N Scale 36" door layout suggestions

[East Sider]

Hi,

 I am new to model railroading and am looking for a N scale layout to put on a 36" door.  Can someone point me in the right direction to find some good examples?

 

Thanks

[cowman]

Welcome to the forums and to model railroading.

Since I'm not in N scale I don't have any sure fire answers, but here are a couple of suggestions:

If you subscribe to MR you can go to Subscriber Extras up near the top of this page.  There is a track plan database and you can select scale and size of layout.  MR also puts out a book on N scale layouts, I have never looked at it to know if there are 3x8's or not.  You can find that by going up to Shop near the top of this page and searching for it in the books section.  There are other track planning books that you could also use, some are scale specific and others are a plan and tell you how much space the layout would take in different scales.

It's a place to start.

Have fun,

[steinjr]

East Sider

 I am new to model railroading and am looking for a N scale layout to put on a 36" door.  Can someone point me in the right direction to find some good examples?

 Well, I guess it depends on what you feel is "good" N scale layout on a 36 x 80" (ie 3 x 6 2/3 foot) hollow core door (HCD).

 An N scale 3 x 6.7 foot layout is roughly the equivalent of of a 5 x 12 foot H0 scale layout. So any track plan made e.g. for a 5x9 H0 scale layout should fit on your N scale HCD layout, if you shrink all lengths it to about 60% of its original size or so.

 Forum poster Dave Vollmer has a very nice HCD layout (but now having been expanded from a single HCD to add a yard/engine terminal):

http://www.thevollmerfamily.com/Pennsy/about.html

 And of course - it is not a given that that a HCD needs to be a loop of track. Forum poster tomcat-13 has a nice HCD section that I seem to recall is intended to become part of a larger layout some day:

 

More pictures of tomcat-13's layout (and some other HCD layouts) here:

http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/p/153523/1698995.aspx#1698995

http://cs.trains.com/trccs/forums/p/152527/1688281.aspx#1688281

So it kinda depends on what you are looking for - just a generic loop track plan that will fit on a 36x80 foot table, or whether you are trying to model anything in particular.

Smile,
Stein

 

[Cannoli]

I always liked the track plan that Dave Vollmer's layout is based off of, done by Lou Sassi for MR in the 90's, the Conrail Mohawk Division I believe it was. When I was short on space I had considered building this layout myself. Another one I like that started out on a hollow core door is MR editor David Popp's New Haven layout. It of course has since grown much larger but I liked the initial track plan, which I believe is in the MR track plan database.

[dmestan]

Here's a nice tutorial - http://users.iafrica.com/c/ca/caroper/tutorial/.  Starts out as 3' x 5', explains purpose for your RR, yard tracks, etc.  The Advanced Track Plan has details for a hollow core door.

Don

[pbjwilson]

Here ya go.

//www.cke1st.com/m_train2.htm#doorplan

[East Sider]

Thanks everyone for the information.  I really appreciate it.  I've been wanting to do this for a long time.

[noblerot]

Hi, if you have not decided yet check out N Scale mag July 2008 for a logging layout based on John Allens original Gorre and Daphited track plan. Its 3 X 5 but can easily be stretched out. I'm working on the same idea with the above plan for a military layout with my son