Gn00b Gnwebie

[EvadingGrid]

I'm kinda stuck what to say.
I really could do with some most basic help !

I have spent time looking at the Virtual Exhibition pages.

The thing is a lot of people are so talented that they skip little details, like track plans, how they laid the track, what it cost to build and other little details that a Gn00b Gnewbie needs to know !

Track
First off I found the Peco 016.5 track for sale at very reasonable prices. Thing is a lot of the layouts that I really like the look of have really crazy sleepers, spaced wide and I'm left wondering how people do it !

Next I'm wondering how people get those tight curves, some of which look like 6" inch radius. I was brought up thinking OO had a minimum of something like 15". I appreciate that running short wheel base 0-4-0 locos changes that, but I'm puzzled. Should I buy Peco 016.5 track and try and bend it round 6" curves ?

Is there a Track Plans section of the forum ?

[More_Cats_Than_Sense]

Welcome to the forum and the delights of Gn15 EvadingGrid

Peco O-16.5 track is a good choice, I used it on my layout Katham House in mostly unmodified form. If you want odd spacing and size of sleepers, then you're better off starting with standard OO track. To get wide sleepers you'll need to remove the webbing from underneath the track and slide pairs of sleepers together, you can add a strip of styrene between the paired sleepers and add an end strip to either end to increase the length if you want wider/longer sleepers. Alternatively you can remove most of the sleepers and leave one every six inches or so to keep gauge, and add dummy sleepers to your preferred spacing. You can hide the gauge-keeping sleepers in the ballast.

Six inch radius curves are fairly easilly achieved, and tight curves are fine providing you experiment a bit and try out differnt length locos/stock and couplings to see what will work for you. If you are trying to get the track to a tight radius, then for very tight curves you will need to remove the rail from the sleeper base and pre-curve the rail using a simple bending jig (three round headed screws in a block of wood) and then reassemble the rail into the sleeper base.

As to cost, a lot of modellers have collections (heaps?) of odds-and-sods (otherwise known as a "bits-box") from which a lot of items come from, so actually costings are a bit of a grey area....

[chris stockdale]

Hi,

This is more of a 'Hello' than an answer to your varied questions as I play in bigger scales (up to and including 12" to the foot) but I'm a big fan of minimum gauge type railways and models of all scales.

If I might make so bold, but a real name is always nice to know too please.

Meantimes, welcome to the Gnatterbox!

Cheers,

[EvadingGrid]

Thank you More_Cats_Than_Sense

Your layout Katham House, by answered a heck of lot of questions, really, really helpful write up and photos.

I think I spent about a couple of hours last night studying photos that are effectively a great collection of track plans ideas.


My previous experience in model railways was in the late 1970s, with a rubbish unsuccessful GWR branch line. Thought I knew what I was doing back then, having spent to much time reading magazines and arrogance of youth. I went on to do other things, like Tamiya RC Cars, shortly followed by discovering Beer and Women.

Many years latter I scratch built a few RC model boats, at least 1 of which was top notch. The last thing I did was pioneer a Garden Layout for 1:32 slot cars, which survived the British Weather.

EG.

[EvadingGrid]

Hi,

This is more of a 'Hello' than an answer to your varied questions as I play in bigger scales (up to and including 12" to the foot) but I'm a big fan of minimum gauge type railways and models of all scales.

If I might make so bold, but a real name is always nice to know too please.

Meantimes, welcome to the Gnatterbox!

Cheers,

I also have been looking at 7/8ths.
My real lust is for the 1:12th Garden Railways.

Trouble is my garden is not the best, then the cost of the landscaping, and then when I saw the cost of points and track my wallet had a heart attack. It will have to stay on my bucket list a little longer !!!


I spent too much time studying this list of Narrow Gauge model railway scales, and running my calculator.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_n ... way_scales

Its how I came across Gn15.

[chris stockdale]

I guess so many of us are used to the late, great, Carl Arendt's work it's easy to forget to mention it to new folk

Carl was an early adopter of Gn15 and his Square Foot

http://www.carendt.com/articles/the-squ ... e-railway/

design is legendary.

So, pop on over to:

http://www.carendt.com/micro-layout-design-gallery/

and enjoy.

Cheers,

[chris stockdale]

Additional:

You can always stay indoors and have a dabble in 1/12 for the same money (pretty much) as Gn15. It's perfectly acceptable to run 1/12 on 16.5mm gauge to represent a tiny agricultural or industrial line of 7 1/4" gauge. If you're a Facebook user take a look at the link in my signature as I run a group doing it for real.

Take a look in Size Doesn't Matter for examples of what has been done in 1/12, including quite a bit from Dieselwater using mostly cereal packets for bodywork and buildings.

Or try the Gnine section and imagine it doubled up to 1/12 on 00 track for further ideas.

Lastly, returning to that mention of cereal packets, try cutting out and gluing bits of cardboard in actual size to rough out locos/stock/buildings etc to both Gn15 and 1/12 scales to get a feel of how big/small the end product might be. Great fun for negligible cost!

Cheers,

[Jon Randall]

Welcome EG

[docnjoj]

Hello EG and welcome. Read, read and then read some more. There is a wealth of knowledge here. Find posts by Steve Bennett as he sells GN15 models and has written a large number of articles. He has been inactive lately but his work remains.
otherDoc

[EvadingGrid]

Can I just thank everybody for replying, if I seem a little slow to respond its because I am absorbed in all the reading and studying track plans.

Its all very inspirational.