Hello and Welcome Aberdabr,
I hope to have my village about 10' x2' can a small track make a small turn like that?
You might be introuble there. 2 feet is not enough room for any HO scale radius. the smallest turn is 15", which turns out to be a 30" diameter, and i'm not sure your trains would run on that. You need atleaste 3' 6" for 18" curves, the standard small curve. I personally try to stick to 22" radius, which needs about 4 feet wide.
The other solution is to instead pick up a trolley, or my personal favorite, some RDCs (rail diesel cars. they are like self propelled passenger cars), and wire up the track so that they run back and forth automatically, making station stops on each end. circuits for this are available, and i'm pretty bachmann sells track that is ready to go with automatic directional change.
Okay ez track can some one please tell what is the diffence? How do I know what I have? The pictures are coming!
This is EZ track. it comes in to varieties, Steel and Nickel Silver. Steel rail tends to gather dirt and grime faster, so i'd opt for Nickel Silver. You can tell the difference, because Steel has a black road bed (foreground) and Nickel Silver has grey roadbed. The bevelled stone roadbed is part of the track, and it has interlocking ends that hold the track together. Its PERFECT for these kinds of set ups, as you can see from last year's tree. (Also in the picture to the left is the Classic Lionel set. No tree should be without one of these, and they always have great value in the future)
I'm pretty sure you have Atlas Snap Track, which is what i use on my layout. If it says Atlas, you have Atlas track. We just reccomend Bachmann EZ track for your christmas tree display. using the snap track on a surface like your plywood board is fine.
Snap track looks like this track, except with black ties (usually). my track is mounted on cork pads.
Now I am really lost? What is On3?
It is the next scale up, O scale (the size of Lionel and such), yet it has whats called Narrow gauge trucks. What this means is that the wheels are closer together, so that they run on HO scale tracks (which are half the size of O. Hence, "
Half-
O" =HO). In real life, some small shortlines do run on tracks smaller than the standard 4 foot 8 inches, and so its not entirely unrealistic.
On3 is popular for christmas trains because they are bigger but have smaller tracks and store away easier (or atleast thats my guess). Personally, i dislike the appearance of most On3, although they are often more finescale than your average diecast Steamer set, but its your railroad.
Well I hope are really nice set that I can leave my kids (my kids fight over) when I am gone in about 40 years. So I am in no rush but I just want to do it right. Though I am trying to convince hubby to change our exercise room into a train room. :twisted:
Aww! hey, don't worry about 40 years from now, lol. with expirience, you can eventually set up a great railroad. while we are on the subject of quality sets, try to pick up things by Athearn, Walthers, Atlas, and Bachmann. they usually have reasonable quality to them without busting the bank. The biggest rule in this hobby is You Get What You Pay For.