Hi there - by way on introduction. My name is Mike, and I am working with my 8 year old son on and N scale layout. We have kind of a special situation with our layout. We have a small home, and therefore only a small space. I have built a shelving wall on a basement wall, and in the middle is a 4' by 4' (16 Square feet) area, that we are working with to make a Murphy Bed, pull down style of layout. I know we will have to move trains off the tracks and other items not attached to the board when we fold it back up, but I have put shelving on the interior to accommodate that. My son is really into Steam Locomotives, and therein lies the heart of the problem. The manufacturer with the best selection of Steam Locomotives appears to be Bachmann, but their quality is suspect. We have a whole bunch of Bachmann EZ track and plan to stick with that for the layout. We already have the NCE DCC starter set with power supply. This is how we plan to control the layout. No track is laid, and no layout is set. We are hoping to have the board mounted on its hinge in the next week or so. Any help or tricks you can supply is good.
Welcome to TrainBoard! Great to read your youngster is interested and involved! For possible help with your track planning, be sure to try our Layout Design Forum.
Welcome aboard! While Bachmann may have the largest roster, they're by no means the only player in N scale steam. Atlas, Microtrains, Model Power/MRC, Athearn, and Kato all have something to offer. Just depends what you're looking for. Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
Hi M&J, Welcome. The Murphy Bed concept is an excellent solution to space limits. I built one 55+/- years ago. P.S. Glue everything with Elmer's...allows removal later with a little water.
From my limited experience - I have heard Kato to be some of the best constructed trains. Is that true?
Kato makes excellent steam, as do many of the others. Their Mikados are considered some of the best steam out there, but are not for the faint-of-heart to convert to DCC. Their GS-4 (SP Daylight) and FEF (UP #844) are beauties, and more easily converted. Before going nuts, though, take a good look at your 4x4 layout and think about what you want to run and how you want to operate. That will guide you into what size of steam you will want to be running most of the time.
Thanks for the input - if it were up to my kid - we would own everything. I have the Any Rail Software that we are using for track layout. A couple of things he wants also is a turntable and roundhouse. I have the round house built and we have the Kato motorized turntable. We bought a bunch of stuff with no plan in place. So far I think this board is going to be very helpful. Thanks all in advance.
Welcome aboard, and I certainly hope that both of you have a great time with this. As for locomotives, given the size you're working with you'll probably want to look at the smaller locos, so that they perform and look better on the curves you'll have. If you have a hobby store you go to, you could ask to "test run" a loco before you buy.
Welcome and be sure and post Youtube video's of the Kato motorized turntable and the roundhouse, and post links. Even while testing it. Good luck!
