ModelRailroadForums.com is a free Model Railroad Discussion Forum and photo gallery. We cover all scales and sizes of model railroads. Online since 2002, it's one of the oldest and largest model railroad forums on the web. Whether you're a master model railroader or just getting started, you'll find something of interest here.
Hello all. If I have posted this in the wrong place, sorry. I am trying to decide between HO and N scale. But I was wondering how long of a train I could run in each of the scales.
I have saw trains up to 55-60 cars in N scale.
I have no clue on how long of a train you can run in HO.
On my HO layout I have run up to 60 cars & 3 engines. That was after I redid all of my running stock. Added weights, new wheels, rebuilt trucks & redid all my couplers. You have to be careful that you don't have any lite weight cars in the middle of your long trains.
I have seen up to 80 cars on club layouts & the same for both scales.
The thing about a scale is how much space you have for long curves. You need the largest curve to run long trains. That's my 2 cents.
Sweet! I used to think that 30-35 cars was the safest length in HO! If I gow With the BNSF Hereford Sub as my layout(no grades at all), I can run some good sized coal trains! And don't forget lengthy Transcons and Z Trains! Plus there are countless BNSF locos out there? I see Athearn has lots of BNSF locos! But are Athearn locos DCC Frinedly? I like MRC Prodigy Express(Low price, great quality) and Prodigy Advance the most. Will Athearn locos take these?
How much straight mainline are you going to have? This is the practical limit to how many cars you can run unless you have really broad curves. For example, I have a 22 foot long straight mainline. I can easily run 25 car trains in HO. Unfortunately, I also have 22" curves. As my train length starts to increase, the lateral forces exerted by the cars entering the relatively sharp curve tend to start pulling couplers too far out and derailments start. 50 foot coal gondolas exert a lot of lateral forces. If you're running all 40 foot cars, you can run a train about 30% longer than if you are running al 50 foot cars. Motive power doesn't make a difference in how long a train you can pull generally. One or two units are all you need. The more units, the more drawbar pull and the more lateral forces in curves. I suspect that trains longer than 35 cars on the average home layout are pretty rare.
All the modern Athearn engines are DCC friendly and many already have a decoder plug. Older BB engines may have to have the engine mounting isolated from the frame but it's prefectly possible to adapt them to DCC as well. You just won't believe how bright one of those crew frying headlights are on DCC.
The scale doesn't really have any affect on how long of trains you can run. The first controlling factor is how much space you have...in that respect n scale wins because you can have more track in a given space, which translates into more cars in a given space. you can get 2 n scale cars in the same space as one HO car. The other major factor is the layout.....sharp curves (or curves in general) and grades will cut down how many cars you can run. A curve puts A LOT more drag on the engines than a straight section of track, as does a grade. You can still run the extra cars, but you'll have to add mid-train helper engines or extra engines on the rear, or both, to keep the train moving and prevent the derailments Jim mentioned. My n layout has some 2% grades and one 11" radius curve (on a grade no less) and with 3 engines, I max out around 25 cars before I have to add helpers.... With no grades and wide curves I don't think 50 to 60 cars would be unreasonable...but in HO you'll need 40" to do it.
