Needing a Lot of Help

[traviscorter]

I have an HO train layout in my garage, which has a roof that is caving in. I want to keep running model trains, but the only space I have available is in my bedroom. The available space is roughly 36" by 56". Should I run an HO layout, or downsize to N scale? What kinds of layouts should I consider? Thanks so much for any help!

Travis

[Southern]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

That is a tough one. If you have a lot of HO stuff and not much N stuff you might want to make a modular layout. As to the type of layout that is a personal choose. There is a section in this forum that discusses layout design.

[traviscorter]

Thanks for the welcome. Well, I own two trains in HO scale and two track layouts. I don't even know where to start when it comes to a modular layout, and am quite new to this model railroading buisiness...bouth the HO trains from QVC 7 years ago.

[shaygetz]

Welcome...when I had a space problem, I came up with this...

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p96/1shaygetz/christmas11-1.jpg

...that's four independent loops of track in a space roughly 42" x 54". Three are done in flex track to 20", 18" and 12" respectively with a loop of Marklin sectional track. It's a hoot to watch in action, enough that, even if I had a bit more space, I'd likely not change it. As tight as that upper loop is, most Athearn diesels can traverse it with little more than a growl.

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p96/1shaygetz/videos/th_layout1.jpg (http://s126.photobucket.com/albums/p96/1shaygetz/videos/?action=view&current=layout1.flv)

[Spoonbender]

...that's four independent loops of track in a space roughly 42" x 54". Three are done in flex track to 20", 18" and 12" respectively with a loop of Marklin sectional track. It's a hoot to watch in action, enough that, even if I had a bit more space, I'd likely not change it. As tight as that upper loop is, most Athearn diesels can traverse it with little more than a growl.

I've been roughing out a couple of designs similar to this for my first layout. There is a local garden railroad layout that I really like because they can get 4 or 5 separate trains running on different tracks. In your example above, do you need four separate transformers or power supplies, one for each track? I haven't really started studying the power requirements yet, but I want to be able to run multiple trains on independent tracks like on your layout.

Patrick

[shaygetz]

Welcome to the forum:thumbsup:

I have a power pack for each loop but you could run all four off of one good quality pack with a high amperage. I prefer the controllability of 4 independent packs for the variety of locos I run, opposing directions (though that could be fixed by simply reversing your track feeds) and the speed control, i.e. trolleys are much slower than passenger trains, etc... The three rail loop is pre-war Marklin that uses 30v AC so that had to be taken into consideration as well.

http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p96/1shaygetz/videos/th_DSCF6451.jpg (http://s126.photobucket.com/albums/p96/1shaygetz/videos/?action=view&current=DSCF6451.flv)