Smallest O gauge layout possible with operating potential

[RateTheFreight]

Afternoon all,

 

So I’ve made a start planning wise using the peco o gauge templates which have proved really useful in determining what I can fit in the space (now revised up to a 6x2 board).

 

Do Peco do a range of straights shorter than 400mm? I can’t find any online and need one roughly half the size to complete the headshunt in the space available. If not, how easy would it be to cut the track in half?

 

Thanks again.

 

Greg

[Northroader]

It’s not a problem, use either a hacksaw, razor saw, or Dremel cutter, cut the plastic sleeper web away from below the rail where you want to cut, and then you can just cut down through the head of the rail for both rails. You can then just bend the section down and it should just crack down the rest of the way. Then square the cut ends, and dress with a file so as the joiners will go on. Just another step on the road.

[Signalman Rich]

Hello Greg

Glad you have used the Peco templates. I have found them useful too whilst planning. Just to add to the mix you might like to look at Jim Read's layouts. He has some inventive small layouts that are simple to build and operate. Try www.jasread.com as a start. I think that is the correct address. His three small layouts are inspirational I find. If you are serious about making in Gauge O might I suggest joining the Gauge O Guild? The starter pack is very helpful and you get several good quality magazines each year as well, full of suppliers as well as helpful articles and reviews. Really good value for money. The GOG Forum is full of practical articles and gives you access to the past 60 years of the Gazette in the Archive. I have had a number of useful tips by reading past articles and also by listening to comments by very capable O gauge modellers on the Forum. Inspirational. Some of the articles are way beyond my current skill set but give me something to aspire to.  Hope this is helpful.

Best wishes

Rich

[hartleymartin]

If you are happy to use small 0-4-0 shunters and 4-wheel wagons, you can get a fair bit of operating potential out of a space 6-feet long.

[hartleymartin]

Using the Lenz 3-way point, and having straight track on al of them should give you a reasonable Inglenook. As I recall, it is basically the same as Peco Code 143.

Remember that clearances for shunting only require track centres to be 77mm, so replacing the curved sections here with straight ones should give you sidings enough for an Inglenook.

[doilum]

Don't dream. Stop planning. Buy a s/h peco point and thhree yards of track and PLAY and learn and then dream and plan..........

[south_tyne]

Using the Lenz 3-way point, and having straight track on al of them should give you a reasonable Inglenook. As I recall, it is basically the same as Peco Code 143.

 

Remember that clearances for shunting only require track centres to be 77mm, so replacing the curved sections here with straight ones should give you sidings enough for an Inglenook.

 

Very true Martin. I've never seen a Lenz 3-way point in real life but they are expensive. I am surprised Peco haven't made their own (although as I understand there is some kind of tie-up between the two ranges in any case). Other options would include Marcway who produce a range of 3-way designs, again albeit a cost. Good space saving option though.

[south_tyne]

Hello all,

 

Track plans.

 

I draw mine on odd bits of paper and work out the movements in my head until I can't see the end of the combinations, I enjoy operating immensely.

 

I soon found the inglenook to be deadly boring. With the simple addition of a traverser and run round tracks I could store stock on the top and bottom traverser roads and get the loco to the rear of each road. The operating potential then becomes immense especially with lots of wagons.

Moxley_Heath_Drg_02_800.jpg

 

I started on this in 2011 still take it to shows and still find it interesting to operate.

 

Cheers

I do love that plan design Jim (I know I have said it a couple of times before mind so apologies for being a stuck record). Making your own points isn't for everyone mind but that plan is do-able with a Peco settrack point without increasing the length by very much at all I would imagine it would work in 150cm length? Seems to be lots of operating potential and has obviously kept you well entertained both in the home and exhibition environment!

 

David

Edited September 15, 2018 by south_tyne

[hartleymartin]

I’ve made my own points in the past. One of these days I might even get around to building that 3-way point.

 

Atlas also does (or did) a very small #2 Wye point in code 148 which might be handy, but they are somewhat difficult to obtain.

[sir douglas]

my layout is 2ft by 8ft, its an inglenook with a loop added and then i added a fold out extension to the fiddleyard, the track is all scratchbuilt using a templot plan, a load of rail i got for free as it was being thrown out by a friend, sleepers cut from 2mm ply and C&L chairs

 

http://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/110591-deffors-o-gauge-60cm-x-244cm-2-x-8/page-1

 

 

[F-UnitMad]

 

£30 for the loco

Deal!!

 

Oh sorry, I thought it was a For Sale list.

 

Sprinting for exit....

[Donw]

One of the layouts featured in the Small layouts vol 2 was by Dave Cannon rather than the Inglenook pattern Dave adopted a loop with a siding off each side in opposite directions. One held three wagons the other four. The headshunts were long enough for a loco plus one wagon. I think it was 5ft 9in long.  In order to make operation interesting there was a token for the severn wagons and these could be hung on hooks above the places a wagon could be unloaded. You simply took the tokens off once a shunt wwas complete shuffled them and placed them on the hooks and then had to shunt to move them to the new spots. To add spice the tokens could be viewed by the operator and the viewers.  When I saw it Dave handed to controlled across to me on the viewing side to have a go. It is not as easy as you might think.

Sadly Dave had been diagnosed with cancer and passed away shortly after. I made sure his was included when we were discussing the Small Layouts volume 2.

 

I think Barry and Penarth MRC exhibited it afterwards.

 

As well as Jim Reads excellent stuff it is worth looking at Mike Bragg's layouts  Reelly Grate, Primrose Hill, Wellington Street

 

Don

[hartleymartin]

Atlas does a #2 Wye Point in 2-rail, code 148 (American Flat-bottom) rail: https://shop.atlasrr.com/p-2455-2rl-wye-turnout.aspx

 

I've thought about buying a few of these, but the price is a bit of a put-off.

 

I also have some of the old 1970s Atlas 24" radius O gauge points, but the buffer-lock kills off any opportunity to make them useful. I have thought about doing some sort of dockyard layout using dumb-buffered specialty wagons, but I would then have to scratch-build just about everything, and I'm more of a kit-basher than a scratch-builder.

[Nearholmer]

Hartley

 

Buffer-lock is dead-easy to avoid by fitting drop-link couplers, which can, if you want, be made to look very like scale three-link.

 

Kevin