couldn’t find a price in dollars. Additional straights are 3 euros.
I’m still confused why they caught fire.
Emmaandy writes that they were turned on and left to run unattended and that’s the dangerous part.
What is the dangerous part?
- That they were left unattended?
or
- That they burned up?
I accidentally left a train running for about 4 days and there was no fire. i don’t own a trolley. Are they more suceptible?
I’m assuming they are more suceptible, based on the number of stories of them burning in CTT. The guy with the story in this month’s issue shut off the power, unplugged the transformer and went off to another room after running his trains. When he came back a few minutes later, the trolly was on fire - after the power cord was pulled from the wall!!!
Jim
What is a door? And what about Z-scale? How big is the average turn for N-scale? I could get a piece of plywood to set on top of the surface to make it a little bigger.
I think the owners of the burning trolleys were using postwar ZW transformers.
The circut breakers in the ZWs often don’t trip fast enough or trip at all.
About the guy with the trolley that burned after he unplugged the transformer,
that trolley was probably allready smouldering or overheated before he pulled the plug!
I don’t see a problem with using a modern power supply like the ZW2,or Z4000,
with fast trip circuit breakers.
Don’t blame the trolley,look at the power source!
Carl T.
What/whose trolleys are you folks talking about here? Lionel? K-Line? MTH? Someone else?