anyone know of N-scale templates for beginners?

New Train Club & Coffee drinking Society

While most of the guys want to make a rail road, I want to make the models. So, trying to figure out scale layouts and the like. Confusing a bit, what else is new.

Any suggestions?

Reply to
pyotr filipivich
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pyotr filipivich wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Not sure exactly what you're asking. Most of us either build from kits or scratch-build. Kits, of course, generally have pre-cut pieces. For scratch-building, your best tool is a scale ruler (and a sharp Xacto knife). The scale ruler lets you measure in your chosen scale as if you were doing prototype measures, so you don't have to do the conversion math. If you're actually into the math then you need to know the conversion factors:

HO scale is 1:87 (3.5mm = 1 foot) N scale is 1:160 (1.92mm = 1 foot)

so if you are building in N scale, for example, an 80 foot boxcar will be around 6 inches long.

Reply to
Dale Arends

Dale Arends on Mon, 17 Jan 2022 13:28:30

-0600 typed in rec.models.railroad the following:

What I am seeking is some kind of scale 'template' for road, the "footprint" for the Bank, court house, "Miss Nancy Ann's Hotel for Single Girls", etc, etc.

They also tend to be "more expensive". Time is money, so what you save on one, you make up on the other.

.075 in is 1 scale foot.

Are there rulers in N-Scale? I haven't chance to see if any of my drafting rules can map easily to 1:160. Metric 300 can be use as

1:150 "double". ("Just remember which way you're converting...") Otherwise, I have spreadsheets starting at 1" = .00625" up to 12" (or one foot) being .075" and then foot increments as convenient. Or I can plat the city as 1 chain front to back and 1/3 chain side to side.

I'm working on the "model" side of the rail road club. The other guys want to do the choo-choo, I just want to build the town. I think I may have bit off more than I can handle. B-)

Reply to
pyotr filipivich

That is roughly correct for N scale.

If you check the hobby websites, I think you can indeed find scale rulers.

Buying kits would be the easiest way to go if you have never scratchbuilt a scale model before. Buying one or two kits might give you an idea of how large other buildings you want to build should be, and you might be able to use the scale pieces to create a template for your scratch built structure pieces.

For example, if you buy a kit of a two story building, you would know that a future four-story building you might want to build should be twice as tall.

Mike

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Reply to
Dumas Walker

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