Hello all,
I'm getting interested in making a train layout in N scale. For my first layout, I was going to start with something simple, maybe a 30inch x 70inch layout. Later, I hope to make a more permanent layout. My question is, how much of an old layout can you reuse. For instance, in make a new layout, would I have to buy all new track, structures, etc? Can you recycle these items from a smaller layout?
Thanks,
Jesse
Welcome to the forum.
Of course you can reuse anything that you can remove from the old one without damaging it.
But then, when you design the small one you can put in some dead end sidings to the edge that can, in the future, be used to just extend the old one into additional benchwork, thus incorporating the old one into the new one.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
Welcome aboard.
As long as you're gentle about it, track and commercial specialwork can be lifted and relaid. I have some flex track in hidden staging on my layout that has been lifted and relaid as many as five times.
Also, by planning ahead to allow connections to your first small layout, it can become a part of your later, larger empires. I have one such, a switching puzzle that will eventually become the station at the end of the railroad once I build out to that point. (In the meantime, I operate it using cassettes for inbound and outbound traffic.)
The late, great John Allen started with a mini-layout (3x6 in HO, IIRC) which ended up as an integral part of his basement-filler. Many other people have done the same since.
Once again,
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
My original 4x8 layout with switches leading off it.
And now:
Notice the original 4x8 incorporated at the top.
If you know you're going to tear it down at some time and start over, plan to do so now.
I did this with the switching layout I built and could reuse most everything.
I think the most critical thing would be what you will use to fasten down your track. Make sure you can remove it fairly easily without damage. I used just track nails, since I planned to take it out eventually anyway. Latex caulk should be pretty easy to unstick if you don't use too much, just peel it off. Construction adhesive is relatively permanent, however, and damned hard to remove from anything it bonds to.
I'd do some small tests using scrap flextrack, old sectional track, etc. on some scraps of whatever you use for roadbed to see just how much work removal will entail. It'll also give you some practice to see how to work with each method.
As Chuck posted, a switching puzzle type of starter may be best, since there's a good chance you'll want to keep it and incorporate it into a larger layout eventually.
Best of luck, and welcome!
Hey welcome aboard, nothing wrong with being new or asking questions, I've been at it for years and somedays you'd think it was the day before the first day... I'm just now building my first permanent layout...
As for what you are proposing, to build a small railroad and complete it before moving on to the next larger railroad is both a good and bad idea...Been there done that... twice.
As a kid of course I "played with my trains and put them away at the end of the day like everyone else... but as an adult I built my first layout- a 2x4 foot little coffee table with the trains mounted directly to it...
it was 2 loops of track with a too short spur, a turntable and roundhouse... very crowded, very tight curves, essentially I could watch two switchers pull two short trains either in opposite directions or race in the same direction. The original track plan came from one of the beginner N scale books that used to be around either the Atlas or Backmann book. I added the extra turnout so I could use the turntable and roundhouse kits I'd gotten for Christmas several years before that...
The second time around I built another book plan, with better results, this one I could have expanded... I built the EZ& Kwick from the Russ Larsen N scale book, and I had a lot of fun with what was a very simple railroad that was meant to be built on a door, I built mine on a folding table.
This time I planned something closer to a "grown up" railroad that I can expand when it comes time.
I would encourage you to avoid the single track oval, if you can. I would suggest getting Right Track from Atlas, their free layout planning software and play around with it and make a list of your givens and druthers and the purpose for your railroad, ask yourself a lot of hard questions about your railroad. Read as much as you can and think about what you want from it- do you want to run trains and just watch, toy train style? Nothing wrong with it, I enjoy watching my trains run, though currently I watch them in Railroad Tycoon because I am yet to lay one length of track... But there is a lot more to the hobby, there are a lot of modelers who plan their railroads strictly for prototypical operation, others fall somewhere in between.
how much space can you dedicate to your railroad?
what shape is the space? could you bend your layout into the peripheral space needed to operate a 30 inch wide 70 inch long table... In other words you are talking about a space of almost 6 x 10, or you can create an L or U shaped layout that would run along the walls on table, benchwork or shelf and leave your room open...
this is a chunk, by all means take something from every response to your post, there are some very good modelers here, some of who design layouts for a living...
Good luck