james nichols

I was looking at this route simply because I built the Peco N wagons to build up a small fleet of wagons. It was inexpensive and simple. Just wondering if there was something similar available for german wagons. I will look the RTR route and see what I can find on EBay. Living over here in the US makes shipping a bit more expensive so EBay may be a better option than from a shop.

I have many Peco N-Scale freight wagons built from kits that are British prototype, does such a thing exist in German prototype? I would like to build a fleet of wagons for a small switching style N-Scale layout.

Phil, that would be great except I cannot get to the payment screen of their website. Otherwise I think that book would be exactly what I need. It appears they were hacked during the summer and do not have their paypal system back up and running. Too bad, many of their titles are of interest. Reko, I will look at that site. I have been through the Faller catalog online and found many examples. This will give me even more to get a flavor for what I want to build. Then off to the styrene stores to knock something together.

I want to scratchbuild a coaling station in N. Looking for drawings of a small branchline coaling station to base off of. Needs to be a smaller one as this will just be a little diorama to practice building skills. Thanks in advance, James

Thanks for the replies. I will check out the shop in Eppelheim if I can get over there.

Visiting in October, hoping to find some N-Scale stuff and possibly some books.

Thanks for the information., track is now laid and wired. With three cuts and three wires I have power to all tracks and the ability to "park" a loco using the turnout power routing. Now if my MinitrainS loco would come from the UK I could work on getting things running smoothly. Right now I am using a Lilliput loco of an unknown vintage. It was found at a train show with 5 passenger cars labeled as HOn3. It runs well enough but I hope that a modern loco will be super smooth.

This is where I feel I need to cut to insulate against shorts. The schematic, as bad as it is, shows the two turnouts I feel I need to gap. It also shows the two places I think I need feeders and three others ( circled in gold ) where I might need some but am pretty convinced I do not need them. It would appear that without the gold feeders there would be dead track in those areas along with the lower right two sidings when the turnouts are not aligned for those routes. I can use that to operate two locos on the layout without block switches I assume.

Where connecting turnout to turnout I wound up cutting the connectors in half and soldering the joiners to the rails. Where connecting turnout to flex track I can remove enough ties from the flex to fully slide a rail joiner on and then slip it onto the turnout rail as far as it will go, again soldering the connections. Having not used electrofrog or other types of power routing turnouts before I have now found the joys of a shorted circuit. So after some reading it looks like i need to "feed" the turnouts from the entry side ( away from the frog ). I also need insulating gaps but everything is already mounted to the board. My plan is to cut gaps with a dremel tool on the diverging side of the frog. My question now is do I need to cut both rails of a route or can I just cut the rails attached to the frog. In drawing things out and tracing the power paths I feel like just cutting the rails attached to the frog should be sufficient. I will post a drawing if I can get something that is somewhat clear.

Ok, need to find some then. I'm in the States and all i could find were Micro Engineering. They must be longer.

Is everyone just cutting the spikes from the first tie of each end of the turnout to get connectors to fit?

Wondering which is the better running loco. I will be using it on a short shunting style layout so slow speed and smooth start/stop are main considerations. No DCC, planning PWM DC power. My only other reference for OO9 is actually HOe Liliput loco of some older vintage. Under PWM it is almost acceptable in performance. Other experience is in ON30 and N scale (US). Many smooth runners in N scale so high hopes for the little OO9 steamers. James

I kind of assumed that there would be more gluing surface on a non-folded NEM style, I just didn't know which direction it would go. If I understand correctly they are longer and fold back towards the coupling wire and not wider (in a T shape) and fold inward. Seems like the longer would be much easier to adapt to any type mounting. I will order some of the NEM style assuming I can use them on anything. Thanks for the information everyone.

I just ordered some kits to build in OO9 and they do not have an NEM pocket. Can I still use the NEM style Greenwich couplings on these? My thought is to just use a bit of epoxy to mount them to the bottom of the wagons using the "box" formed when folding the coupling into shape.

So it sounds like I might need some larger diameter wheel sets. I will design my chassis around this and allow for some slightly larger diameter wheels. Next step is sourcing some!

So, new question. I have 3D printed a couple of wagons and have designed some chassis that I think will fit under the wagons. To get the correct "sit" of the wagons I need to have the dimensions of the wheels used. Can anyone tell me the diameter of a Peco OO9 wheel measured across the tread? I currently have some 36" N-scale wheels I am going to use but they seem a little small. The diameter of the tread is 5.2 mm. I can't tell if these are horribly undersized for what I need or if my old days in On30 are throwing my eye off.

Thanks guys, makes things much easier knowing dimensions and attributes before hand. I found a Liliput locomotive and passenger set at a local train show but I think the Peco freight cars will be easier to source over here, I know the track will be. Thank you again for taking the time to answer so quickly.

Hello everyone, Wanting to start OO9 in Oklahoma so no chance of looking at anything in a shop, will have to order everything. My questions are, the Peco turnouts, are the points sprung so they stay in place if moved or do they need some kind of mech to hold the points in place. For electro-frog, is the frog powered through the points or do they need switched power through a spdt switch. Lastly, does anyone have exterior dimensions for the Peco 4 wheel wagons. Both the low board open wagons and the closed box wagons. Thanks in advance, James