Multi level,multi scale.Your thoughts please.


smittydieseldoc

Southern spoken here!
I have a problem that I would like your comments on.I currently am modeling in N scale.Thanks to my LHS having great sales and inventory of road names I like.I now have quite a collection of HO engines and rolling stock.(Around 20 new engines and 30 pieces of rolling stock.) I now have the urge to set up an HO layout also.Don't have enough space in the building to put both on the floor side by side.I know many people have multi level layouts,but has anyone used two different scales? Which would you put on the upper level,N or HO? Any comments good or bad are welcomed.
 
I've always thought an HO/N scale mix would be cool. My thought would be to use the N scale for forced perspective background trains with the HO in the foreground.
 
I have both N and HO running around in my basement. I chose to run the HO layout on the bottom so it would be closer to the ground in case gravity overcame the little hands that would be handling some of the trains. All of the nephews love coming over to the house because of the layout but they have to stand on chairs to see the N-scale layout. The HO-scale layout is perfect for their size and they get to “gently” handle the rolling stock with adult supervision.

Just for giggles I also have a bunch of Bachmann G-scale track that we layout all over the basement floor whenever the nephews come for a visit. That's always a big hit and I get to use the excuse that it's for the kids when I come home with a new "toy".
 
I saw a layout with both HO and N scale on the same layout, the HO was up front and the N scale was near the back with N scale buildings and behind that was a selection of Z scale buildings, it gave the illusion of great depth
 
Well as they would say across the pond, :D "Not my cuppa Tea!"
However if it is well done, why not? I have seen photos of such layouts and due to some creative scenery on the part of the craftsman the illusion was believable. If you have trains in both scales why not try it. As a real craftsman ( Artist in truth) said, you don't know what you can do until you try it.There is some danger here of course as you well know, you'll always do the next one a little bit better :D

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Willis
 
As others have mentioned, dual scale layouts are possible, but tricky.

Here's another option. Build essentially a double decker layout, with the HO on the bottom and an N scale "around the walls" or "shelf" type layout above that. (Or vice-versa for that matter.)

Double deck layouts are fairly common, though usually the same scale.
 
Thanks for the input.I may have mislead you in my opening post,I wasn't planning on running the different scales on the same layout,although that would be a neat thing.Bob pretty much sumed up what I want to do.
 
I prefer one scale myself, but then I'm a detail freak, and multi-scale would runi my details... lol I have seen some good looking multi-scale rooms though.
 



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