I may have done a BAD thing.......

I can totally understand.  The majority of my layout is in a 2 car garage.  I am currently restoring a 1969 chevelle so the trains have to share space with the car.  

Good Heavens, gentlemen !  The solution is obvious: get rid of those cars !

I hear ya, I've had o scale since 76 when I was ten years old. I still have and run all my O scale but plunged into ho a year ago full bore. I bought and built around fifty HO cars just in the last month and also installed a new NCE DCC power cab to run on. It would take me years to buy and build fifty o scale cars.

I can't fit a layout in my garage...........

Who makes your lift??? My barn has 16 foot ceilings and with 4 collector car I have thought about one.......thx 

artyoung posted:

Good Heavens, gentlemen !  The solution is obvious: get rid of those cars !

I have a barn and garage for my cars.......My layout is in the basement. Benchwork I built was for a planned O 3R layout....but running the On30 in that space showed me how much more On30 I could fit into the same space....That is the conflict I am facing......

Barn.....

AMC Dave, I have these two stacked on my bestbuyautolift.com Park 8 8,000lb lift.  Great for storing, even better for working on them.  Plus leaves room for my 7ft x 9ft    O Gauge Highrail layout.

Chris Sheldon

You are not BAD, just Narrow minded. 

It could be worst , like N gauge.

or even horribly small Z gauge.

Been there... done that too.....

AMCDave, I always imagined you had an AMX or Javelin lurking in your garages.  

that '46 is sweet...but I love that Javelin.

I think narrow gauge with On30- So, now you need a mining and/or a logging operation and do both - so, yes, it's baaad thing

I want to add N gauge as an amusement ride.

Since you hotrodders are here - Do any of you have a working ACCEL 300+ ignition box that you would like to part with?

If it's shock therapy you're looking for to get you away from the dark gray zone, try putting on your 'Pickers-of-Nit' hat....

Regarding the plethora of HO track calling to you.  (Yoooooo hooooooooooo!)

Yep, it's a convenient solution to On30, BUT......the tie length and tie spacing is ALL WRONG for O scale!

Peco and MicroEngineering have the correct RTL stuff....or (and here's a nightmare for rumination!) lay your own!....tie by tie....rail by rail.....spike by spike....turnout by turnout. 

GASP!

There now..

All better???

That T1 on 3 rails is looking better and better......isn't it?

Welcome back, compadre!

BTW....nice stable of ponies in the garage!

Do what I do:  both on the same layout.

I gave up on cars. Too expensive  and hard to work on when you are alone  . I have no external garage so the cars ended up  as chipmunk motels. If a car conks out you get it towed home. An old Lionel conks out ou set it aside and get out another one.

Dave,

Like you, confusion (or should we call it addiction) reigns in my brain.  For years, I've wanted to model the PRR between Chicago and Columbus, OH (severely compressed) because of childhood memories.  But lately, due to those lovely 3rd Rail El Capitan cars and those lovely Atlas CZ cars, I decided to model only the south side of Chicago's Union Station which held all those road names.  However, trying to figure out a way to model a decent size terminal, small coach yards, and the wye at the south end of the yard limits (where the CZ went west while the PRR went south and east) is driving me crazy.

To end my misery, I started to think about (and acquire) N scale passenger sets of similar ilk, thinking I'd just display the others when acquired.  With N scale, I can have a good sized terminal, nearby hidden reversing loops for the El Cap and CZ, and a still compressed, but more possible, PRR run from Chicago to Columbus.

The real quandry: nothing's perfect in any scale.  N is just too small for my eyes and hands and requires me to learn DCC if I want something nearing O.  But O is just too @#$% large to allow my desires to be fulfilled in my allotted space.  And don't even get me started on HO or S.  So, here I sit, proud owner of some equipment in both N and O, probably doomed to be a "model railroad dreamer" for my short remaining life.

Have fun with your decision.

Chuck

I have also imagined what could be accomplished in Z scale in my attic. Then, I woke up (in a cold sweat).

dkdkrd posted:

 

Yep, it's a convenient solution to On30, BUT......the tie length and tie spacing is ALL WRONG for O scale!

 

 

The stock pile of HO flex was going to supply code 100 NS rail for hand laying track.....without having to buy rail. When Joey Ricard show hand laying track I did some and kinda liked it.

Morning now and I got a lot of thinking to do.......Thanks all.. 

Gilly@N&W posted:

I have also imagined what could be accomplished in Z scale in my attic. Then, I woke up (in a cold sweat).

A fine modeling scale for those with somewhat limited space (or even a lot of space) who want the train models to relate with their environment (scenery) in a realistic way. I have enjoyed working with Z dating back to when the scale was first introduced by Marklin, and still enjoy it today. Rob Kluz does a nice job with Ztrack magazine, and several manufacturers are producing some fine models and accessories. And, yes, I have been wearing glasses--strong ones--since I was in the fifth grade, so don't give me that stuff about "can't see the things."

AMCDave posted:

dkdkrd posted:

 

Yep, it's a convenient solution to On30, BUT......the tie length and tie spacing is ALL WRONG for O scale!

 

 

The stock pile of HO flex was going to supply code 100 NS rail for hand laying track.....without having to buy rail. When Joey Ricard show hand laying track I did some and kinda liked it.

Morning now and I got a lot of thinking to do.......Thanks all.. 

Bury the ties in ballast or dirt, and the size and spacing are irrelevant.  Most NG lines were not exactly the Pennsy, and the RoW reflected a shoe-string budget.  I have seen many On30 pikes that used HO track.  Some builders remove every other tie to decrease the discrepancies, but others just leave the rails sticking up out of the dirt and weeds.  The effect is quite good.

In any case, if you are running your NG next to a 3-rail line, how picky can you be about the track???

I personally use PECO On30 along with Atlas 3-rail--neither is perfectly accurate, but they work, and they work well.  The HO track would work just as well, I'm sure.

OMG a Javelin!   About the first car I bought was a 70 AMX.   Fords are cool too!   Ive been working on some 60s Falcons lately.   Two of my dads and 4 that belong to my uncle.  I have a 69 Cougar that once was a NHRA super gas car.  Ive had it since I was 18.    Had all my HO stuff stored in a building that my Dad owns.  He is selling it so I had to go get it.  I'm feeling the same about my HO stuff.   I also have a few sets of On30.  But I sure do like that O gauge! 

Jim

So, carsntrains,

do you or your Dad have a working ACCEL 300+ ignition box that you would part with? 

It doesn't have to be O to be fun!  I've enjoyed HO, N and now I'm liking Standard Gauge. If it's trains and you enjoy, have fun!

Moonman posted:

So, carsntrains,

do you or your Dad have a working ACCEL 300+ ignition box that you would part with? 

No we use all MSD ignition modules and distributors.   Have always liked the 6A or 6AL for street and 7 series for drag race cars. 

Jim

Spent an hour getting a new Bachmann 2-6-6-2 loco to run around the loop. The micro small 2 pin tether had a bent pin on the male side that was impossible to see. Finally figured it out and it ran....but sounds like it needs oil in the gear towers.....but instructions fail to tell you how to get to them for lube.  These things are like a watch....not the rugged world of O 3R....but still thinking. 

You didn't do a bad thing, now you can sell me that Dreyfuss!

Hi AMC DAVE

Go with Atlas code 83 flex & peco 83  turn outs , The peco on30 turnouts look great two .

Nice engines you have .

I have two  2-6-0 starter engines & two 4-4-0  engines as well .  

Have fun with the trains . 

Dave, I don't see a problem here.  Just build two separate layouts.  You'll find the room somehow!

Pardon me for duplicating my post on the 2-6-6-2 thread:

Let me recommend--by way of fueling the fire--the Yahoo group "On30 Conspiracy":  hundreds of members and about as wide a range of approaches to the scale/gauge combination as possible, from folks trying to represent the big 3' gauge lines to the critter fanatics to the frustrated Maine 2-footers to the guys scavenging HO mechanisms and wheelsets to create just about everything else from the ground up.  "On30 is Funner!"

Traindiesel posted:

Dave, I don't see a problem here.  Just build two separate layouts.  You'll find the room somehow!

I am thinking the same thing.  Build one layout on top of the other.  Put the On30 at eye level and the O3R at waist level.

Tom

I did a bad thing too. I started reading about slot cars on the internet for fun. Then I bought a set on eBay. Now I am dying to build a track.

You'll never go wrong buying Kato!

Bill

Have O. Have N. Have layouts for both.

For me, they serve different purposes completely  

N scale is for serious modeling. I could build a striking N-scale pike in the 10-by-25-foot space I have planned for my O gauge layout. 

But you quickly realize why O gauge is so endearing when you build a three-rail layout full of fun and whimsy. 

Seriously, trying to model in any scale is challenging enough, but trying to model a real-life railroad in O in the average-sized basement is a pointless exercise. The more you compress, the less realistic it is. 

But building a toy train O gauge layout is liberating. Scale is a guideline, not an end-all goal.

As for narrow gauge ...

On3 is fine if you like narrow gauge equipment. But I would hardly decide to get into narrow gauge merely because it takes up less space. 

Yep, Dave, you have some choices to make. 

I love narrow gauge and had HOn3 but it got too small or my eyesight got bad so I sold it.  I had On3 and that would be my choice today. But I have looked at O gauge as a narrow gauge Standard gauge and it would work. The engines, especially steam would be a challenge.  Electric or diesel would be a lot easier.  Eyesight rules(+  $$)  when you get older. And I am older.

I have some ON30 stuff for sale on the For Sale forum

Narrow gauge O is still O!

There's no room for trains in my garage, so the railroad is in the basement.

This is NOT a great pic--I took it in a hurry and had to use a poster to block the window the sun was shining through--but it illustrates the concept.  Behind and to the left the standard gauge engine house, you can see a PECO NG switch and a BLI C-16 2-8-0 coupled to a local freight (Bachmann cars).  further on in the back, you can just see the tops of some passenger cars on the backside of the station.  In the foreground are the standard gauge yard tracks. 

The NG passenger local comes down from Marmaros on Roark Mountain to the Frisco/MoPac junction at Notch.  They detrain at the station, walk through, and then board a SG for exotic distant points like St. Louis, Little Rock, or Kansas City.  LCL freight also moves between the tracks there.  The ore upon which Marmaros was founded is dumped from the NG ore trains into SG cars in the ore yard (which, alas! I haven't room to model).

The pic sort of illustrates the difference in size between the NG 2-9-0 and the SG USRA 2-8-2 in the engine house.