“I’ll just throw together a whole little layout while I wait for this paint to dry.” ;-) Brilliant! This would be a great learning project. I love the game idea, too.
My goodness! You are brilliant with that simple layout to pass time and practice trainyard switching! I'll follow you with two extra modifications, add the bumpers at the end of the tracks and make the switch tracks longer for more cars. I look forward to learn more layout tips from you, train guru!
Great Idea Sir Steve! I just found an old box of N scale: 14 freight cars, 2 cabooses, 4 matching Con Cor Pennsylvania passenger cars and a little Bachman 0-4-0 switcher. Have to be 30 years old judging by the price stickers on the boxes (29.95 for the engine). A little shelf switching layout would allow them to be displayed instead of stuck in some box I didn't know I had. They all have the old style couplers that look like a big backwards C. Looks like a starter Bachman set is a far better deal than buying a power controller separately and it would give me an engine that for sure will run. LOL I would need a "conversion" car or otherwise swap out the trucks/couplers with knuckle couplers but other than that, hey they look still ready to run, each stored in the original cases they came in when purchased. 🙂
Thankyou Steve for sharing this video. It made me pickup the hobby where I left it many years ago. I borrowed your idea for this simple setup to get me started again. So I inspired upon your function as a game. And made the board a bit bigger so I can practice on creating landscapes/scenery. I’ve never done that before. So this is a good way to restart my hobby and don’t overdo myself in expectations and stuff 🤣
Thanks for the awesome inspiration! I went to my local train shop today and bought Atlas track and cork roadbed and switches today and built this on the front side of my o gauge layout today! Just finished ballasting it a few minutes ago. I used flex track sections and #6 manual switches and a re-railer for very minimal joints. I took my N scales down about 2 years ago and have missed running them some so this really fits the bill for me. I'm going to do scenery and all.. I also bought some "concrete" bumpers that really finished the track ends off. Total cost for all the track Cork road bed and bumpers was $65 not bad.
In his next installment Steve will teach us how to use the _warped_ pine boards that he ignored in this video. The next video will be called "Simple & Portable N Scale Hump Yard"
I was using the 6ft. mantle piece over the fireplace of an older home until I moved into a newer house without one. Your idea is great for small areas with limited but satisfying movement of rolling stock.
Oh my! This video is so perfect and exactly what I needed right now! It's been decades since I've had trains to play with, or even the time to play with them, recently however I realized how awesome it would be to have a small, n-scale switching layout to play with. Honestly, I've been over thinking it, and this is just perfect!!! Thank you so much for sharing this, I'm going to put one of these together next month so I can play with trains again!!! Awesome!!!
I put this together tonight with some old flex track and turnouts that I had ripped off old layout years ago. Not as smooth and polished, but gives me something to run until I get a layout planned in my new home. Thanks for the idea.
Love this! I'm going to do this in Z scale so I can pack it in a suitcase for traveling. I think it will be 4" x 24", or maybe a little less since my suitcase is only 24" long anyway. Thanks for the great idea!
This is great !! I haven’t been in the hobby for years but definitely something I could do to start and pass time being off work still due to the world event. Thanks for this 👍🏼
The card idea is brilliant in its pure simplicity. In lieu of white label full size sheet paper, I found some "Self Stick Printable Paper" at the local Dollar General store ($3 for 8 sheets) and cropped all my car pictures to 400 x 200 and put them into a Google Drive Doc page and scaled them to 3 x 1.5 inches each. I got 10 cars on one page. Color print and then quick perimeter cut with paper cutter (scissors also work), I then stuck them onto poster board using an architect triangle to apply without air bubbles. Then I cut them to individual size. Nice firm cards that work out to 3 x 1.5 inches each, about the size of typical board game situation cards used in Monopoly and other games. Now just waiting for my Kato track to show up! Due to the short wheelbase of the 30 yr old Bachman 0-4-0 and truck mounted couplers, I went with Kato #6 turnouts as they have powered frogs and hopefully the little engine that could won't stall out in the turnouts. If not, I couldn't resist and picked up a "still new in box" Arnold RS-1 with rapido couplers from Chicagoland Hobby so I don't have to swap out all the couplers on my 30 yr old cars. After reviews on the Bachman starter sets, I just found an old analog MRC HO/N transformer/power supply on eBay for $30 + $10 for shipping. I have no need to go "high end" with today's expensive DCC equipment so this should be just perfect. Unlike the Kato controller, these old MRC's have 18V AC to power the turnouts if i choose to "go fancy". In my long forgotten cache of stuff, I found some old Atlas daisy chainable turnout control boxes that should do the trick too.
I built a layout very similar to this one as my reentry into model railroading about eighteen years ago. I needed it to be small as we were living in a one-bedroom apartment at the time. Mine was built using Atlas track.
Thanks for the video! I have been working on final plans for a layout in my hobby room, but in the meantime I'm going to build a small diorama for testing and programming.... I may do something like this... I also eventually plan to make a small N scale layout, something portable, this would be a great, simple project, so that I'd have a spot to play with N scale cars while I build a little collection for that eventual project. Thanks again for the video.
I absolutely agree with Jtime I don't have a layout but I can only watch trains go in an oval for so long and this looks like so much fun I will be doing this for sure......I may have to try and put this into an oval......thanks steve going to the train store tomorrow
Your cards are about the right size to fit in PVC (firm) collectible card sleeves, which would make handling them somewhat easier if they're going to be used a lot.
Hay i like this layout so much I'm going to build one in ho scale i have track box car,s i have#2 NS mp15  GP-15 all DCC i need the wood it will be 1/2 by 8 feet it will be the last ho layout i will do thinking about going G scale so for this layout help me a lot didn't have nothing in mind but when i saw this i New it again thank you .
late to this, but I like combining the inglenook with a circuit layout with 5 or 6 generic industries that could take any kind of car. adding 6 industries changes the 6200 options to about 4.8 million possibilities. can do it with 3 industries on a 2x4, or 5-6 on a door layout
Now... add automatic decouplers for each track, take Arduino, camera, mini-servo mechanisms for track switchning and make AI to sort order of your choice :)
Great little layout, will be doing this but will be using blue flags... Blue thumbtacks to block movements so as to shrink inglenook based on rolling stock. 40 footers, 33 twin bay, and you can also run 3-2-2 with 60 footers. Thanks for the inspiration .
This is interesting and inspires me to do it since I am limited on space. Since I am new to modeling I have a few questions. 1) What is the tool you use to release cars? 2) How is the turn out operated without a switch ?
I just used a small screw driver. You need one small enough to fit in the couplers but large enough that when you twist it, it is big enough to pop them open. The turnouts have built in slide switches you can use to operate them manually.
Thanks! Some friends of mine spent a week over in Ireland in late November and had a great time. They said the Guinness was way better over there than it is here, and it is good here. So I’ll have to get over there sometime.
Actually, I bought one last year for when we were remodeling the house. I replaced all the baseboard molding on the first floor and that cordless nailer saved me many hours of time.
I knew a someone had one of these with a hinge in the middle for portability. I thought they introduced digital control of engines and switches in model railroads, guess not
This was a great video... especially for us apartment dwellers! But, as a MR hobbyist myself, switching operations need to be challenging, otherwise the experience becomes stale after just a few sessions. By "challenging", I mean having a time constraint to finish the job, or being graded by the number of moves it takes, etc. So do you grade yourself, to keep it challenging? Or use a clock? If you grade yourself, what's the criteria you use? Thanks!
As B Hyde pointed out earlier there are 40,320 different possible arrangements of cars and moves with a 5-3-3 Inglenook switching layout so it will take some time before you come across any repetition of moves www.wymann.info/ShuntingPuzzles/Inglenook/inglenook-rules.html
To add the purpose of the Inglenook Sidings game is to arrange the cars in the least amount of moves. Despite being a puzzle the switching in spot order is very realistic, and done regularly by full-size freight railroads in industrial areas all over N. America.
@@dmitze01 Well, you're on the right track (sorry). So yeah, the goal is to complete the "puzzle" in the least amount of moves... I get that. So I guess my point was, how do you KNOW what the least amount of moves is, for any given puzzle? And then once you know, you need to grade yourself against that number, otherwise the purpose of the puzzle will become stale very quickly. And it doesn't matter how many combinations of car placements and movements there are. There are only so many times you can move a different car from spot A to spot B or Spot C before the activity itself becomes repetitive, no matter how many different cars or spots there are. Forty thousand combinations can be just as stale as ten combinations after a while. So that's why a challenge is needed. As you said, to do it in the least number of moves is a good challenge! Or perhaps you can set a time limit, as if there's a schedule you must adhere to in order to clear the Main. So getting back to doing it in the least number of moves... for example, let's say we KNOW that for a particular puzzle, the least number of moves is seventeen. So if you do it in 17 moves, you score a "100". If you complete the puzzle in 18 moves, you score yourself a 95, and in 20 moves, perhaps an eighty. So the point is to score the highest you can, for each puzzle you face. And then to IMPROVE that score the next time you do the same puzzle. THAT's where the challenge is, so to keep the activity from becoming stale. But again, for THAT to work, you need to know what the best possible number of movements is for any given puzzle and that was the gist of my original question... i.e., how does one come up with that criteria?
Hi Steve ,love the 4’x6” switching layout. Did you ever get around to adding scenery to it,if so can you post a video on RU-vid.regards Alan Toulcher trainman 49.
@@StevesTrains thanks for the reply, much appreciated…just watched your video on battery controllers…gee things have improved from the 70’s…looking to build a Xmas mini tree layout…good place to start…cheers…dbj
Do you have any Conductivity issues after spraying with Brown Camo? I haven’t committed yet on N Scale Track. What did you use to clean off rails? What a out protecting Switch Points and Pivot Contacts??
I usually try to cover the contact points with masking tape and try to wipe the rails off immediately after painting. Usually I would use rubbing alcohol but it seems that isn’t the best solvent to use. I have recently tried using no-ox-id on the rails but will have to see how well that works over time.
Are you using a slotted head screwdriver to uncouple, and are you putting it in the middle of the two couplers and twisting, or just moving one arm to the left or right side by twisting?
Yes, pretty much, just inserting it between couplers and twisting. However, I have found that a Phillips head can actually work better if it is the right size. Trial and error to get the right size but it makes it easier when you can’t see what you are doing very well.
You can also hold 3 cars and the locomotive to the right of the first turnout. You need to have that capacity on each track in order to be able to swap all the cars around.
More proof there are just miserable people out there. Who does a dislike on something like this? Maybe it's not for you and just move on. Really cool idea.
Kato has uncoupling tracks. I almost used them here but then I would need an extra three inches or so on each of the three yard tracks so 50 foot cars wouldn’t fit unless I used a shorter engine and made the right side shorter. Reliability of the magnets to do the uncoupling varies and if you get just the right sized screw driver it is almost easier to use that.
@@StevesTrains I added an uncoupling magnet on mine. I made it part of the lead track, so I uncoupled cars and then shoved them into the sidings. I did have to add a little length to the lead doing that, but not enough that I could get an extra car onto it.
Yes, about 8’ in HO for 50’ cars but you can do it in 6.5 feet if you limit the cars to 40’ lengths. My HO scale switching layout is basically the same design and is 12”x80” or so.
@Peter T Yes it is. It is one of my favorite switching layout designs. Same idea as the Hanoi Tower puzzle/game. Well, no, not exactly, in that one you would have all three the same size and could produce the pattern on any of the posts. But similar.
proof that there is no reason anyone can't have a layout "if" they really want one.. And, if someone says..well, I don't have a computer and a printer.. ok make sure all of the cars are a different color and make a colored dot on a 3x5 card and do it that way.
When I set out to building my Inglenook layout, I bought eight 40-foot cars that looked distinct from each other. That makes things much easier for a layout of this sort.
In Z scale it would be about 70% the size of this, or around 2.5' x 3.75'. T Gauge is almost half the size of z scale, so it would be a small layout. I've been tempted to do a T Gauge layout sometime, but I would have to figure out how to see it first. I would need some kind of magnifier type thing to wear to be able to work on it at all.
This year's derby is on the 30th. The one from a couple years ago, I think he finished first in his den, and my outlaw car took first in the outlaw race.
June 2021. This is all you'll be able to have as far as a layout goes...$64 bucks for a SINGLE PIECE of 4x8 plywood. At this rate , that switching part you have will be a armchair modeler's "dream layout".
@@StevesTrains found out the hard way. I just need the little pieces. Nowhere to be found. Amazon, eBay, hobby stores. No one has them. 20-071 is particularly rare.
20-091 and 20-092 are the two track assortment packs with those little pieces but I too noticed them out of stock at a couple places I checked. Kato track has a tendency to get shipped over in containers where suddenly everyone has tons of it and the at some point you can’t find anything again for a period of time.
@StevesTrains thanks for the heads up about those little pieces. I found a shop here that carries the multi packs with them. I am having trouble finding the road crossing. Do you think 200271 would be too big as a replacment?
@@Brad-xd2btthe track piece with that crossing is the same as the other one. Only difference is you get the crossing gates too in the version you mentioned. You don’t have to attach those, so without them it will certainly fit just fine.
