I were to put more than one scale on my new layout? Here's my dilemma : I have been aggressively buying trains in N, HO, S, and O scales for the last 20 years. I now have the layout room completed and ready.
I want to have ALL my trains out. i thought of 4 small layouts, but like the idea of one big one
I know its my layout and I can do whatever I want.,but you just don't hear of or see people doing this. I think it could be done tastefully.
any thoughts?
any one here doing it?
There is the concept of forced perspective. That is, on a shelf layout if you put the big stuff up front and the little stuff in the background, it makes the layout appear deeper than it actually is. There are many HO model railroaders who use N scale buildings and tracks in the background scenes to accomplish this very effect.
To make it really work however you need to make sure the backgound track and the foreground track don't get too close together, so as not to spoil the illusion. And I'm not sure it would work using all 4 scales together. You could probably get away with an HO/N mixture, or an O/S mixture, but not all together. I would also think there would be an obvious disconnect mixing scale and tinplate on the same layout.
I have figured out what is wrong with my brain! On the left side nothing works right, and on the right side there is nothing left!
Man, it's YOUR layout, do whatever you want with it! The whole point of a hobby is to have fun with it, not to give yourself "agita." If you want to put all your scales on the layout who's to say you're wrong? Not me!
When growing up there was a bar that had a loop around the inside of the bar with 3 tunnels if the bar tender wanted to flag some one he would start the train up that was O gauge as it entered the tunnel the train would come to a stoip inside as the S gauge train that was identical would pull out and goto the next tunnel and then a HO identical train would pull out of there in so there a way to do it
On the other hand I have thought of making like 2 levels on my layout but guess you could do 3 but on mine I was thinking of having a small 2nd level in the back corner and have a n scale train going around in a circle.
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
http://rtssite.shutterfly.com/
I have a room that is 8 feet by 9 feet. It is presently under reconstruction but, on five levels, it contains a loop of Lionel Standard Gauge, 3 loops of Lionel O Gauge, 1 loop of American Flyer S gauge, 4 loops of Ho gauge, 1 loop of N gauge, and 1 loop of Z gauge. I do need to get on hands and knees to get into the room.
GO FOR IT!!!!!!
Mel Hazen; Jax, FL Ride Amtrak. It's the only way to fly!!!
The September 2010 issue of CTT's has a layout article that features S, HO, N, and Z lines. Accessories are from Colbert,Gilbert, AF, Lionel, Marx, ans MTH. All looks to blend nicely. So, no you won't get struck by lightening! Have fun.......
Don't ever let someone else tell you how you should or should not enjoy your trains.
In a former layout - I used a loop of N gauge track in the background of a very 'deep' layout - with the O in the foreground - I also used N scale buildings out there too - it looked neat and worked great.
Doug Murphy 'We few, we happy few, we band of brothers...' Henry V.
How big is your room?
I would consider two layouts and work hard at making the perspective look realistic. Are you trying to keep the scenery in scale to that gauge?
I think it could be done but might get complicated with running 4 separate track systems at the same time but if you keep it simple I'm positive it could be done effectively. Just to make it more fun, adding a 2nd level could be very interesting and challenging.
Keep us posted
Jon
So many roads, so little time.
Jon,
the room is 28 by 28 by 16 y 16 "L" shaped,pics in my "Basement ready thread"
After considerable thought, i looking at two, if not three levels, one being a really long 4 plus track "display loop " for HO. I have almost 800 HO scale cars and loco's. but no structures.
the very lowest level will be for my super detailed N scale layout, that will quench my Thirst for scale "Prototypical" Operation " so I can scoot along in a chair and switch the night away
And some where in the middle of all this American flyer and O gauge. (another 900 plus piece collection. ) to quench my need for a "fun layout"
I've been buying for 20 years, now its time to open as many of those boxes up as possible.
I should have been a little clearer in my original post that I wasn't going to put all this on a single level!
Ryan
Ryan -- that's a wonderful amount of room to have a fabulous layout! I'm curious, what kind of "time frame" are you looking at, not sure if you are retired or not ... doesn't make any difference.
Our first love is building and doing the scenery, sure we enjoy showing off with trains running but the design and building everything from scratch was just the best. It's also great fun to wander through different shops and businesses and stumble across "stuff" that will work on our layout. Buying all the little people and cars and tractors, etc. was always a good time, I didn't have any idea that we would need as many little people to make the layout look good. But in the end, it's all worth it!
Jon, hahaha retired, I wish, still got another 30 ish years, although I am hoping that in 15 -20 i can sell my business and be done.
I am hoping to have at least one loop running by christmas, as my nephew has been bugging me for 5 years as to when "were gonna run some trains" and he's not getting any younger. (neither am I )
As far as a ttime frame, this is a long term, rest of my life project. At leats unitll retirement, at that time I would like to have a large out building to put every thing in and open it up for Christmas time to the public. But thats a ways off
Ryan,
Cool idea! Go with it! Take your time and have fun! AF53 has mixed his American Flyer S gauge and Lionel O Gauge and it looks great. I have mixed Standard Gauge and O Gauge and it worked out well. The main thing is to have fun doing it.
John
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