Now that I have put in my order for my first O-gauge set, I’m very eager to get it and start playing. I have already started planning my O-gauge empire in the main room in my old guest house. Approx 15’ x 12’ in size, I have to fit 1 preferably 2 guest beds there but I think that a bridge to cross the doorway, I will delete the door, and two loops around the walls. If I want be able to run everything I guess that 072 is the only option, but which locos will I miss by going with 054?
Anyhow mostly I’m just idling my time waiting for my new trains. Not that I have other things to do, both boring things like mowing the lawn, and fun things like making som buildings for my H0 railroad.
By not going with O72, you’ll miss out on some of the large scale steam engines but that’s about it. All the diesels run on O54 (or smaller) and even some of the largest cars run on O54. (Twin stacks, autoracks, etc.) The other thing is that 21" scale passenger cars might work on O54 but would have lots of overhang. I am building an O54 layout myself as I don’t have the room for O72. I also don’t run the giant scale steam engines and I use shorter passenger cars.
Large, scale length 16 driver articulated steamers typically require 072. These look and work best on 0120 however. Some of the 12 driver articulateds will work on 054. Lionmaster and Railking 16 driver articulateds work on much smaller curves but look kind of silly doing it.