John's article reminded of me of my introduction to N-scale while in college.  Think low-budget, the college student's byword!

My roommate started out with a 3' x 6'-8" hollowcore door, which was a used door obtained for free.    His initial track plan was similar to John Drye's loop with the vision break acorss the middle.  This allowed running and switching of 4-axle geeps with 40' & 50' cars, structure building, and scenery experimentation,  The hollow core doors are light weight, but rigid enough to be set on a couple of sawhorses or bookcases. 

With his layout, I got to see the possibilities of N-scale.  So after college graduation, my first layout was a door-sized (3' x 6-8") open grid folded-dogbone N-scale plan with the backside against a wall, and all of the switches accessible from the front 2/3 of the layout (remember, it's only 3 ft. wide).   Then I had a hinged hollow core door over it that was a drafting board/layout cover by day.   The whole affair just sat on an old desk.

There are some great possibilities with this size layout.  It is manageable in size, and therefore budget, but can give you decent operational schemes, and plenty of room for structures, scenery, etc.    It would make a good candidate for a chainsaw layout.

Since I am beginning a transition from S to N scale I tend to read John Drye's articles first when a new issue comes out.  He has encouraged me to continue with my conversion. I agree that n-scale has real possibilities for all tpes of layouts but what encouraged me to convert was that a n-scale layout on a 7X3 platform would correspond to 17.5 X 7.5 in S scale.  That's a promising amount of space.

I think the promotion of n scale should not focus on the 3X6 possibilities.    3x6 in n scale offers the same layouts that 4x8 offers in HO - nothing new there.  N-scale layouts on a 4x8 platform will correspond to HO layouts on 7.3 by 14.6.  The possibilities of this larger space will be more impressive and more fun to build and operate than the old versions. 

Thanks for all that MRH offers.

Art Armstrong

A problem with a 4x8 is lack of portability. If that is not a concern than go for it. If you want a 4x8 and need portability, I'd make it a set of 2@2x8 back to back.

Bernard Kempinski

 www.alkemscalemodels.com

 

Personal Layout Blog: http://usmrr.blogspot.com/