Here is a very short HO train (0-4-0 engine, 4 wheel gondola an bobber caboose) that runs on a layout located inside an old suitcase. Notice the storage for the rolling stock and the transformer located beneath the train station.
http://youtu.be/skndPylwjnk
Roy's Train World in Mesa, Arizona, has a complete Z scale layout built inside a Samsonite Briefcase, and I saw a train at a show a few years ago called the Cigar Box Train with a train running around a circle of track inside a wooden cigar box. I think that one was listed as 1:900 scale.
I have seen many N, Z and T gauge layouts in small cases, but what I think is so unique about this layout is that it is HO in a case.
Small Layouts Scrapbook, the late Carl Arendt´s famous web page for small layouts, is loaded with tiny layouts in different containers.
The British also like to build layouts in box files.
And there is still the guy who has a complete Z scale layout in three suitcases. IIRC, it was also featured in MR, but you can take a look here
Val Ease Central RR
Charming. A local Z scale display layout group has a circle of track and moving train built onto an old fashioned portable record player, and the "layout" is on a 45 rpm disc.
It just now occurs to me that a significant number of people no longer know what a 45 rpm disc is.
Dave Nelson
There was an article in MR a few years back that showed a fellow who had a Z-scale layout made up of three attache cases - all hooked together. IIRC, he took it with him on business trips, as it gave him something to work on in the evenings at the hotel room. I think he also had a "working" roundhouse in one of them.
Tom
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
Very cool, it reminds me of my HOn30 layout thats 9" x 10". I have a similar N micro also planned. Might try HO after seeing this
Have fun with your trains
Even a backdrop painted on the suitcase lid, a lot of thought went into fitting everything in. That is an old suitcase; I have not seen one like that in a very long while
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
Hum, must be a short line?
I hate Rust
vsmith Very cool, it reminds me of my HOn30 layout thats 9" x 10". I have a similar N micro also planned. Might try HO after seeing this
There are several tricks you need to consider when trying to keep HO trains from derailing on such tight radius turns. An 0-4-0 steamer, 4 wheel very short cars, couplers that have edges of the coupler holder trimmed so that the couplers can extend further to the sides, and parts of the sides of engine or car bodies trimmed to allow for the tight radius turns.
dsmith vsmith: Very cool, it reminds me of my HOn30 layout thats 9" x 10". I have a similar N micro also planned. Might try HO after seeing this There are several tricks you need to consider when trying to keep HO trains from derailing on such tight radius turns. An 0-4-0 steamer, 4 wheel very short cars, couplers that have edges of the coupler holder trimmed so that the couplers can extend further to the sides, and parts of the sides of engine or car bodies trimmed to allow for the tight radius turns.
vsmith: Very cool, it reminds me of my HOn30 layout thats 9" x 10". I have a similar N micro also planned. Might try HO after seeing this
Yep I know all about all the little tricks to run on uber-tight curvature, I need to send an update to Carl's Microlayout website to help the new guys keep it running. I would love to try something like this in HO, micro's are such great fun.
Do you know what the track dimensions are?
vsmith Do you know what the track dimensions are?
Approximately 16" x 10".
Here is a photo of the 20" x 12" x 4" suitcase.