What Are The Everyday Mistakes With O Scale Model Trains
Many a beginner model railroader will decide that, instead of HO, they like to build their railroad empire using O scale model trains. While the bigger trains may appear easier to work with and just plain more fun they may also be a source of disappointment to the inexperienced. Here are some common mistakes made with O scale trains.
Is your turning radius too tight? While the minimum turning radius for an O scale train is 24 inches you have to understand that box autos and passenger cars are not the same length. If you’re recreating an 19th century freight route you may be fine but if you decide that instead you would like to run a modern Amtrak passenger train you could be plagued with derailments with such a small turning radius. Besides the functionality of too small a turn radius you also have the noticeable fact that it just doesn’t look that practical.
Are your inclines too steep? Most new model railroaders foresee some sort of tunnel or bridge in their layout where the trains will run beneath its own track or up over the roads the vehicles travel. When you’re working in smaller scale where you have room to build long inclines this is not generally an issue . Not so with O scale. Given the height needed to clear another train track your O scale layout will need an exceedingly long incline indeed especially if you’ve made a long train to begin with. You’re not going to go from ground level to train clearing bridge height in just two feet. If you don’t have large layout, one solution is to send your lower track a touch underground so that your upper track does not need to rise as much.
Is your landscape out of scale? Although a locomotive is higher than an one story house we must not forget that in actuality 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 folks. When purchasing 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 proper scale.
Does your train match your track? Unlike Ho scale where everything just about works alongside everything else, O scale modeling can really be confusing when it comes to matching the correct track to your train. Since the early days when these toy trains were run on glossy three rail tracks there were some major innovations that include two rail systems, more authentic O gauges and the choice of running O scale trains on narrow tracks. Do your research before buying even your first train set, because once you have chose a track, you are stuck with it or will be doing a major overall down the line.
Keep these usual mistakes under consideration when making plans for your layout and it should make building your O scale train layout much more pleasurable.
Emil Sudhakaran is a model train expert. For more great information on ho scale model train, visit http://www.modeltrainsguide-emil.com/n-scale-model-trains/.