Layouts and layout building

I have this HO trainset and the track has many problem areas. So many in fact, that I've started considering just ripping out all the track and starting from scratch with a new roadbed. Anyway, I've always wanted to build an N-scale railroad and I hatched this crazy idea that I might be able to lay down N-scale track instead. Then I would re-do the sceneray to reflect the new scale. Also, I thought it would be cool to put in some parallel lines in a few places where there are single tracks now. I probably should take a hard look at some of the slopes to see if the grades are too steep. Does anybody have advice or words of caution for this endeavor.

Also, can anyone tell me which HO layout I have? I have seen it featured in a magazine before, many years ago.

il2windhawkathotmail.com wrote:

I probably should take a hard look at some of the slopes to see if the grades are too steep.

Say an HO 18" radius loop to get to a height of 3" for an over pass will be about a 3% grade.  If you lower that overpass to 1.5" then the grade would also be 1/2 of what it was before or 1.5  [to all the nit pickers I know these numbers aren't right but very general approximations to get the point across].

Also, can anyone tell me which HO layout I have? I have seen it featured in a magazine before, many years ago.

Hi, and welcome to the wonderful world of model-changes. 

  Before you start to dismantle your old layout, I'd suggest you sit down with a couple of pencils and a pile of paper and set out exactly what you want to end up with. The more detail you can get into your list of "Givens and Druthers", the more sucessful the end result will be. List what is both good- and bad with the old one, and how much effort and cost to change it. 

 Your old layout looks to be 4'x8'. As you have found, that is a bit cramped for HO if continuous running is a major druther. If a switching layout is your ideal, that size can be quite nice in HO. In N, that same space will be about double the effective real estate. I went with HO, because when I try to place a car on the track in N, somebody keeps moving the world :+)   Start with your space constraints first. If you're bound to 4x8, it won't do to dream of a 200' mainline!

 There are loads of trackplans about, and most can be adapted to any scale with one caveat: aisle space requirement doesn't shrink by going to a smaller scale, and 3' is a long reach in any scale!  Depending on how involved you want to get, you can raid several plans for bits to combine your way. That can be a lot of fun.

    Enjoy,       George

 Windhawk first thing I will ask is what kind of problems are you having with your current bench? If it is derailment, there are many things that will cause derailment other than the track. Did you bulid the bench or buy it? It looks well done from the pictuer you posted.

                   Cuda Ken

Your layout is the "HO Railroad That Grows". It originated as the winner of a trackplanning contest MR held in the 1950's. It was then a project railroad for MR, written in a series of articles by MR editor Linn Westcott. Eventually (around 1960) it was published in a book by Kalmbach as "The HO Railroad That Grows" which stayed in print for many years.

One good thing is that if you maintain 18" radius curves when you switch to N, you're basically switching from "sharp" curves to "broad curves", so you could run any piece of N equipment including full-length passenger cars, articulated steam engines, etc.

The guy has since moved away and I have been racking my brain trying to remember his name but back in the late-70s we had a rail here in the far, far reaches of the wild, wild West who had built a 4.5 X 11 HO-Scale folded dogbone layout in a 10 X 11 spare bedroom. He developed an interest in N-Scale and, rather than tear everything out and start over from scratch, he decided to see what could be done using his existing HO-Scale engineering. There were certain adjustments had to be made to the track structure but when he got done he had 19 and 17 inch curves and it sure did look and run nicely.

His 'luck' in this area was one of the reasons that I elected to develop an N-Scale version of the "HO Railroad That Grows stylized to fit my existing space. I got "broad" curves--for N-Scale--and I squeezed almost twice the number of structures onto my layout as was present on the project layout from the 1950s.

Thanks everyone for helping me find the name of my layout. 

cudaken wrote:

what kind of problems are you having with your current bench?

The track has several problems that are causing derailments.  Some are easy to fix (such as track misalignments/sharp angles at the joints).  Others are more difficult (such as undulating road bed).  I have no doubt that I could fix them without ripping out ALL of the track, but I've sorta got my heart set on switching it over to N scale. 

To answer your other question: My dad and I bought this board when I was about seven years old.  It was in poor shape then, but we spent a summer fixing it up with new roadbed, track, & scenery.

wjstix wrote:

One good thing is that if you maintain 18" radius curves when you switch to N, you're basically switching from "sharp" curves to "broad curves", so you could run any piece of N equipment including full-length passenger cars, articulated steam engines, etc.

EXACTLY... that is why I want to go to N scale.   Those 18" curves will look so nice with N-scale trains.  I will probably redo most of the scenery and make lots of hills and mountains for those trains to wind through.    I'd like to be able to pull some long trains, but I'm not entirely sure how well that will work with the grades on my board.

R. T. POTEET wrote:

<p>The guy has since moved away and I have been racking my brain trying to remember his name but back in the late-70s we had a&nbsp;rail here in the far, far reaches of the wild, wild West who had built a 4.5 X 11&nbsp;HO-Scale folded dogbone layout in a 10 X 11 spare bedroom. He&nbsp;developed an interest in N-Scale and, rather than tear everything out and start over from scratch, he decided to see what could be done using his existing HO-Scale engineering. There were certain adjustments had to be made to the track structure but when he got done he had 19 and 17 inch curves and it sure did look and run nicely.</p><p>His &#39;luck&#39; in this area was one of the reasons that I elected to develop an N-Scale&nbsp;version of the&nbsp;&quot;HO Railroad That Grows stylized&nbsp;to fit my existing space. I got &quot;broad&quot; curves--for N-Scale--and I squeezed almost twice the&nbsp;number of structures onto my layout as was present on&nbsp;the project layout from the 1950s.</p>

WOW R.T.!  I would love to see pictures of your N-scale version of the "HO Railroad that Grows".  Any chance that you could email some to me?  How do your N-scale trains handle the rather steep grades? 

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I've done a little work since my first post to evaluate N-scale layout options.  It certainly will afford me alot more space to put in track.  The track plan is basically the same, except that I've switched one track connection in the bottom right to make the main-line (black) run in more of a figure-8 pattern than a loop.

I also plan to switch to DCC, so if there is anything in my layout to brings up red flags, I'd sure like to know about it.  The only thing I'm aware of are the "turn-around" sections (red) that need to be wired a bit differentlyto prevent shorts.

Advice and feedback requested!

Current Layout in HO:

Planned Layout in N:

Existing layout (so you wont have to scroll to the top)