Many a newbie model railroader will decide that, rather than HO, they wish to build their railroad empire using O scale model trains. While the bigger trains may seem easier to work with and just plain more fun they may also be a source of disappointment to the inexperienced. Here are some usual mistakes made with O scale trains.

Is your turning radius too tight? While the minimum turning radius for an O scale train is 24 inches you have to realize that box cars and passenger vehicles are not the same length. If you’re recreating an 19th century freight route you may be ok but if you decide that instead you’d like to run a modern Amtrak passenger train you may be tormented with derailments with such a little turning radius. Besides the functionality of too small a turn radius you also have the glaring fact that it just doesn’t look that realistic.

Are your inclines too steep? Most new model railroaders envisage some sort of tunnel or bridge in their layout where the trains will run beneath its own track or up over the roads the autos travel. When you are working in smaller scale where you have room to build long inclines this isn’t sometimes an issue . Not so with O scale. Given the height required to clear another train track your O scale layout will need a very long incline indeed particularly if you’ve made a long train to start with. You’re not going to go from ground level to train clearing bridge height in just two feet. If you don’t have big layout, a possible answer is to send your lower track slightly underground so that your higher track does not have to rise as much.

Is your landscape out of scale? Even though a locomotive is higher than an one story house we must remember that in actuality trees still tower over trains. No where is this single mistake made more than with O scale train layouts. The same scaling mistake is common with outbuildings and people. When buying any accessories or buildings for your layout make sure that you know it is to scale and not that it just looks to be the right scale.

Does your train match your track? Unlike Ho scale where everything just about works with everything else, O scale modeling can truly be confusing when it comes to matching the proper track to your train. Way back to the early days when these toy trains were run on shiny three rail tracks there were some major breakthroughs that include 2 rail systems, more authentic O gauges and the choice of running O scale trains on narrow tracks. Do your research before buying even your first train set, because once you’ve chose a track, you’re stuck with it or will be doing a major overall down the road.

Keep these typical mistakes under consideration when making plans for your layout and it should make building your O scale train layout much more delightful.

Emil Sudhakaran is a model train expert. For more great information on ho model train, visit http://www.modeltrainsguide-emil.com/ebook.html.