The "N" Crowd

[motard98]

Has anyone approached the moderators here to either sticky this thread or create a N-scale section?

 Yeah, they weren't too keen on that.

 Seems to me like it would make alot of sense

[Adelie]

jwils1, to answer your original question, I can't say I've had any problems with derailments that were not track-related.  N scale may be a little less tolerant of marginal trackwork than HO, but that is easy enough to deal with - avoid marginal trackwork! 

Also, a few questions:

1. Are plastic wheels the norm or are metal available?  Plastic wheels are still the norm, but several companies make metal wheelsets.  I'm switching over to metal using Atlas wheelsets.  Keep in mind that MicroTrains wheels are a bit different than others and as a result there are separate wheelsets for theirs.  Atlas makes MicroTrains compatible wheelsets as well as ones that fit the rest.  Northwest Short Line (NWSL) also makes metal wheelsets that are outstanding, but they are not cheap.
   
2. Can most N locos handle up to 3% grades okay?  Others say they reliably can, my experience is not really.  I tested my locomotives a year or so ago on a 1.9% grade and found most road switchers could pull 12-14 cars up the grade.   Some of the heavier locos (Intermountain FTs, Kato E8s & PAs and Life Like FAs) pulled 20 or more.  The problem is weight, and most N scale locos have too little of it to be strong pullers.  I've heard steam is worse in this respect, but mine is an all-diesel fleet.
   
3. Does the Rix pick work best for uncoupling?  With the cars being so light it seem that this could easily throw them of the track if one is not careful.  I've used the Rix without any problems, but I am careful about it.
   
4. I have one of the Kato uncoupling magnets but the top surface sets a bit below the top rail so it doesn't spread the couplers like it should.  Do the Micro-Trains top of track magnets work better?  And do they fit on Kato UNITRACK?  I tried one of my HO under the track magnets and they really pop the couplers open nicely.  Sorry, can't help here.
   
5. Which code and type of track would be best for a 74 year old beginner?  I've read of some of your problems with expansion and contraction so that's why I was thinking that UNITRACK might be best for me.  What do you think?  I use code 55 flex track and turnouts.  I haven't tried Unitrack, but I've heard on this forum it is a fine product.  Hopefully someone else can give you some first-hand experiences.
   

 

[pcarrell]

Has anyone approached the moderators here to either sticky this thread or create a N-scale section?

 Yeah, they weren't too keen on that.

[motard98]

I just started running an N scale layout and the Micro Trains cars seem to run the best and couple the easiest.

[jwils1]

I recently picked up a few N scale cars and some Kato UNITRACK to experiment with (Micro-Trains and Atlas cars).  After using HO I was very surprised at how light the cars are.  Being that light, it seems like they would easily derail.  Is that a common problem or do they run pretty well?

Also, a few questions:

1. Are plastic wheels the norm or are metal available?
2. Can most N locos handle up to 3% grades okay?
3. Does the Rix pick work best for uncoupling?  With the cars being so light it seem that this could easily throw them of the track if one is not careful.
4. I have one of the Kato uncoupling magnets but the top surface sets a bit below the top rail so it doesn't spread the couplers like it should.  Do the Micro-Trains top of track magnets work better?  And do they fit on Kato UNITRACK?  I tried one of my HO under the track magnets and they really pop the couplers open nicely.
5. Which code and type of track would be best for a 74 year old beginner?  I've read of some of your problems with expansion and contraction so that's why I was thinking that UNITRACK might be best for me.  What do you think?

 

[motard98]

Has anyone approached the moderators here to either sticky this thread or create a N-scale section?

[Zandoz]

Thanks for the reply!

1) No Structural reason for using 1.5" or 2" foam, its likely more a matter of what's commonly and easily available locally.  Hereabouts .75" and 1" foam is common.  Your plan for layering will work just fine, and is recommended for certain applications, such as yours.

Excellent!   That'll make for a few less "haul it out to the picnic table" trips.

2) No.  You just have to make sure that whatever water simulation product you use doesn't adversely affect whatever it comes into contact with.

Scratch one extra sheet of foam.

3) Unless you are putting bracing under the doors, there will be no significant difference is sag between one door, two doors, three doors, or more.  This principle, however, does not hold true if you are putting a great deal of weight on the doors.  So don't climb on the layout.  Otherwise, just do 2 doors.  Each joint is a complication, a invitation to Murphy.

LOL...who told ya that I'm the Murphy's Law poster boy?   For me, the woodworking part of this endeavour, including the door joints...will be the easy part.  There will be at least two cross braces spanning the two doors..both to keep the doors together and aligned, and as table mounting points.  I'll probably break out the ole biscuit joiner just to be sure the joint stays in line.  Chances of me ever trying to climb on this thing (intentionally) are probably slimmmer than those of me winning the lottery....since I don't play the lottery, those are some seriously slim chances.

Thanks again!

[Chuck Geiger]

Dewayne - great idea - I got tired of spray bottles clogging and to pacify the spray bottle I made my mixture too watery. I will try - Turkey injectors?

[Anonymous]

Hi all, Here is a little help with glueing balast. I have posted this in the layout area of this forum also. Here is a cut and paste from that area.

--------------------------------------------------------------------- 

I have been installing a lot of balast lately and I have given up on any kind of bottle applicaton for applying glue..

I was in Ace hardware over the weekend and in thier culinary area and I found a "flavor injector." It's a 30cc syringe with a 2" long injector tip. As a matter of fact I went back today and purchased another one. I use one to with a water/alcohol mix first and then the other one with a 50/50 mix of white glue and water.

I am laying N Scale track and in my switch yard I don't want any loose balast on top of the ties so I clean ALL the balast off the top of the ties. For the balast between the rails I apply the water/alcohol mix first this locks the balast in place. The water/alcohol fix is placed on to the top of the ties and let it run off the sides into the balast material (maybe two drops.) I do two section of track at a time. Then I go back with the other glue/water syringe and apply one drop of glue directly on top of the balast. With the balast locked in place you don't get any divet holes from the glue droping onto the balast material. For the end of the ties I put one drop of water/acohol at the end of every other tie and then go back with the gule.

This is takes time but it looks great.

 

Dewayne

 

[Bikerdad]

1) No Structural reason for using 1.5" or 2" foam, its likely more a matter of what's commonly and easily available locally.  Hereabouts .75" and 1" foam is common.  Your plan for layering will work just fine, and is recommended for certain applications, such as yours.

2) No.  You just have to make sure that whatever water simulation product you use doesn't adversely affect whatever it comes into contact with.

3) Unless you are putting bracing under the doors, there will be no significant difference is sag between one door, two doors, three doors, or more.  This principle, however, does not hold true if you are putting a great deal of weight on the doors.  So don't climb on the layout.  Otherwise, just do 2 doors.  Each joint is a complication, a invitation to Murphy.

[CSXFan]

Last friday I had gone out to the HO MRR club and picked up a couple old turnout control panels. Well I forgot I had them untill today. I opened up the back of my truck to get out a 2x4 and found those sitting in the bed. I've had a pretty productive day too, I replaced the Code 55 #7 turnont that was in temporarily untill I could get a #10. Which I picked up at a trainshow last saturday. Along with a Kato SD70MAC and an NW Caboose. But anyways I got the new turnout in place, and I moved the old switch to its final place. and relayed some cork becuase the orginal design wasn't going to work without having a massive kink in the track. So for a short area(about a foot) I have tripple track!(Look out Pennsy! NS has tripple track!)

CSXFan: I'll post pictures of my Autoracks, Superliners and my Kato Well Cars in the 15" curves sometime today or tomorrow, so be sure to check back. 

Sounds like you got a lot done! Take your time with the pics, I'm in no hurry. 

[NS2591]

Last friday I had gone out to the HO MRR club and picked up a couple old turnout control panels. Well I forgot I had them untill today. I opened up the back of my truck to get out a 2x4 and found those sitting in the bed. I've had a pretty productive day too, I replaced the Code 55 #7 turnont that was in temporarily untill I could get a #10. Which I picked up at a trainshow last saturday. Along with a Kato SD70MAC and an NW Caboose. But anyways I got the new turnout in place, and I moved the old switch to its final place. and relayed some cork becuase the orginal design wasn't going to work without having a massive kink in the track. So for a short area(about a foot) I have tripple track!(Look out Pennsy! NS has tripple track!)

CSXFan: I'll post pictures of my Autoracks, Superliners and my Kato Well Cars in the 15" curves sometime today or tomorrow, so be sure to check back. 

[Zandoz]

I have a few questions for the folks with door layout construction experience....

• Is there a structural reason for going with the 1.5" or 2" foam on top, over multiple layers of 3/4" and/or 1"?   My very vague and general plans call for a bridge-over-river scene, with at least a couple topography plateau levels between river and rail level.  Precutting multiple layers to get a head start on these plateaus seems like a better alternative than having to whittle away large amounts of one or two layers of thicker foam.
• Do I need a layer of foam between the door and what ever water simulation product I end up using?
• With a 15" minimum radius, and the more 19" the better, a 36" door alone just isn't going to cut it.  Assuming going with 2 or more narrower doors joined along their long edge, is there going to be a big enough structural advantage going with 3 narrower doors over two slightly wider, to justify the extra joining work?  For example, a combination of 12"+24"+12" vs 24"+24".   My thought is that the 3door version would have some additional sag resistance over time, but I do not know if that extra bit would be worth the added effort and probably weight.

Thanks in advance for any insight that can be directed my way.

[NS2591]

Boy Chuck, I wish I was making as much progress as you are. Its a Miracle that I can run trains now Who knows when I'll get to scenery...

[Chuck Geiger]

Dave and Ramsey Lewis (The In Crowd) Enjoy the latest from my N Scale SP FRESNO DISTRICT:

New bay window hack on the end of reefers rolling across Serrano River MP 35.4

 

Same hack rolling through downtown Fresno.

Veiw of Fresno yard from Ashland Ave.

Union 76 siding at Quart, CA

GP-35's rolling through the valley.

Progress!

[Blue Flamer]

Dave.

Your input & insight on a regular basis will be sorely missed, but you have your priorities straight. There are other people here that are as knowledgeable as you are in the different aspects of our hobby and I have no doubt that they will step up to the plate and Pinch Hit for you.

Good luck on your research, enjoy the kids while they are young because they grow up really fast and will soon find their own interests. Hopefully one of those interests will be Model Railroading and one of these days there may be another Vollmer helping the "Newbies" to enjoy this hobby.

I for one will be keeping my eyes open for further developments on your PRR down the road.

Blue Flamer.

[Metro Red Line]

 

Hence Model Railroader Magazine's two alternate slogans to "Model Railroading is Fun":

1.  "Model Railroading is Better Than You Doing Drugs"

 

Uh, Model Railroading IS a drug...We get a high off our trains and we have a huge dependency on our dealers too... 

[Anonymous]

i went to this cool site called Google fight and tested the words "n scale" and "Ho scale" guess who won...............N scale

I'm not sure if that's good or bad. It could be HO'ers find items fast and we N scalers are looking for items we can't find and we search more  or there are more of us into N scale than the indurstry wants to admit.

 

Dewayne

[nscaler711]

i went to this cool site called Google fight and tested the words "n scale" and "Ho scale" guess who won...............N scale

[NScaleJW]

Hi Again!:

     Dewayne, that's SOME layout!  I really like the trolley line, too!  One day I hope to model the Union Traction/Indiana Railroad system in conjunction with my Class 1 layout. . .someday.

 

     Dave, before you take your sabbatical from Trains.com, could you answer a few questions about your layout?  I remember reading that your minimum radius was something like 13.5"  Is that on the inner track of your mainline?  What is the radius of the outer curves?  And last but not least, what spacing did you use between the two tracks of the mainline? 

      I am just old-fashioned, I guess, and will go the DC route on my railroad, at least for the time being.  Maybe later on I will get enough nerve to try to install some decoders on those little bitty locomotives, and reap some of the many advantages of DCC.

      When I first saw the plan for your layout Dave, I almost immediately got the idea to use the track you use for programming, and for later expansion as the C&O interchange, and possibly to use some sort of removable staging that would connect at the right hand track, and perhaps to add another track like that at the far end to connect to the same sort of staging to add the NYC trains.

Thanks again for all the ideas!

 Sincerely, 

J.W. Hall

[Anonymous]

Thought I'd add my layout to the forum. The "L" extenision on the right will be added this summer.  I'd like for it to be wider for more lines but I have a wife I must live with. Maybe I'll add some pictuers later.

The track shown in red is elevated 2.5" and goes down to the red line which is the 0" point.

http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w1/n0ssy/RE-WORK-EXTENDEDinterloop.jpg

 

Dewayne

[Dave Vollmer]

I'm thinking about taking a break from trains.com.

No doubt I'm spending a lot of time here.  This is time I could be:

1.  Doing my doctoral research...

2.  Spending with my kids...

And, of course:

3.  Actually modeling!

I'm not quitting, but I think I just need to take it easy here.  I find myself checking these forums way too often.  That, plus a shift from the practical to the philosophical is making this particular forum (trains.com) less attractive than other, more focused, forums (to me, anyway).

You'll see me around, of course...  Just not quite as often!

[Dave Vollmer]

Thanks, and welcome JW!

My trackplan is hardly mine at all; I changed a few sidings, but otherwise it's from a Model Railroader project layout done by Lou Sassi in the early 1990s.  It works quite well for me, and it's tailor-made for DCC given that it has a double-tracked mainline.  You could also do dual-DC cabs, but after switching to DCC I can hardly remember (nor do I want to) the hassle of running trains in DC.

If you can set up a small staging yard off of one of the sidings in the front (I use one as a programming track and the other, not on the original plan, is for future extension), you can definitely enhance operations.

Dave

[NScaleJW]

Hi Everyone!:

      Have just spent the last few hours going over all the posts in the thread, soaking up information.  I'm another "newbie", trying to get an N scale layout built.

     My name is J.W. Hall, and I'm a 42 year old modeler from Florida, wanting to build a layout set in Central Indiana (the land of my youth) in the 1940's and 1950's.  (even though I wasn't around then!!)  The main railroad that ran through the home town, was the CCC&StL (Big 4) one of the lines on the NYC system.  A little ways up the road was Muncie, where several other railroads converged including the C&O, another of my favorite roads.

      My hope is to build a layout that has a fictional branch of the C&O interchanging with the Big 4 in the vicinity of the town I want to model.

      Anyhow, I am completely blown away by your track plan Dave!  I have been designing, and redesigning, and re-redesigning layouts for close to four years now, but when I saw yours, all I could say was "That's IT!"  Of course there won't be any beautiful mountains in my version, but the track plan is tailor-made for my 36"x80" door. 

     Thanks, everyone for the raft of information I was able to pick up today!

 

Sincerely,

J.W. Hall

 

[Dave Vollmer]

My girlfriend thinks its ok. She thinks its better than me doing drugs of somekind. She understands that I like it alot, Shes the same way about horses. She Voulenteers at a couple horsefarms, I voulenteer at a RR Museum so its pretty much the same thing.

Hence Model Railroader Magazine's two alternate slogans to "Model Railroading is Fun":

1.  "Model Railroading is Better Than You Doing Drugs"

2.  "Model Railroading is the Same Way Your Girlfriend is About Horses"

Catchy, if not a bit cumbersome.

Sorry guys, couldn't resist.  Kudos to both of you fine young men for choosing model railroading over the many vices presented to those your age.  You'll be far better for it as you grow older and wiser.

[NS2591]

My girlfriend thinks its ok. She thinks its better than me doing drugs of somekind. She understands that I like it alot, Shes the same way about horses. She Voulenteers at a couple horsefarms, I voulenteer at a RR Museum so its pretty much the same thing.

[nscaler711]

shes like some of your wives ya know she likes your hobby because you like it...

cool those plans should help thanks

[R. T. POTEET]

NS2591

im older than you by a couple of months or so. im also 16 turning 17 in july sorry bout the accident. (at least u werent hit by a car thanksgiving break) any ways i dont have my license though only b/c of my grades.......i get A's and B's on my tests but its the homework that kills me.     How does ur gf like the whole model railroader thing? mine doesnt care for it all that much. when i get excited about a new train she says thats cool....under her breath she says "i guess."  i usually hear that

 

 

Everyone else: could i add a exuahst* stack to my SW8 to make it a SW1200?

I could recite a rather obscene joke right at this particular moment and drive beanie up the wall.  Instead I will just say this:  The next time your squeeze says "I guess" retort "How do you guess you are going to feel if my next excitement is over a new girlfriend?"

About your question on converting an SW8 to an SW1200.  There may be more than just randomly glueing an extra stack atop the roof.   Before you proceed with any modifications along this line you need to consult some drawings to insure proper positioning of these stacks in relation to the access doors on the side.  Remember, the SW1200 had a bigger engine than the SW8 and this larger engine undoubtedlly forced some cosmetic differences onto the roofline.

RMC did line drawings (most if not all) of these EMD lokes back in the sixties and seventies; as I said in my email of last weekend my issues are currently buried in a box but I am anticipating getting into them shortly; if I can find drawings of the SW8 and SW1200 I will get you a copy so you can do a comparison.

[nscaler711]

NS2591

im older than you by a couple of months or so. im also 16 turning 17 in july sorry bout the accident. (at least u werent hit by a car thanksgiving break) any ways i dont have my license though only b/c of my grades.......i get A's and B's on my tests but its the homework that kills me.     How does ur gf like the whole model railroader thing? mine doesnt care for it all that much. when i get excited about a new train she says thats cool....under her breath she says "i guess."  i usually hear that

 

 

Everyone else: could i add a exuahst* stack to my SW8 to make it a SW1200?

[NS2591]

Thanks alot. My dad is looking into what it'll cost to get a new bumper and grill. I'm just glad that the radiator survived. We put a new radiator in back in september, becuase the old one was held in by tiewraps. The repairs to my truck is coming out of my own money. But I'm prepared for the other guy's claim. I'm just glad everyone was really nice about it. A ticket would have killed my drivers Liscense...I turned 16 back in september so I havn't even had my liscense for a whole year yet.