I just finished setting up an O scale train around my son’s room and am now hooked on model railroading. My wife is pleased with the structures and train I did so she has given me the ok to convert a room of our house into a train room. I am looking to run HO and am interested in a complete loop but with several switches to keep it fun. I definitely want a mountain with a tunnel and a coal or gold mine as an industry. My room measures 12' by 11' and has 6' French doors taking up nearly an entire wall. The doors swing in so that takes up even more room. On the outside wall there is a 70" window so that wall is nearly taken up as well. I have been toying around with an L shaped layout running along the other two walls. Any help suggestions or help would be greatly appreciated.
Help with Layout
- Thread starter jhaworth
- Start date
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If you have the room for a four foot by four foot section at each end, you can make a dogbone style layout and still have continuous running. That would give you enough room for 22" radius curves in each end "blob". If you don't have the room for that, you'll either had to accept a point to point switching layout in HO or look to N scale, which only needs a 2.5x3.5 foot blob at each end to accomplish the same thing as the 4x4 blob in HO.
sorry messed up with the image View attachment 15041
i really am an idiot, wrong image again View attachment 15042
Trucklover
BNSF SD70MAC's
First off welcome to the forums 
Do the doors need to be able to open all the way and swing all the way back to the walls?
Does the window need to remain open? In other words can you put benchwork in front of the window? I have a 30" bench in from of my window and i can still open and close my window with no problems. My bench is fairly low and level with the bottom of the window, but if your window is higher up, you could do the layout level with the window and narrow the benchwork to 24" or 20" in the center of the window so you can reach in and open/close it....
22" radius is necessary, and actually 22" radius is still not nearly big enough to do the job right and be reliable with larger 6-axle diesels. If you wanna do the modern era (which consists alot of 6-axle power) then 22" is the bare minimum that most 6-axle will operate on. Some of them even require 24" to run properly. If you wanna do 18" then you will only be able to run smaller 4-axle power and smaller freight cars 60' and under.
Do you have an era or time period your looking/wanting to model?
Do the doors need to be able to open all the way and swing all the way back to the walls?
Does the window need to remain open? In other words can you put benchwork in front of the window? I have a 30" bench in from of my window and i can still open and close my window with no problems. My bench is fairly low and level with the bottom of the window, but if your window is higher up, you could do the layout level with the window and narrow the benchwork to 24" or 20" in the center of the window so you can reach in and open/close it....
22" radius is necessary, and actually 22" radius is still not nearly big enough to do the job right and be reliable with larger 6-axle diesels. If you wanna do the modern era (which consists alot of 6-axle power) then 22" is the bare minimum that most 6-axle will operate on. Some of them even require 24" to run properly. If you wanna do 18" then you will only be able to run smaller 4-axle power and smaller freight cars 60' and under.
Do you have an era or time period your looking/wanting to model?
the window is very low 21" off the ground. It is he front of my house and I dont want to block it with benchwork because if the blinds were open you would see the train setup from the street. I am mostly interested in a mining town around 1900. I like the steam locomotives better than the diesels. The door does need to swing most of the way. I could shorten the benchwork on the one wall to 8' and that would give the door room to swing all the way.
Nice looking plan but I suggest you check your grades. It looks too small to have the one track cross the other and climb to the mountain. You need 100" of run to rise 1" for a 1% grade. Same formula as you go up, 50" of run will give you a 2" grade, 25" of run for a 3% grade. In reverse, if you want to climb three inches and want to limit the grade to 2%, you need 150" of run. A 3% grade would require 75" of run. A 3% grade is pretty steep but, as long as you only have trains with a a few cars and a good engine, it can work. Anything over 3% and you're asking for trouble, since many engines will not make it up a 4% grade with more than a car or two and some smaller engines can't pull themselves up a 4% grade.
18" radius curves will work with small steam engines like a 2-6-0 04 a 4-4-0, diesel switchers or road switchers like a GP-9, and F units. Freight cars up to about 50' will work reliably and old-time passenger cars like the Overtons at 34' will work. Modern era engines and cars are simply too long to work well on such sharp curves. If you're willing to model an earlier era and accept these limitations, 18" curves will do, although they should be last choice if there's any way to avoid them.
18" radius curves will work with small steam engines like a 2-6-0 04 a 4-4-0, diesel switchers or road switchers like a GP-9, and F units. Freight cars up to about 50' will work reliably and old-time passenger cars like the Overtons at 34' will work. Modern era engines and cars are simply too long to work well on such sharp curves. If you're willing to model an earlier era and accept these limitations, 18" curves will do, although they should be last choice if there's any way to avoid them.
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