Layouts & Tracklaying FAQ
I want to design my first Gn15 layout. What sort of curves can the locos and wagons handle? Will I have to disguise tracks turning suddenly to disappear into the backscene?
Carl Arendt: There’s no need to disguise the sharp curves on Gn15 layouts.
Estates and industrial 15" gauge lines routinely have 10 to 15 foot radius curves. They’re prototypical!
This works at at 5" to 7½" radius on the model. Sir Arthur Heywood, who pioneered 15″ gauge trains in the 19th century and who saw himself in a “main line” role, had a 23-foot radius curve at Duffield Bank.
The Sidelines stock will easily take a 6" radius both forward and backward. They have trouble with a 5" radius, however, especially in reverse (pushing instead of pulling).
Should I go for an end-to-end layout or a continuous run?
You will long for a way to let the trains run unattended whilst you chat up the blonde in the corner to interested visitors.
Trust me on this one!
How about turnouts or points - will I have to build my own?
Carl: If you want a 6" radius turnout then yes, you’ll have to build your own turnouts, but you can achieve a lot using standard HO or On30 trackwork from Atlas, Fleischmann or Peco. On30 track will look better because the sleepers will be closer to ‘real’ size, but you can just use HO trackwork and ballast to hide the sleepers completely.
How do you bend track to a 6″ radius without kinking it?
To bend tight radii, I use Roy C. Link’s rail bender - I got mine from Foothill Model Works (Jerry Kitts) but you can also get Roy’s products from his website.
The rail bender works fine with Codes 100, 83 or 70 rail. It only bends two radii - 3½ inches and 6 inches - but they’re the ones you need most. Other sizes can be sprung outward or inward from one of those two.
Highly recommended if you’re going to lay tight radii. If you’re using flex track, remove the rails, curve them in the rail bender, then feed them back into the sleeper strip. You may need to cut off some of the tabs between the sleepers, which tend to bunch up in very small radius situations, but basically, once the rail is smoothly bent, the rest is easy!
Steve Bennett: You can get problems with the decreasing track gauge on tight curves if you’re using flexitrack such as Peco’s. The secret is to pre-bend the rail prior to laying the track. Here I would also like to recommend Roy C Link’s railbender that Carl mentions. With this tool you pull the rail from the sleeper base and thread it through the rail bender, once bent just thread it back in the sleeper base and you have perfectly gauged curves. There are two settings on the railbender, just pick the closest and ease to the radius you require when laying. This will work on rail up to code 100 so is suitable for the Peco 0-16.5/0n30 track.
Emrys Hopkins: If you’ve not got one of Roy’s machines to hand, you can trim the webbing on the inside of the curve using a sharp knife or small saw, then bend flexitrack over your stomach (as seen on Discovery’s ‘Garden Railway’ TV programme). If you’re intending leaving the sleepers showing, Steve recommends also trimming the webbing on the outside of the curve. I’m planning to completely hide the sleepers on my layout, so I won’t be bothering with the outer curve … I’ll let you know if this causes any problems!
What tools and materials do you recommend for handlaying track in Gn15?
Carl: Tools are pretty basic — a pair of needle nosed pliers, a soldering iron and resin core solder, railnippers or a razor saw, and two or more HO/OO track gauges. For small radius tracklaying a rail bender is invaluable - Roy C. Link makes a good, inexpensive one for our purposes. A motor tool, such as Dremel, is very useful but not essential.
tool
Materials include:
- Rail
- Most Gn15 people use Code 100 nickel silver rail, although Code 83 or Code 70 would work just fine. Code 125 is a bit oversized, but usable. Flat-bottom rail appears to be standard for small narrow-gauge lines. You may also want to get some rail joiners (fishplates) to match your rail size.
- Ties/Sleepers
- There are several good choices — (a) PC board material, which can be purchased pre-cut into strips — the rails are soldered right onto the sleepers; (b) Basswood, easily obtainable at a hobby shop as stripwood or in sheets which can be ripped into strips; and (c) balsa wood, also available in strip or sheet form. Wood ties should be soft wood, so spikes are easy to push.
- Spikes
- Virtually any HO/OO spikes will work. They’re available in several lengths, for use with various baseboard materials. I use insulating foam baseboards, so tend to standardise on rather long spikes — 5/16″ or even 3/8″ long (8mm or 9.5mm) — that will reach through the ties into the foam. I dip their tips in Elmer’s white glue (known as PVA glue in the UK) before pushing them home with the pliers.
- Glue
- I glue the sleepers/ties to the baseboard with yellow carpenter’s glue (high tack). Works fine and doesn’t melt the insulating foam. An alternative to spiking is to use ACC “superglue” to fasten the rails onto the ties/sleepers. Some people swear by this method; I tend to swear AT it. Use the “gell” form of ACC if you’re gluing onto wooden sleepers/ties.
- Paper(!)
- Paper turnout templates are very useful if you’re building your own, especially in the extremely small radii we use for industrial Gn15 models.
I make my own templates, just drawing the proper radius curves and the tangent straight rails, and build the turnout right over the template either in situ or on the workbench.
- Paint
- Paint will be needed for both the ties/sleepers and the rail. I use Floquil “rust” for the rail sides. Just slather it on and use a Bright Boy or eraser later to clean off the inside edge of the railhead (for electrical contact). Ties are best coloured in advance of track laying — I just soak them in dilute black clothing dye (RIT), occasionally removing some from the batch so they end up in many different degrees of darkness. Very diluted black or grey paint would do the same job. Takes overnight to dry.
Two tips
- Practice spiking before you start on the “real thing”. Grasp the spike head firmly with the needle-nosed pliers, place the tip of the spike next to the rail base, and push it home. For some materials, a second push is needed to seat the spike firmly. After you have found the “best angle”, you’ll find it goes easily and fast. And once learned, it’s a technique you never forget, like riding a bicycle!
- On curves, lay the outside rail first. It’s a lot easier that way! Then use a three-point track gauge to position the inner rail while you spike it down.
Does it matter which way round the track gauge goes?
Carl: The wide (two-pronged) side of the 3-point track gauge is always used on the outside rail of the curve. A little geometric thinking shows why: the gauge will thus be slightly widened around the curve, allowing a bit more sideplay in the wheels and easing the pain that trains feel when they’re forced to turn corners.
This effect is even more important in the very sharp curves we use for industrial type layouts.
The inside rail will be held quite firmly by the single remaining prong and can then easily be spiked in place. And so on, around the curve.
What size rail should I use? I calculate that code #100 would scale out to approximately 37 lb per yard rail in 1/2″ scale while code #125 would scale out to 46 lb per yard rail. If I’m correct, has anyone used code #125 for Gn15 or is it too heavy?
Carl: I can’t lay my hands on the convenient table I once made up, so I went back to original sources (A.R.E.A. and A.S.C.E. specs) and figured it out.
| Which rail? | Rail Height (Inches/Scale Inches) |
Rail Weight (pounds/scale pounds) |
| Code 70 (.070″) | 1.7″ | 13 |
| Code 100 (.100″) | 2.4″ | 21 |
| A.S.C.E. 25# rail | 2.75″ | 25 |
| Code 125 (.125″) | 3″ | 28 |
| A.S.C.E. 30# rail | 3.125″ | 30 |
| A.S.C.E. 40# rail | 3.5″ | 40 |
| Code 148 (.148) | 3.5″ | 40 |
Based on rail height, using flat-bottomed rail and modeling at 1:24, the table shows how things stack up.
Industrial railroads generally used 12-20 pound rail in the old days - around Code 70 or Code 100 in Gn15. Heywood’s “heavy duty” 15″ gauge lines used four sizes of rail - 12, 14, 18, and 22 lb. per yard.
The Ravenglass & Eskdale, which hauled gravel to the crusher for many years, was originally laid on the remains of a three-foot predecessor line, so probably uses rail up to about 30 pounds.
So if you want to use Code 125 for a heavy-freight-handling line, it could be prototypical. For an early 15″ gauge railroad, an industrial tram, or a passenger-carrying tourist line, Code 100 or even Code 70 is the best bet.
What size spikes should I use? Would G scale spikes look too big on a Gn15 layout - or would they interfere with the wheels due to their size?
Carl: G scale spikes are WAY too large for Gn15! They’re made for Code 330 rail (one-third of an inch tall), and Gn15 usually uses Code 100 (1/10th of an inch tall). Probably wouldn’t even work, let alone look strange :-). Use regular HO/OO spikes — either 1/4″ long (for regular baseboards) or 3/8″ long (for foam insulation baseboards).
As far as spikes are concerned, there’s a big group of fans of the old Kemtron #129 spikes (available from Old Pullman in Florida and perhaps from Walthers), but personally I’ve always preferred Walthers own brand of spikes … they have thin heads that wrap around the rail base nicely and yet aren’t thick enough to hit big flanges (on old equipment).
If I am going to build my own turnouts, would it make sense to build stub switches rather than “normal” switches? They look easier (to my untutored eye, anyway). I’m not sure whether a tighter turnout could be built that way.
Carl: Yup. Stub switches, which are completely prototypical in both UK and US, save about 40% of the length of the turnout. They’re not necessarily easier to make, because you have to fuss to make sure the rails line up very precisely EVERY TIME. There’s actually less room for error than with points BUT stub switches take up considerably less room, and are often used by industrial modelers for that reason. And they’re not really all that hard to make, assuming you have a good Swiss file!
Stub switches - assembled and in kit form - are also available commercially from B&H, among others. Search Walthers using the key word “Stub” to find them.
So is this scale a good one for “switching puzzle” layouts?
Carl: Gn15 Sidelines’ stock uses link and pin couplers of the simplest possible sort … just a link that drops over a pin on a small buffer on each wagon. This is a relentlessly manual system! You may want to consider putting small Kadee/Microtrains couplers (N or HO or HOn3 size) on your wagons and loco, so you can shunt the layout with some degree of remoteness. Otherwise, the tweezers will be your constant companion!
Carl: Minimum radii are often in the eye of the modeller … don’t believe everything you read about them! When you get to eight-wheelers (two bogies) you have to try them and see. The limiting factor on the curves is the amount of swing in the trucks (bogies), and some brands will turn much sharper than others. One suggestion would be the inexpensive Bachmann HO Brill trolley and San Francisco Cable car models — both are two-bogie mechs that turn on very Basically you just have to get a length of flexible track and try out various curve radii. Sometimes trimming back the ends of the bogie castings can sharpen the usable radius. Sometimes grinding away obtrusive parts of the chassis helps, too! I haven’t done any experimenting with 8-wheeled mechs, but I have an old Athearn SW7 that will turn on an 8-inch radius right out of the box. And I bet with a little judicious pruning I could get it around a 6-inch radius. IOW, the key is to experiment. Look at various locos in the store, take home the one whose trucks swivel farthest, and try out radii to see how small you can go. Then build a superstructure for that mech in your chosen scale and figure out what kinds of couplings will work. In general, shorter cars can navigate tighter curves, even with Kadees. Boulder Valley Models has some terrific On30 shortie car kits (both freight and passenger) that work great on tight radii (see http://hometown.aol.com/on30resinkits/) or, of course, you can roll your own. I hope that’s enough info to get you started. Good luck!
How do you make things work with such small radii? I’m just getting started and NMRA says minimum radius for HO is 14″ for 4-wheel locos (steam or diesel). I have an Alco RS3 I would like to try converting to On30 but don’t have the room for the NMRA minimum of 23″ radii (for the two 4-wheel trucks). Any help or direction you could give would be most appreciated.
Most four-wheeled HO locos will easily go around 4 to 5 inch radius curves - or less. You need to work out coupling methods for the cars, but pins with links that drop over them will take VERY small radii. Alternatively, there are swinging Kadees that can be used. I have just finished a Gn15 layout that uses a loco based on the Bachmann On30 4-wheel trolley mech, with 4-wheel industrial-type cars, all of which easily go around 5 1/2"e; radii - using stock Kadee #5 couplers!
short radii.
