New to O Gauge

[Shaun123]

Good morning all, and Merry Christmas!

 

So I took the plunge into O Gauge and for Christmas got the Peco O Gauge starter set.

 

Basically im looking for inspiration and where to start.

 

Ive gone from OO Gauge as a child to a gap in the hobby of 10-15 years to N Gauge and now to O Gauge.

 

My inspiration for O Gauge is trying to base a layout on Arpley Stabling sidings, Warrington, having had fond memories seeing locos stabled there from 31’s, 37’s to 60’s.

 

I’m looking for some inspirational track plans, for an end to end shunting layout that can represent the above. Space is at premium but I’m hoping I can achieve something with 8ft by 2ft?

 

The era I’m modelling will be mid 90’s so BR sectorisation to Privatisation transitional period, just before EWS was everywhere!

 

Seeing the Dovedale layout and the recent exhibition put it firmly in my mind O Gauge was the way to go.

 

Thanks for any help!

[brossard]

Excellent that you taken the plunge.  I did that in 2016 after nearly 30 years doing 00.  Best decision I made.

 

As for a layout, 8' long is pushing it I think.  Does this include fiddle yard/sector plate.  Depending on trains this will need to be about 3' or maybe more.

 

Have a look at Trebudoc. 

This is an end to end BLT and just 9' long incl. sector plate.  It is GWR steam but perhaps the track plan will inspire.  There are other small layouts and no doubt others will point you there.

 

John

[Mol_PMB]

Welcome to O gauge!

 

My 'Boysnope Bump' layout is an 'inglenook' plus a bit of extra siding length and an extra short siding and fiddle yard. The scenic section is 1750mm x 450mm, with a 2-road sector plate 610mm long.

So with 8'x2' you'll have about the same overall length as mine, but more width. That should give you a rough feel for what's possible in the space. I use mostly small industrial locos, when @birdbath's O gauge class 60 came to visit it looked pretty big on the layout!

 

But I think there are some features of Arpley you could model in this space. In the corner nearest WBQ station there are several maintenance sheds for locos and wagons, some nice clusters of fuel tanks, containers, offices etc. There's plenty of excuse to shunt any loco or wagon into a maintenance shed. I'd be tempted to focus on the area between the two sheds, placing one at each end of the layout. Perhaps the larger one could conceal a fiddle yard/traverser? The track layout would need a bit of tweaking to make it interesting to operate but I'm sure it's possible in the space.

 

 

Let us know how you get on!

 

Mol

[Nick G]

Welcome to O gauge. After being lifelong OO modeller (30+ years) I took the plung in 2021. My first layout which will be featured in Model Rail Magazine in March is only 6ft by 2ft. My next layout will be 5ft by 2ft. I must confess though that my interest now is repainting, fading and weathering stock.

 

 

Edited December 26, 2023 by Nick G

[Hal Nail]

There are so many threads asking similar I would just spend an hour or two going through the 7mm section.

 

[D6775]

7 hours ago, Shaun123 said:

The era I’m modelling will be mid 90’s so BR sectorisation to Privatisation transitional period, just before EWS was everywhere!

Seeing the Dovedale layout and the recent exhibition put it firmly in my mind O Gauge was the way to go.

 

Glad Dovedale has inspired you! We're quite pleased with it. 

 

Nick G's Cripple Corner above is an excellent example of what can be achieved in a small space with O gauge, we had that along with Peaseven Yard at MIOG earlier this year and just goes to show what can be done. Given your era, the MIOG FB Group would be a good place to frequent also.  

 

[Shaun123]

4 hours ago, D6775 said:

 

Glad Dovedale has inspired you! We're quite pleased with it. 

 

Nick G's Cripple Corner above is an excellent example of what can be achieved in a small space with O gauge, we had that along with Peaseven Yard at MIOG earlier this year and just goes to show what can be done. Given your era, the MIOG FB Group would be a good place to frequent also.  

 

Thank you everyone! Some food for thought!

 

And @D6775 you’re part of the team behind Dovedale?! All I can say is wow! One of the my favourite ever layouts, it’s incredible. Peak Forest inspired + O Gauge is perfection.

 

[GWR57xx]

Hi @Shaun123, and welcome to RMWeb & 7mm O gauge.

As suggested above, a search of RMWeb will yield many threads describing layouts which make use of Peco O gauge Set Track.

The easiest way to find them is to go to the 7mm+ forum and enter "set track" (including the quote marks) into the Search box (top right), select "This forum" from the options list and click the magnifier icon:

 

 

Result:

 

 

The Peco Set Track points have a very large (and sharp) sideways displacement. If you want a more realistic result there is a very good description of a fairly simple modification you can make to the points here: 

 

 

 

Since you're new here you might not yet be aware that there was a catastrophic server outage sometime around April 2022 that resulted in the loss of a great many of the photos and images on the website. Turns out the (now ex) service providers weren't doing proper backups. So if you see a blue rectangle with a "?" icon, that is one of the "missing".

 

Good luck, and hopefully you'll share your progress here ...

 

[Hal Nail]

 

Edited December 27, 2023 by Hal Nail

[Nearholmer]

The above advice, especially regarding cutting down the arc of the set-track points is very sound.

 

Ignore the fact that this is in retro-style, coarse scale, three rail, and focus on the fact that the point geometry is almost exactly the same as Peco set-rack cut back from 22.5 degrees to 18 degrees arc, and that I got a very workable terminus, with the ability to run large tank engines round a train of three scale-50ft coaches in 8ft x 16in.

 

 

Do think very seriously about whether you really want mainline diesel locos on an 8ft long layout though; they are long old beasts, and instantly make the space look much smaller.

[Sweet pea]

Hi @Shaun123 welcome to O gauge. Like you I'm just starting out in this gauge so I'm always looking for inspiration on what I should build.

[Mol_PMB]

This bit of Arpley I mentioned earlier is a scale 12' long (including both sheds):

In a model, it should be possible to compress the length a bit, and hopefully achieve it in an 8' length.

The catch is that the locos don't get any shorter and a class 66 is 500mm long (1'8") in O gauge! Of course if you're rekindling old memories as in your first post, then older locos are a bit smaller.

 

I think that might be possible with a trackplan like this, which follows the prototype except that I've put a double slip outside the wagon repair shop where in reality there is no connection. You could view from the bottom of the page, and have that wonderful mishmash of portakabins, containers, fuel tanks etc behind. The backscene would be the WCML embankment.

The loco shed is on the left, and the wagon repair shed on the right. The bottom-right portion of the layout could form an Inglenook, though you would probably need to use 4-wheel wagons (TTA, OAA etc) and an 08 for it to have the necessary lengths.

 

Mol

 

 

 

[Shaun123]

Thanks everyone, you couldn’t have been more helpful!

 

I’m not going to rush in to just building a layout, luckily with my Peco O Gauge starter set and a few bits of extra track, luckily someone did buy me some extra points for Christmas too, I can arrange some different track layouts to see what works best in the space I have before committing it to the baseboard.

[Gilbert]

This may help - my first attempt in 7mm now sold. I'm looking at something a little smaller in 7mm using cut down Setrack points so I can keep some of the stock - most of my smaller locos seem quite happy running over it..

 

Chris H

[Nile]

A layout for inspiration that isn't in the 7mm section:

 

[D6775]

21 hours ago, Shaun123 said:

Thank you everyone! Some food for thought!

 

And @D6775 you’re part of the team behind Dovedale?! All I can say is wow! One of the my favourite ever layouts, it’s incredible. Peak Forest inspired + O Gauge is perfection.

 

 

Thank you, that's great to hear as it my first proper exhibition layout, its been a team effort! Soy yes, I built all the structures and do most of the modifications on our stock. Painting and Weathering is normally Cam's domain. Good to see you've come and joined the MIOG group too. Hillport Goods mentioned above will be at our show at the Heritage Centre in March along with a number of other smaller O gauge layouts, one a Western Region loco depot in the 70/80's and a China Clay layout based in the 80's.