# My First HO Setup



## zfan4life (Nov 28, 2013)

Good Day folks,

I am looking to setup my first HO table. My son loves trains so i figured it would be a fun hobby to do with him!

What are some things i need to think about before starting this project? 

im looking at an L shaped layout 6 feet long by 3 feet wide with a 4 x 3 extension of the end if that makes sense haha.

Thank you in advance for the help! I am excited to embark on this!

P.S. I would like to incorporate a "road" where he can play with his hot wheels somewhere along the outer portion of the table so he doesn't have to risk interfering with the train.

Thanks!


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

zfan4life said:


> Good Day folks,
> 
> I am looking to setup my first HO table. My son loves trains so i figured it would be a fun hobby to do with him!
> 
> ...


Welcome to the site.
Your question can not be answered easily.
First check your bank account. 

What is the size of the room your putting it in?
Can you walk around the whole table? As you want to put a road in, a tad larger table would work better. Everyone seems to expand their layouts once they get going, I always recommend using all the space that you can afford from the get go. 

Then read up on running them, run DC or DCC? We have many threads on DCC, they say that is the way to go.

Are you going to model an old era or run mainly diesel locomotives?
All trains are not made equal, do your homework on which brands are better, we have a thread on the subject going on right now.

If you need to know by all means ask, there are (almost) no stupid questions that you can ask here. On some other sites you might be ignored or told to go find the answer somewhere else. Not here. :smokin:

Use our search feature we have a ton of info on the site.
Browse all the scales as you can get ideals from others scales and just cut back the size.

We have a member who started a track planning program if you want to take the time to learn how to use it. There are other free programs out there too.

http://www.modeltrainforum.com/showthread.php?t=5567

Well I got the ball rolling, most important thing to do is HAVE FUN DOING IT. :thumbsup:


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## zfan4life (Nov 28, 2013)

big ed said:


> Welcome to the site.
> Your question can not be answered easily.
> First check your bank account.
> 
> ...


Hey! Thanks for the response.

I figured it wasn't a cheap thing to do... but if we go slow and just take our time it should be ok? We are not looking to do anything really extreme....what type of ball park money wise would


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## dannyrandomstate (Jan 1, 2012)

zfan4life said:


> We are not looking to do anything really extreme...


Famous last words. :laugh:

I concur with the use as much room as possible. I will admit this. The hobby is a sickness. I've been plagued with it for some time now. :smilie_daumenpos:

Doing a little at a time is a good start. The table size you mentioned will be a great starting point. The curves might be a little tight, but again it's a starting point. Start out with some smaller trains, and get the feel for it. And then build the empire from there. 

Welcome to the site! Have fun!


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## shaygetz (Sep 23, 2007)

zfan4life said:


> P.S. I would like to incorporate a "road" where he can play with his hot wheels somewhere along the outer portion of the table so he doesn't have to risk interfering with the train.


My kids are quite creative with Micro-Machines on my N scale layout...


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## zfan4life (Nov 28, 2013)

dannyrandomstate said:


> Famous last words. :laugh:
> 
> I concur with the use as much room as possible. I will admit this. The hobby is a sickness. I've been plagued with it for some time now. :smilie_daumenpos:
> 
> ...


The sizes i gave are the BIGGEST we can do in that room.


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## morland (Sep 25, 2012)

shaygetz said:


> My kids are quite creative with Micro-Machines on my N scale layout...


I love the backhoe tractor hanging from the smoke stack. :appl: It just adds flair to the whole layout. :laugh:


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## zfan4life (Nov 28, 2013)

Here is the layout for the table...


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

Can you walk around the table?
If not can you reach the far corner?

Since you have no trains have you thought about N scale?
You can fit twice the N scale compared to HO in the space.

They are just a little smaller to work on.
The hot wheels will look too big around the N scale but like Shaygetz noted there are vehicles for N scale.

Good eyesight is needed for detailing and working on the N.


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## Big Ed (Jun 16, 2009)

morland said:


> I love the backhoe tractor hanging from the smoke stack. :appl: It just adds flair to the whole layout. :laugh:



Have you ever saw this?
His kids must have.


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## zfan4life (Nov 28, 2013)

big ed said:


> Can you walk around the table?
> If not can you reach the far corner?
> 
> Since you have no trains have you thought about N scale?
> ...



We can not walk around it...but can reach the back corner...we do have 2 ho trains and 100s of hot wheels. So if we can ...ho would be the way we wanna go. If it will fit


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## zfan4life (Nov 28, 2013)

What do.you guys think? Is this big enough for turns etc?


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## thysell (Jun 8, 2013)

Bigger radius turns are better. I'm using 18 inch radiuses to crowd a lot of track in. I'm running small diesels and short box cars. I won't be able to run the really large engines or passenger cars. On a 3 foot table using flex track your radius will be less than 18 inches. You will want to run small engines and short cars. DCC will make it easy to have two engines running at the same time. Oops there goes the budget!

thysell


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## markgrecco (May 27, 2013)

The radius is measured from the center of the track so on a 36" wide table the best you will get is about 16.5" to 17" radius and that's right to the edge. You should download SCARM and play around with a design. It's free. You will then see why guys are suggesting to go to N scale. If you do still want to go HO then either do a switching layout which doesn't have a continuous running loop or stick with cars that are 50 scale feet and less. That's a typical box car size.


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