I am about to build my first railroad layout in over 20 years. My father always did this for me. I don't do dcc.I have many questions, I hope someone can help me with. I have built a shed this summer and I am wondering about temperature, humidity, and laying track here in Ky.. It will be heated only when I am in there working. Just put in insulation on walls and ceiling. I plan to use plywood about 13' x 6' and have 3 to 6 tracks running in ovals, few with yards. One will be my O guage running on the outside. The others will be Ho guage in the inside. What guage wire should I use from the transformer to the track for the O guage and HO guage?? I want a hill in the back of the layout with rock dividing the tracks so the trains disappear behind them. Maybe a tunnel added to be removable. What should the tunnel opening be for both sizes? Plan to use styrofoam. What is the best height for the trains to climb with out struggling up the hill? I'm thinking maybe 2-3 inch. Been many years ago. I've read so much that you all do for each other and hope you can help me
Biggest problem will be humidity. I would seal all the bench work to try and minimize the humidty. Leave some small gaps when joining rail for expansion. I would use 18 AWG wire for both the O and HO, but you can probably get by with 20 or 22AWG for the HO. I would solder all connections.
Try to keep grades to 2 or 3%. I strongly recommend testing your engines. An easy way to do this is to lay some track on an 8 ft board and raise one end, 1 inch for 1 % etc.
Tunnel opening depends on how many tracks, how far apart and how tall your tallest train is. Allow a little extra for future purchases.
Good luck
Paul
~G4
19 Years old, modeling the Cowlitz, Chehalis, and Cascade Railroad of Western Washington in 1927 in 6X6 feet.
good luck on your first scratch build im on my 4th and all i want to do is build my own now
choo choo de ville I am about to build my first railroad layout in over 20 years. My father always did this for me. I don't do dcc.I have many questions, I hope someone can help me with. I have built a shed this summer and I am wondering about temperature, humidity, and laying track here in Ky.. It will be heated only when I am in there working. Just put in insulation on walls and ceiling. I plan to use plywood about 13' x 6' and have 3 to 6 tracks running in ovals, few with yards. One will be my O guage running on the outside. The others will be Ho guage in the inside. What guage wire should I use from the transformer to the track for the O guage and HO guage?? I want a hill in the back of the layout with rock dividing the tracks so the trains disappear behind them. Maybe a tunnel added to be removable. What should the tunnel opening be for both sizes? Plan to use styrofoam. What is the best height for the trains to climb with out struggling up the hill? I'm thinking maybe 2-3 inch. Been many years ago. I've read so much that you all do for each other and hope you can help me
Wow! That's quite a big chunk to bite off for someone who is 20 years out of practice. An awful lot has changed in the hobby since you were last in it.
Myself, I took about 15 years off while I was on active duty in the Navy. I ended up getting rid of almost everything from my previous layout, and that approach might serve you well also. It sounds like a lot of your ideas are simply trying to use what you already have. I would make several recommendations based on my own experience, which you are free to use or disregard as you wish:
1) Consider your first layout to be a test-bed, and plan to make a "better" one later.
2) Pick one scale and stick with it -- I'd recommend the HO, given the size you're planning. If you must use the O, build a separate layout for it. Only you know what pleases you, but from my perspective O and HO side by side looks cheesy.
3) Limit yourself to an inner and outer loop with a couple.of crossovers. Add some industrial stubs / sidings. True, you've done this before, so you probably have a feel for whether you like trains running in circles or more realistic operating, but I wouldn't lock myself in to one or the other. Concentrate on doing less trackwork of higher quality.
4) Rethink your use of DCC. A simple track plan using DCC really is easier than DC, especially if you want to run more than one loco. It's not that expensive either. I shopped around for bargains, and got up and running for under $300, including having someone install decoders in 4 of my locos.
5) Avoid grades until you get the hang of things again. I didn't and wish I had.
6) I don't know what your typical weather is like in KY, but be absolutely certain that you can keep your layout below 60% relative humidity to prevent mold growth. Temperature isn't as much of an issue. Mine is in an unheated basement, so it's about 65 in the summer and 45 in the winter, and I turn a space heater on when I'm in there in the winter months. I don't have any issues with the layout heating and cooling like that.
Connecticut Valley Railroad A Branch of the New York, New Haven, and Hartford
"If you think you can do a thing or think you can't do a thing, you're right." -- Henry Ford
choo choo de ville I am about to build my first railroad layout in over 20 years. My father always did this for me. I don't do dcc.I have many questions, I hope someone can help me with. I have built a shed this summer and I am wondering about temperature, humidity, and laying track here in Ky.. It will be heated only when I am in there working. Just put in insulation on walls and ceiling.
I am about to build my first railroad layout in over 20 years. My father always did this for me. I don't do dcc.I have many questions, I hope someone can help me with. I have built a shed this summer and I am wondering about temperature, humidity, and laying track here in Ky.. It will be heated only when I am in there working. Just put in insulation on walls and ceiling.
I'm not familiar with the specifics of where you live - but will you need A/C in the summer? Or will the layout not be used in the summer? As mentioned, changing humidity is going to be more of an issue than temperature. I assume the insulation is sufficient to prevent condensation, but I would want to set the heat (and possibly A/C) to run just enough to make sure there were no condensation issues. If you use pine or similar benchwork, it's likely to expand/contract 3% or so with the humidity changes. Painting all surfaces of any wood will slow the rate of moisture absorption and evaporation, and consequently reduce the amount of expansion and contraction - but won't eliminate it. Do not solder all your rail joints, and leave 1/16" or so gaps at the rail joints every 3ft or so if you lay your track in the winter.
I plan to use plywood about 13' x 6' and have 3 to 6 tracks running in ovals, few with yards. One will be my O guage running on the outside. The others will be Ho guage in the inside. What guage wire should I use from the transformer to the track for the O guage and HO guage??
I assume you are talking 3 rail O. There have been many fine toy train display layouts running more than 1 scale. There have been a handful of model railroad layouts that realistically mixed scales on the same layout. Perhaps a little more definition of what you are trying to achieve is in order for us to give you good advice. Is it a display layout, where you are running trains to display them in settings that range from very realistic to whimsical and nostalgic toy-like? Or is it intended to be a layout that emphasizes realistic operation, with time tables, switching, and the like? I like to recommend a 5 minute read on visualizing the layout you want at http://www.chipengelmann.com/trains/Beginner/BeginnersGuide01.html.
If you still don't have a strong feeling for the path ahead for you, a traditional 4x8 or similar to learn from and refine your vision is probably a good idea.
Many of the folks on this forum aren't into the whimsical toy train world. This is where some of their comments are coming from about sticking with 1 scale, etc.
Again, assuming 3 rail O, your conventional O gauge uses transformers and AC power to the track. HO uses power packs and DC to the track. They are not compatible. O gauge manufacturers have command control systems available (TMCC, Legacy, DCS). The standard command control system in HO is DCC. Again, they are not compatible with each other.
If you are running HO trains on multiple separate loops, DC will work quite well. DCC shines where you are operating multiple trains on shared trackage. If you have crossovers between the loops that you expect to use to move a train from one loop to another, then DC wiring grows in complexity, and has a small learning curve to understand and execute the wiring.
Scenery, more than any other aspect of the hobby, is a trial-and error thing. You size your minimum tunnel openings by measuring the overhangs and height of your rolling stock.
A 2% grade will not impact operations too much in any scale, and is measured the same in any scale. It it the rise divided by the run, expressed as a percentage. As a practical measurement, limiting your grades to 2" rise in 8ft run gives you just a negligible amount over a 2% grade.
hope this helps
Fred W
To keep things more reilable on the HO side, plan to run feeder wires to each section of flextrack; do not depend on rail joiners to conduct the electricity. You can not easily clean corrosion on the inside rail joiners, but do not want to solder them because you want the rails to move for thermal expansion and contraction. The only exception would be on curves where you need to solder the rail joiners so the track joint will not kink when you bend the curve. Use track with nickle-silver rail; it will reduce the corrosion from atmospheric moisture which means less time cleaning track and more time running.
Be sure to provide some access inside the tunnel you mentioned, both for cleaning rail and getting to any derailments or other track problems. Best to lay the track and run a bit to shake out any problem areas before you build the tunnel.
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
Thanks! Info useful!!! Haven't really been out of railroading, Its been about 20 years since my last layout. But I kept my stuff and been buying and waiting for my daughter to move out. Well she's still here and that's why I built the shed, 10 x12 to run the trains!!!! Finally! Most of my engines are good, I'd take them and run them on a track about 3' long to keep them running. Now I'll get them running in circles. Can't wait! Hope to start the benchwork in about a month or so, now finishing the interior of the shed. Thanks again to you and all that have helped!