I do not know if what I have can be described as a layout, but I do enjoy making videos of my models...
Wow, l like that Thurmond rendition!...Thurmond and Cass make W.Va. live up to some country music descriptions....with Sandstone and Hinton and the New River Gorge. The C&O there with its steam and coal mines and camps are eastern RR history l would like to model, but get distracted enough.
Check out the Aberfoyle railway; Do a little hunting on line and you will find plenty of videos of it stunning one of the best I have seen.
My situation is a little different since I have to model modular, but the layout is 90% complete. The uniqueness of it is that is is based on German prototypes.
It has been posted here before and here is a forum link to my layout Georgenstadt. Miketg
Though not totally complete, the Cherry Valley Railroad in NJ. You can see many videos and photos here:
Hey, thanks everyone for contributing links and photos, great stuff!
I suppose you guys are bummed that MTH is shutting down? I have a couple of their steamers that can be switched over to 2-rail...which I always thought was a neat engineering feat...though never used it myself.
I enjoy all scales of model RR'ing, and am probably a 3-railer like 90% of all 3-railers, we grew up with it and it works in relatively smaller spaces. But, if everything was equal, I'd switch over to 2-rail O-scale..how can you pass up realistic looking track!
The Rockford O Scalers have a Facebook page and have also posted videos on YouTube for your viewing pleasure and we invite you to check them out. A sample video of our layout is attached.
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@Keystoned Ed posted:Footage of my railroad can be found in Terry Terrance's 2 hour O scale promotional video. Video coverage includes several very nice layouts including Chris Smith's and and John Sethian's. Here is the link to the video: Terry Terrance's 2016 O scale video
The coverage of my railroad starts around 1 hour 11 minutes into the footage. Someday we'll need to do a new video as there has been a fair amount of scenery and rolling stock progress since Terry videoed the layout. However that won't happen for awhile as my next objective is to signal the railroad using the NMRA Layout Command Control (LCC) bus standards.
Ed,
I looked at the Terry's video of your layout again. It is spectacular. I remember seeing the Model Railroader article of your Washington DC area layout. It was one of the things that inspired me to go to O gauge from HO. However, I am 3-rail because I don't have the space for O scale curves. I would enjoying seeing your layout if I ever get to the East coast again. NH Joe
Great videos.
Question on the track: it appears that in some of the videos the 2-rail track is narrower and in others wider, yet none were narrow gauge from what I could tell. Are there actually different gauges of 2-rail O-scale track?
Hi Paul,
There are some who use Proto 48. Photo 48 is proper 4'-8.5" scaled down spacing between the rails while regular 0 scale 2 rail and 3 rail uses 5' spacing between the rails. The difference is a little over 1/16". The equipment for Proto 48 won't work on 5' gauge track, and the equipment for 5' gauge won't work on Proto 48 track.
Another thing that might make a difference in appearance is that some people use code .148 heavier mainline rail and others might use code .138 and others might use code .125. I chose mine based on what the prototype used. Most 3 rail track uses taller and wider rails than what is generally offered in 2 rail. I think I've heard it mentioned that Atlas 3 rail track is code .225 compared to their 2 rail track offerings which are code .148. Code .225 would be off the charts heavy rail.
Also, unfortunately my friend Joe Ioele won't be joining the discussion about his completed railroad. He is also looking to get his railroad published.
@Paul Kallus posted:Great videos.
Question on the track: it appears that in some of the videos the 2-rail track is narrower and in others wider, yet none were narrow gauge from what I could tell. Are there actually different gauges of 2-rail O-scale track?
Besides P48, there's also On3 (3'), On30 (30"), On2 (2'), and On18 (18"). There's also PA Broad gauge for the trolley modelers, although I've yet to see anyone actually model using that variant.
Thanks Chris and Marty for the track descriptions. I take it by "code" that refers to width of rail, such as code 0.225 = 0.225" wide rail head?
@Paul Kallus posted:Thanks Chris and Marty for the track descriptions. I take it by "code" that refers to width of rail, such as code 0.225 = 0.225" wide rail head?
Paul, code would be the height in thousands of an inch. Code 225 would be 0.225” high.
@Paul Kallus posted:Thanks Chris and Marty for the track descriptions. I take it by "code" that refers to width of rail, such as code 0.225 = 0.225" wide rail head?
Height, not width
Paul,
The code of the rail is measuring the height of the rail as Phil and Martin confirm, but at least in the case of Atlas and probably others, I think the width of the Atlas Code .225 track rail head is wider than Atlas Code .148 track rail head. It has been a while since I did some comparisons of track to determine if I'd stay in 3 rail or switch to 2 rail. At that time the center rail did not bother me but the rail in the Atlas 3 rail track seemed considerably oversized in every dimension, at least for the era I chose to model.
ME 148, Scaletrax (193), Atlas 3R (215)
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I have ME flex connected to my Atlas flex on my 2 rail mainlines without issue. Smooth transition.
@Engineer-Joe posted:I have ME flex connected to my Atlas flex on my 2 rail mainlines without issue. Smooth transition.
That's good to hear. I have some Atlas 2-rail track, but was looking at ME because it seems more readily available and at a better price point.
