My 9 year old son has re-sparked my interest in modeling again. We want to build a small (my wife stresses very small) railroad that will be easy to pick up and put away when we have company.
I found a plan in one of my old books that I would love to build. My trouble is transferring the plan from O to HO. Since HO is “half of O” wouldn’t I be able to reduce the plan by half and make all the track fit? [?]
The problem is using the HO scale template I have. I can never get everything to come out correctly. The O scale plan was 30 inches wide x 12 feet long. So I was going to make mine 24 inches x 6 feet. But 6 feet long doesn’t seem long enough.
The plan is The Pioneer Valley RR which was in the Second Edition of MRR’s Small Railroads You Can Build.
Any help would be appreciated.
I’m afraid it doesn’t quite work that way. One of the problems is that 3 rail O trains are designed to go around very sharp curves. Classic 027 track forms a smaller circle than the minimum standard 18" radius of HO. This means that the HO circle will need about 40" of table top, where the 027 will fit in about 32". There are 15" radius curves for HO, but you could have more trouble with derailments, and I don’t recommend them.
You should come up with your own layout and include your son in designing it. Designing a layout is always fun and there is some free software out there by Atlas that will help you design your layout.
The website is www.atlasrr.com. Unfortunatly the website is not working at the moment so try again later.
The issue is not just half-sizing, but dealing with a whole new track geometry. The radius / diameterr of curves is a big isssue. Also, tinplate types of O track are segmented in 8ths or a circle, while most HO segments in 12ths. If you want to see examples, stop by my site. I have over 500 different track plans covering O, O27, HO, N, G, S. TT and Standard Gauges.
About the smallest layout you can get in HO is a about 4x6, so most people start on a 4x8. A sheet of 2 in blue or pink rigid foam insulation is popular as a layout base. Its light . 1/2 to 3/4 AB or BC plywood is also real common. Look around at Kalmbach’s web site and buy one of their track plan books, they give some great starter ideas and ideas you can expand from.
Dave H.