Making a start in Narrow Gauge - Roco sets any good?

[meatloaf]

So i have a space of 6ft x 2ft available. Too small for a 00 circuit and although i could do a decent n scale layout i find it a bit fiddly. So a happy medium would seem to be 009 / HOe.

 

Ive seen a Roco starter set online and was thinking of getting it. This is the set Industrial Diesel Freight Starter Set – Rails of Sheffield

 

Its HOe but the track looks to be the same as 009 and it looks to be 2nd radius compared to the 1st radius offered by Peco

 

Are the roco sets any good? I dont see any mention of it but is the loco DCC Ready?

 

Also im assuming 00 scale builings are ok to use such as platforms / station buildings?

Edited November 29, 2021 by meatloaf

[Kris]

OO buildings would be fine, OO platforms however are likely to be too high.

Having Googled the loco, it does not appear to be DCC ready. 

[meatloaf]

So the set has arrived and to answer my own questions.

 

The track is 10.5 inch radius so fits around the outside of the peco set track. The track feels like quality track and fitted together nicely. 

 

The set contained a nice litte diesel and 4 wagons. The loco isnt DCC ready but im going to run this layout on normal DC. The included controller seems decent enough, much better than hornbys train set offerings. The long track feed wire was also welcome.

 

The loco was jerky to begin with but after a good few hours running it runs nice and smooth in both directions.

 

Overall im really pleased with the set and recommend it to anyone looking to start in 009. With the black friday discount it was just £119. A bargain i think.

 

So im hooked  - ive got a double fairlie on the way and ill call into my local model shop for a few points and a few lengths of flexi.

 

Station wise - 00 platforms are way to high. I knocked up a small section of metcalfe n scale platform and that looks much better but wont know for sure until i get a few coaches. 

 

PS is there a section for 009 modelling? I did look but have probably missed it 

 

 

[meatloaf]

Seems im blind ive found it now

[Lee-H]

If you want to mix it up a bit you could add some OO with this crossing made by Tillig. Nightmare to wire up but worth the effort.

[The Johnster]

That thing is making my eyes go funny.

 

I had a bit of a flirtation with 009 in the 70s, lots of fun, and the Roco diesel was available then.  Don't know if the mech has been updated in the intervening half century, but it wasn't a bad performer; main drawback was the cab full of motor.  The corresponding steam loco, which I'm not sure is still produced, an outside cylindered 0-6-0T, was not so good; same mech but the motion defeated it IMHO.  Eggerbahn stuff was superb, and Playtrains did a range of Decauville including a loco; mine never ran properly,  I did some kitbashing with Arnold and Minitrix mechs which were pretty good runners.

 

Avoid the temptation to use N gauge chassis for wagons or coaches, as they are far too high off the ground, and to use 00 coach kits (such as Ratio 4 wheelers) as the proportions of the windows and sides are not right; narrow gauge coaches are lower to the ground and lower at cantrail level, so the windows, while occupying the same proportion of the height of the sides, are lesser in actual height.  The Playtrains Decauville open 'toastrack' coaches were a good basis to build British looking compartment coaches on to.  A staple in those days for loco kitbashing was the Airfix L&Y pug, which was small enough to pass muster with a narrower running plate, the rear section of the tank/boiler removed, and the cab cut down, and put on an 0-4-0 Arnold mech. 

 

There's narrow gauge and then there's narrow gauge, and the basic look and type of stock you'd see on a quarry or industrial system is radically different to the 'light railway' examples, which are in turn radically different to something like the Ffestiniog/Welsh Highland empire, effectively a full on main line only smaller.  Platforms are in general low or ground level, and while station buildings are the same as 00, they are likely to be small buildings.  Loco and goods sheds are on a different scale altogther, and will be lower with smaller entrances.  Same goes for European prototypes.  But N gauge loco and goods sheds are too small, as are the bricks or stones they are built of.  I used a modified N gauge church kit as my loco shed (in Wales the chapels look like engine sheds and the engine sheds look like chapels).

 

 

[Andy Kirkham]

The Fourdees range of locos and stock are really well conceived for a freelance line. Many of the  locos are based on real prototypes that ran on industrial lines or were exported, but which would also look at home on a British light railway.  https://www.fourdees.co.uk/

Edited December 2, 2021 by Andy Kirkham

[Bernard Lamb]

Mix it up,

Eyes go funny.

Then try this.

Bernard

 

[SamThomas]

There are some nice models from the Liliput stable as well.

[JZ]

Might want to post this in the Narrow Gauge Modelling section.

[Nearholmer]

On 02/12/2021 at 01:34, The Johnster said:

Don't know if the mech has been updated in the intervening half century

It has. The original was fairly good, the modern better.

 

The modern mech version of the 0-6-0T is also very good.

 

If you move up their range, they do some superb things, including the WW2 Feldbahn 0-6-0T+T, which is a really classy model. They get ‘not cheap’ though.

 

I like European feldbahn material a lot, so have to recommend Minitrains, which are stocked by Gaugemaster. https://www.gaugemasterretail.com/magento/model-railways/minitrains-brand5.html

 

Or, if your pockets are much deeper than mine, modern Eggerbahn http://www.egger-bahn.ch/_prev/index.html
 

 

[JZ]

24 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Or, if your pockets are much deeper than mine, modern Eggerbahn http://www.egger-bahn.ch/_prev/index.html

 

Eye watering prices. You could get a very decent HOn3 brass loco and have it DCC sound and light fitted.

[Nearholmer]

Ah, but, it wouldn’t be half as cute. Or Swiss.