--- In [email protected], "Edward Loizeaux" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> One place to start would be to visit some S layouts. Are your interests > with American Flyer or with something more realistic (like scale) or > with something sort of in between (known as hi-rail)? I would wager a > beer or two that if you provided your town/state information, that a > bunch of fellows would invite you over to see their S layouts. That's > just one starting point. I guess more between hi-rail and scale. I'm not into protypical operations--if I like the look of the train, I'll run it! I'm in Rochester, NY, so I do have access to a couple of hobby shops. > > Next starting point is to determine your overall concept of a layout. Like I just mentioned, I really just want to have a realistic- looking layout with trains running through it that I like. Santa Fe warbonnets, Pennsy in Tuscan, and any steam train that would fit my space and had smoke and sound! > Do you mean a square with 12 feet on a side? Or an area with 12 square > feet? Big difference here. With O scale you'll get a loop with a > couple of sidings and not much more. With S you could build in a bit of > interesting complexity. I have a part of the basement where I can have a 12-foot-long table along one wall, then a 12-foot table along the adjacent wall, and I can add one or two others to make a "C" or a complete square. > We can certainly point out the various pros and cons as we see them. > One place to start is to list the things you really really like and also > list the things you don't care about. Then maybe we can help sort it > out for you. If you like Big Boys and turntables and roundhouses, you > might want to reconsider N scale. How about small diesels and small > steamers and fairly tight curves? What is your reaction to that idea? Don't need huge steam power or modern diesels. I saw some O passenger cars at the LHS today in 15", 18", and 21", and I actually liked the 15s the most! I can picture a passenger train of 4 to 6 cars, since that's probably all I'd have room for, and a steamer pulling a freight of about a dozen cars. A detailed city scene at one end, some mainline running through scenery, and then ending with something on the other end, either another town or maybe a logging scene. I know I can't have a ludicrous minimum radius even if the stuff manages to get around it because it would just look dumb! > Yep, and S is known as the "missionary scale", but don't let that scare > you off. LOL! Is that because it's considered boring and safe? > Given the small space you have, the larger size might be a strong > disadvantage -- especially for mainline standard gauge railroading. S > scale has enough figures and details for a layout the size you are > contemplating. Granted that O has more, but S has sufficient. How many > different bartenders did you want anyway? (Hope you have some humor > tolerance.) :>) Don't worry--I wouldn't have survived this long online without it! > Bingo! By George, you've got it! Not only is it a "nice" size, but it > is the "best" size for an indoor layout because it is large enough to > see details and operate flawlessly. Much larger and the structures > gobble up all the available space. Much smaller and dirt particles > affect operation and the details might as well not be there. That's a big concern of mine with O--After fitting in the tracks and trains, would I only have room left for 2 or 3 buildings, which wouldn't look realistic? > In my not-so-humble opinion, this is a minor factor that should not even > be on your "scale consideration tradeoff list". There are enough > details to fill up a 12-foot square layout or a 12-square foot layout, > whichever you have. Trust me on that! Look at the rolling stock and > structures and don't sweat the details. Heck, as of last week, we now > have a fire hydrant. It was announced right here on this list. But, > y'know, I don't think S scale has any dogs. So why do we need a fire > hydrant anyway since there are no dogs to "wash" it? LOL! But your point is actually very important to me because I really *do* love detailing scenes, and the lack of that stuff in S really worries me. Believe it or not, I actually was surfing the other day and found a site that had all kinds of detail parts in O like mailboxes, fruit boxes, etc., and I thought "Cool!" > I'm sure you will get lots of comments with the really nice opening you provided us. Good luck. I appreciate that, Ed. And I hope I can make a decision before I'm so old that I need to go G! Peter The poll results are in....... To REPLY to the list, use REPLY ALL, to reply to the sender, use REPLY. I do NOT know if this works on all e-mail software, but it works on some of the most common ones. For those of you on DIGEST mode, all REPLY messages go to the list. 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