Hello from NEW YORK! Need a little help!!!!


I got the Bachmann Conrail loco., and the detail was less than steller, lol.
So, I ordered and received this
https://www.modeltrainstuff.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=ATH-94215.
My wife ordered this set for my b-day,http://www.modeltrainstuff.com/Bachmann_HO_00615_Golden_Spike_Starter_Set_p/bac-00615.htm.
I figured that one was the best bang for my buck to at least get me started.

My layout is going to be a 12'x10'x4' "L" shape.
My plan is to have the 12' section of the table running trains so my 5 year old daughter Amber, has something to play with.
On the 10' foot side my starting point will be this
90vg3b.jpg

The Altoona Works. This way I can have as many diffrent RR locomotives running and it will still kinda be realistic.
Once I find my camera I will take some build progress pics.
Jim
 
Wow, Jim, you are going to need some serious selective compression fitting that in 10 square feet. Noble goal though. I'll look forward to see how it goes.
 
UP2CSX said:
Wow, Jim, you are going to need some serious selective compression fitting that in 10 square feet. Noble goal though. I'll look forward to see how it goes.
Click to expand...
Not 10 sf., 40 sf.
That section will be 10' long, and 4' wide.
If it was 10, I would need micro-scale, lol. That place is HUGE! The pic doesnt even show 1/2 of the main building
I already have on order the first 5 buildings to do the first section. That will give me 15 lines coming off the turntable, going into THE WORKS. Plus there will be the 2 lines coming on either side to load the loco's on the table. All I need really is the turntable but its not in stock at the moment.
 
Opps, did have my math a little off there. :) Have you measured the prototype and then reduced that to HO scale measurements? I'd be interested in how the two relate and how much compression you'll have to do. I can only dream of enough space for a 15 track roundhouse. :(
 
UP2CSX said:
Opps, did have my math a little off there. :) Have you measured the prototype and then reduced that to HO scale measurements? I'd be interested in how the two relate and how much compression you'll have to do. I can only dream of enough space for a 15 track roundhouse. :(
Click to expand...
I was just checking the measurment of each building and I am gonna have to lose one of them. No big deal, still have 12 bays.This is my first layout so if its not 100% accurate, as long as it looks cool when I'm done, I'll be happy.

Tomorrow I have off from work, so thats when I will draw up a little more detailed plan. I am a carpenter by trade so I will just use actual dimensions of the buildings to lay it all out.
I read somewhere that 1"=7'3" in HO scale is that right?
 
Jim, your conversion measurements are correct. Just by eyeball, it would appear the complex is about a mile long. You would need just over 62 feet to reproduce it in HO. If it's a half mile wide, you'd need about 1900 square feet total. So, although 40 square feet sounds like a lot, it's actually very small for what you are trying to do. I'd suggest the first thing to do is decide what parts you really need to reproduce the look and see how much space that will take. You can then start to pare off other structures and see how many you can use as shallow backdrop buildings instead of full size structures.
 
62'? My house isnt even that long, lol
I think that I will follow your advice Jim, and just use what buildings I need to get the same look.
(Until I can get a loan for that addition I am going to need, lol)
 
Yeah, it's pretty amazing how much space you need to reproduce even relatively small scenes in HO. Most layouts haves les than two scale miles of mainline track total. If you can just put your finger on all the things that make Altoona recognizable and work with that, you can probably pull it off.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.



Back
Top