Great N-pire Railroad

[2-8-2]

Not sure if this is the right forum for this...

I bought the book "N Scale Model Railroad That Grows" and I was wondering if anyone had input on the layout featured.

 

[Russ Bellinis]

This is the right forum, a repost in the n scale forum might also help. I model in ho and haven't looked at that book, so I can't talk about it specifically, but there are plenty of folks here at the gauge who will be chiming in shortly I'm sure.

 

[Drew1125]

I think that's a great book for beginers...it takes you through the process of building a small, simple layout (with the potential to expand later)

The nice thing about these books (there's an HO version as well) is that they give the beginer a primer in many facets of the hobby...benchwork, track-laying, wiring, scenery, structures, painting, weathering, detailing, etc...

I think these books are a valuable learning tool, & great to have at hand when you're trying your hand at it the first time...

 

[2-8-2]

I think that's a great book for beginers...it takes you through the process of building a small, simple layout (with the potential to expand later)

That's a big part of what I liked about this book. They build the layout in phases, and you can quit at any time and still have a functional layout. At 40"x60", the layout is packs in a lot of action, much more than any I was drawing up in RightTrack.

I think this plan will be a good start for me, and the book is great. I don't like that they suggest using foamboard for the benchwork however. I have 3 kids who I'm sure will be interested in what I'm doing, so I'll be using 1x instead, which will be much more sturdy.

 

[Russ Bellinis]

They use foam board a lot because it is light weight. If you use 1/2 inch plywood for the layout base it will be plenty strong, and you won't have to worry about kids picking at the foam and maybe even trying to eat pieces.

 

[DaytonTrainDude]

In addition, they use foam board because they are showing you that you don't need to have access to or knowledge of power tools to build a layout. Definately wouldn't recomend it though.

Mike