whats the best track for...

[SteamGene]

Bob, I'm aware that pushing Talgo mounts invites derailing.  My point, only, was that they came about to allow cars to traverse very tight radii.  "When in doubut, body mount."
Gene

[erichthegerman]

 thanx all i appreciate your efforts and it is ho scale , and steam gene i find you  in every post how do you do it ?. i can barely keep up with mine .   
                                             


                 etg...

[SteamGene]

I'm retired and I read fast.  Right now I'm somewhere in the 500s in the last Potter book.

[thoepf]

Hi everyone.  I'm new to this hobby and would be very grateful if someone could answer my question.  I am planning to run three parallel tracks around the perimeter of a fairly large room.  They will be on a shelf above the doors and windows.  HO scale.  I have so far got three 50 piece boxes of 9" steel EZ track and know I will need more.  My question:  will this kind of track work OK for this?  The outside circle will be a Santa Fe passenger train.  The middle will be a Santa Fe 3 diesel freight and the inside track will be a 4-8-4 Union Pacific freight.  Is 40 to 50 cars too much to pull for these two freight trains?  I guess that was 2 questions.  Sorry.  Any advice would be very helpful and appreciated.  Thanks,  TH

[SteamGene]

I'm wondering how you are going to see the inside train with that wide a shelf at that height.  Or are you going to stairstep the track? 
Steel track is not a good idea I don't think.  You want nickel silver and for that amount of track, using flex track would cost you a great deal less. 
Who builds the locomotives?  Will all the diesels be powered?  What size are the cars?   All of this has a play in the number of cars you can run.  I'm assuming that you are using no grade and wide curves.
Gene

[thoepf]

SteamGene,  Thanks for your reply!  All 3 diesels are powered.  Two are Bachman, one is an Atlas.  Cars are a mixture of Athearn, Roundhouse, Bachman and some others.  Some bought new from a local hobby shop that went out of business and others picked up at local train shows.  All are just standard size, I think, a mixture of boxcars mostly, with some tankers, flatcars, coal cars and a few auto carriers etc.  The steamer is a 4-8-4 Bachman that comes in the Overland Limited train set which includes a 9 car consist.  I suppose I should sell the boxes of track and start looking for some flex.  Do they make nickel silver flex?  I may stairstep the tracks.  The room measures 18' x 23' so each train should be visible at some point with one going in the opposite direction of the other two and each running at different speeds I think.  Terry