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I will soon begin consruction on my first layout. The scale will be ho. As far as era, I was thinking early 1950's, in the appalations. This is my plan.
Sorry if It didn't come through, I'm new at this. The longest car I'll be running will probably be a 85' passenger car. Other than that single passenger train, everything else will be freight. I'm thinking of adding a branchline to a logging camp in hon3, but not for sure. Any advice would be appreciated.
Based on the length of the passenger car, use 24" radius for you mainlines, and any sidings that the car might take. That would put you right at the edge of the board for a 4x8 layout, so if you can you would be wise to build a 3-4" 'shelf' around the edge of the layout to give yourself a bit more room. A 3-4" high piece of Plexiglas around the edges of the layout is another option to help keep your engines from taking that fatal plunge to the floor!
If you have room, you may want to consider using a 5X9 piece of plywood instead of a 4x8. A 5x9 is a ping pong table. A lumber yard could order one for you.
Good luck!!
24" radius measures from the center of the track with most manufactures. So it would overhang. But with 85 foot cars, you are looking at 28-30 inch radius min. The OP did not say he was building a 4x8 though.
I am probably doing a 8x8 layout, but with a walkway in the center, so that leaves 4' turn around areas. I have 22/20 inch radius turns planned. I am currently running the train on a loop with 18" turns, and nothing is wrong.
An 8x8 layout has a footprint of 13 x 13 if you include 30" access on the sides. Why not go with an around the walls design that will give you the wider radius you need. (Just because it works on your loop you can't assume it will meet your needs as you grow in the hobby. You might find at some point that your passenger cars look extremely toy-like on sharp turns.)
Either way, figure the maximum you can reach without destroying things is around 30".
I am probably doing a 8x8 layout, but with a walkway in the center, so that leaves 4' turn around areas. I have 22/20 inch radius turns planned. I am currently running the train on a loop with 18" turns, and nothing is wrong.
You're running 85' passenger cars on 18" curves right now?
I have 24" curves, and I had to install long shank kadee couplers on my 85' Amtrak superliners in order for them to stay coupled. Right on the Walthers box it says 24" minimum, which is wrong unless you modify them like I had to.
Trust us when we recommend you have larger radius curves with long equipment, it will save you frustrations down the road. If I could do it over again I should have gone with 28" curves.
You might be able to squeak by with 22" radius curves and just install the long shank #26 Kadee couplers. Make sure you test everything before laying any permanent track.
just a suggestion as 24" will be kinda tight for long passenger cars...
I have a small shelf layout simmilar to the size you will be building. Its a dog bone shape with 22"max and 18" min radius, modled in the 1945-55 era. because of the tight radius I only run 40' freight cars. I wanted to run a passenger train but there is no way I can run 85' cars on 22R". So I went out and found some roundhouse overton passenger/mail cars to pull behind my small steam engines. these cars are about 35' long and look much better on my tight 22" radius. I know these cars were not found on long haul passenger lines but they look the part for a small layout.
You can see in the pic below that the mail car and passenger cars fit just fine.
That's a good idea! Even though I allready have those 85'ers, I think some 35/40' passenger cars would fit in well. It came with a 4-6-4 hudson streamline, but I don't think it'll look OK with a freight train.
4-6-4s (hudsons) were built mainly for passenger service only. they had speed but not alot of grunt to pull heavy trains uphills. I would consider a 4-6-4 a med to large engine depending on its tender. if it has a 6 axel tender its likely a long loco.
On a small layout 4 axel diesels and 2-8-2 are about the largest I like to run. there are larger locos that will make it around my 22" but they start to look funny with the overhang. Also any larger and I notice that I have more issues with derails. If a mfg says it will run on a min of 18" it will but with what kind of issues? thats were I always like to keep Locos on the small for the home layout. I save the larger locos for the club.
I have been doing this for 15 years and the genral thoughts about radius have not changed.
I have a 4-6-4 that I pull freight with. It has a 6 axel tender and looks silly on the 18-22" radius. So I mostly run it down at the club. In real life my 4-6-4 was used to pull freight. Illinois Central converted a old loco into a Hudson to operate in mainline freight service. it proved to be a good engine once up to speed but getting a long train started was difficult. It was later put back into passenger service. Im sure a stramliner pulled freight trains just not often. its your railroad so have fun with it!
IIRC in Don Ball's "Railroads An American Journey" (I think that's the right title), he had several pictures of an N&W J 4-8-4, toward the end of its life pulling a short freight in WV. The picture showed the loco hadn't been near any kind of a wash rack in ages. It was extremely dirty.
I have VERY LARGE supply of styrofoam. Don't ask me how I got it, it's a long story. Would this be a good material to make basic hills and mountains out of? I was thinking that I would cover it in plaster or somthing tlike that....
any suggestions?
I have VERY LARGE supply of styrofoam. Don't ask me how I got it, it's a long story. Would this be a good material to make basic hills and mountains out of? I was thinking that I would cover it in plaster or somthing tlike that...
If it's the white beaded stuff, it is very messy and difficult to work with. If it's extruded polystyrene -- usually blue or pink -- then it's easier to use and considerably less messy.
I have VERY LARGE supply of styrofoam. Don't ask me how I got it, it's a long story. Would this be a good material to make basic hills and mountains out of? I was thinking that I would cover it in plaster or somthing tlike that....
any suggestions?
If you cover it thoroughly so that all the white is covered, and clean up thoroughly afterward, it should be okay to use for hills and mountains. I wouldn't recommend tunneling through the stuff, though. Those little white beads will get EVERYWHERE!!
Well, the styrofoam is the white beaded stuff and it is very messy, But I have to admit, once you paint it up the beads look like little rocks. i just wish i could post xtrkcad layouts on here!
With your layout open in XTrackCAD, select File > Export to Bitmap from the XTrackCAD menu. This lets you save your layout as a BMP image. Open the BMP in an image editor, re-size it to a reasonable size (maybe 700 pixels wide), and save it as a JPG or a GIF.
Then you can use the Attach Files feature when creating a message to attach your layout image to your message.
