Many a beginner model railroader will decide that, instead of HO, they prefer to build their railroad empire using O scale model trains. While the bigger trains may appear better to work with and just plain more fun they may also be a source of disappointment to the inexperienced. Here are some typical mistakes made with O scale trains.
Is your turning radius too tight? While the minimum turning radius for an O scale train is twenty-four inches you have to notice that box autos and passenger vehicles aren’t the same length. If you are recreating an 19th century freight route you could be fine but if you decide that instead you’d like to run a modern Amtrak passenger train you may be tormented with derailments with such a small turning radius. Besides the functionality of too small a turn radius you also have the glaring fact that it just doesn’t look that pragmatic.
Are your inclines too steep? Most new model railroaders envision some sort of tunnel or bridge in their layout where the trains will run underneath its own track or up over the roads the cars travel. When you’re working in smaller scale where you have room to build long inclines this isn’t generally an issue . Not so with O scale. Given the height needed to clear another train track your O scale layout will need a very long incline indeed particularly if you’ve created a long train to begin with. You’re not going to go from ground level to train clearing bridge height in only 2 feet. If you don’t have huge layout, a possible answer is to send your lower track a touch underground so that your upper track does not have to rise as much.
Is your landscape out of scale? Although a locomotive is higher than an one story house we must recollect that in real life trees still tower over trains. No where is this single mistake made more than with O scale train layouts. The same scaling mistake is common with outbuildings and people. When buying any accessories or buildings for your layout make sure that you know it is to scale and not that it just looks to be the right scale.
Does your train match your track? Unlike Ho scale where everything pretty much works with the rest, O scale modeling can actually be confusing when it comes to matching the proper track to your train. Way back to the early days when these toy trains were run on shiny 3 rail tracks there have been some major breakthroughs that include 2 rail systems, more authentic O gauges and the choice of running O scale trains on narrow tracks. Do your research before purchasing even your first train set, because once you’ve selected a track, you are stuck with it or will be doing a major overall down the road.
Keep these common mistakes under consideration when arranging your layout and it should make building your O scale train layout much more delightful.
Emil Sudhakaran is a model train expert. For more great information on model train shop, visit http://www.modeltrainsguide-emil.com/toy-model-trains/.