How To Build A Simple G Scale Model Train Layout
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- Опубліковано 27 лип 2024
- A fan of my model train videos asked me to make a new video showing how one of my model train layouts gets put together. I thought that was a good idea... so, that's the basis of this new model train video.
I show the entire process... from putting the individual pieces of train track together... to connecting the electric power supply and control system... and even show you the simple way to get all the wheels of a locomotive lined up with the track.
Running on the train layout today are my BNSF diesel locomotive and my White Pass & Yukon Route steam train. The BNSF model train is made by MTH Trains, and the WP&YR train is made by Piko. These are G-scale model trains... significantly larger and more expensive than other electric model trains you may be familiar with. The most famous manufacturer of G-scale model train is LGB, and I'm using LGB track in this layout... but no LGB locomotives.
In the past, I've used advertising revenue from these UA-cam model train videos to pay for additional locomotives and equipment. This year, however, the amount of ad revenue coming to me from UA-cam has been hugely lower than before. In order to fund the purchase of new locomotives, I've set up a Patreon page so that people can kick in small amounts to assist. You can become one of my patrons for as little as $1 a month... and there are perks for folks that kick in at least $4 per month. Go to Patreon.com/JimZim for more information, or to join my group of patrons. Thanks to everyone who has become a patron, so far!
#trainvideos #modeltrains #gscale #trainvideos
Video Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:51 Layout Info
2:47 Laying Down Track
4:53 Power Supply
5:38 Locomotives
7:13 Trains Running
#trainvideos
Very cool, to expand on track laying, on two popular brands of G scale track you can slide the rails out to release the joiners and to add isolated ones. You may also want to add signals for safety.
That G scale BNSF SD70ACe is awesome
I have an LGB set I purchased for my son. My next step is to go DCC and add a few more cars. Our set did not include a caboose or passenger cars, so that is also next on the list. Great show Jim.
thanks Jim, very relaxing and soothing .. love your trains..
This is one of my favorite UA-cam channels
Same
Getting to prefer G as my next layhout size....great stuff...
Good to watch the basics.
wow nice train
First time viewer I really enjoyed watching this. I actually am An Ho scaler, N scale & O scale yes all 3 scales. I have been a a fan of G scale for years in fact I came close to being a G scaler I spotted a train set inexpensive at a pop up store in New York City Greenwich village, during the Christmas season & my birthday falls near the holidays. The store was closed so I opted to come the next day for this battery powered set for G scale set. I had earlier stalling tactics prior to my return. Sure enough I got there the sets were gone I never got it or one like that again. That was in the late 1990's or around early 2,000. But G scale is cool to. As I'm building up my Ho & N scales I celebrate 50 years as I received My very first electric train set in HO Scale A Life Like set. I'm glad to share this story & as a first time viewer. Thank you for showing your awesome G scale trains & collections . Will be tuning in more as I just subscribed. as well. 🎉🎊❤️
Jim zim, thank you for the video, now i know what the g scale dcc controller looks like!
I think a key thing you should've covered was that the locos need dcc compatible decoders to accomplish what you did. Especially in G Scale where almost every Loco does not come equipped with decoders.
I was trying to keep the video simple, and not get bogged down in details.
By the way, if you look at brands like LGB, Piko, and MTH trains... you'll find that the DCC locomotives have the decoders built in to them.
The basic layout is utilizing digital controls which takes some planning.
Awesome 🚂👍🚄
Piko is my go to brand very high but my goodness it’s amazing.
Nice!
Jim, you need to make a trip down to Lowe's or Home Depot or whatever big box hardware store is there and get you a "good" pair of knee pads, you might save those knees from that hard concrete.
John in Kentucky
I use a "poor-man's knee pad". I keep a small pillow nearby when I'm dealing with trains on cement. It's a pillow like you would find with outdoor patio furniture. I kneel down on the pillow when I have to get down on the ground.
@@JimZim OK, but I'm tellin ya that there are some amazing knee pads available that are designed for concrete that are so much better than an outdoor patio pillow. BTW, good video, I do enjoy watching them.
Yoo king of the toy trains
Almost done with
My second mainline in living room.
you have amazing locomotives. I hope you get more in the near future and make more amazing long layouts
Nice video📹🔴
that is so cool
Very informative.
Excellent 🤩
Wow awesome
Nice video Jim zim love your videos ❤
I have been watching you for a year ❤❤
I like this video and set up.. Albert Jackson Tyler , Tx
A locomotive I think you should look into getting is to find one of the older LGB Sumpter valley mallet
I wish I could find one for a good price.
Joyeux Noël 👍🏼🚂
Thumbs up. Love the trains!
You can actually put both train close to the wesel so you can measure the timing very accuratelly by experimenting it
Your videos are great! I have learned from your videos and I would love to see your White Pass Diesel locomotive one and Steam locomotive along with you catching foreign Power on a BNSF train. Also I heard you got 9000 subscribers. Good job!
Actually 479,000 subscribers... and over 361 million views to my UA-cam videos.
What will the 26th G scale locomotive be?
Is it a diesel locomotive or a steam locomotive?
As always, I am Thomas Comeau and I will see the replies from you, Jim Zim and I love your collection of 25 not so soon to be 26 G scale model trains!
I like my mrc tech 2 transformer they are good products
Nice Video, easy to understand.
Im also starting to build my first "bigger layout" in my attic. Always love to see the big Diesel Locomotives, but also Steam Locomotives have a special type of charme. But i wonder how lang have you been collecting and how much money did you spend on this great hobby?
Greetings from Germany.🤗
I bought my first G scale model train in December of 2014. It was a Christmas starter set, since we wanted a train to go around our Christmas tree that year.
I very quickly got bored with the small circular layout... and bought more track and some switches to be able to do a layout more interesting than just a circle. The next year I got a steam train that had realistic sound effects and simulated smoke... and I've just kept adding more and more track, switches, rail cars, and locomotives since then.
I haven't kept a detailed accounting of everything I've spent on model trains... but if I had to guess, I'd say it's now well in excess of $15,000 USD.
@@JimZim Thanks for the honest Answer. Hope the Trains will always be fun to watch.
Thanks!
Thanks! I appreciate that!
Hey Jim nice layout! By the way what is the best g scale starter set?
Take a look at these:
www.trainworld.com/shop-scale/g-scale/trains/train-sets-with-track-power.html?manufacturer=57
Thank you!! Jim you da best
So I can just buy a starter set. Then hook up Proidgy elite 10a and get the wifi. Put the train on the tracks right out of the box and it works fine. You don't need to do any special wiring to the loco. Thank you
No.
First off, a starter set will come with its own power supply... so, you wouldn't need the MRC Prodigy unit.
Also, the locomotives that come in most starter sets are set up for analog control systems, and the MRC Prodigy unit is a DCC control system. The two are not compatible. You use an analog power supply and control system for analog locomotives, and if you have DCC (digital) locomotives you would use a DCC power/control system like the MRC Prodigy unit.
Also, the MRC Prodigy Elite 10A is no longer manufactured. MRC makes other power supplies in the Prodigy line, but not the Elite 10A any longer.
@@JimZim Thank you for all the info jim.
Great stuff Jim, do you recommend contact cleaner liquid for the tracks?, thanks.
I actually don't use a cleaning fluid at all... I just use a Scotch 7447 pad to clean off the tracks. It works very well.
@@JimZim Appreciate it, the DCC controller was great info as well, specially since those Marklin DCC central station controllers are around 800 bucks!
Cool man!! I understand DCC set voltage and the trains processor takes what power is desired by you. But I’m confused on that positive and negative of that particular layout. It’s like a reverse loop for both trains as they go over the shared strait section. Am I over thinking it?
Came here looking for this answer too! Lol! Unless DCC can just compensate for the direction reversal on the common track, one of the engines must be battery powered. He’s got another video about reversing loops, but I don’t see the required pieces from that in this vid.
@jeffrozak2435 The layout shown in this video does not use any reversing loops, and neither of these trains is battery powered. They are DCC locomotives. DCC layouts are very different from analog ones. In a DCC layout, there is no polarity to the electricity, so you can put two different trains on the layout facing in opposite directions, like I did here.
The direction a DCC train travels is not a function of the polarity of the electricity in the tracks. The operator simply sends a command to the locomotive anytime a change of direction is desired.
Of course, on an analog layout using analog locomotives, the direction of travel is all about the polarity of the electricity running through the tracks. Reverse the two power cables, and the trains will travel in the reverse direction. But DCC doesn't work that way. It's much more advanced, and gives you many more capabilities.
What will the 27th G scale locomotive be?
Will it be a steam locomotive or a diesel locomotive?
As always I am Thomas Comeau and I will see the replies from you and I will be honest with you!
Thanks Jim Can you tell me what radius of curv track i should use for the a large engine like your santa fe or BNSF?
R2 would work... but if you have the room for it, R3 would be better.
R2 track makes a circle with a radius of 65 inches.
R3 track makes a circle with a radius of 98 inches.
Can you make a video about your controller system program because I got mrc to but I can't get it to Connect to the tracks do you think you can tell me so that? Thanks🙂
I am thinking of getting back into this scale, and maybe in the backyard, so it helps to get some good advice to consider before you open your wallet!
Hey........Wait a minute.....Are you Hank Snow ? How about Singing I'M MOVING ON' ??
Your Piko White Pass Mogul guide wheel keeps coming off the track and rerails on the switch before it goes back into it's own oval! It happened many times on this video.
I so want to install digital controls in my engines
Are the switches being controls by the DCC controller so that is switches direction for each train?
These are manual switches. They are not controlled by anything other than an approaching train. They are normally set to route a train in one direction only, but if a train comes in from the back side (in other words, from the other direction) the switch immediately moves to allow that, but also immediately springs back to the previous direction as soon as the train gets past the switch.
Hi, Jim! I am just getting into model railroading [this is coming from someone who 23 years earlier watched Thomas The Tank Engine for the first time]. Would this video be a good resource for my N scale layout [I'm 26 years old here]? By the way, I really enjoy your videos, especially your ship ones. Best of luck!
with the latest technology****
All the same basic concepts that I discussed in this video would apply to model trains of any scale. The most significant difference in planning a layout for a small scale like N versus a large scale like G is that the power supply you would use for the small scales doesn't need to be anywhere near as powerful as one that would be used for the big trains. So, you'll want some advice from an experienced N scale guy on what power supply and control system to use.
@@JimZim Thanks, Jim!
giant trains
What is the smallest radius of a G scale model train and can you go into depth of the two different sizes of G scale track I collect G scale track or trains for my pops he was a train person we had trains growing up trains around the trees my grandfather was in the trains and now that I have kids I want to keep it up but like you said things are expensive and I don’t know what truck to get I didn’t know there was two different kinds of track for G scale all I knew that there was Lionel and G scale thank you
Where can we get these items
I buy all my model trains from www.trainworld.com
I am new to this gauge. Can a Lionel transformer work as a power source.
Quick answer: probably not.
Longer answer: Some G scale locomotives need more power than others. Amperage, not voltage. And some power supplies put out more amperage than others. So, the definitive answer will depend on exactly which locomotive you're talking about, and which power supply you have.
But generally speaking, G scale stuff draws more power than smaller scales... so, you probably need a beefier power supply than for other scales.
Wow huge train compared to ho scale
Jim, the channel: edit ideas is taking clips of your videos and reposting them, fyi.
Thanks for letting me know. I'll look in to that.
I've had those videos removed from their channel. Thanks again for alerting me.
@@JimZim No problem, they popped up in my feed so I figured I'd let you know.
I'll be breaking into the TV screen to steal your model trains. Don't be surprised if you see a pair of hands coming out through the lense of your camera
bro your like that one grandpa who likes trains and has their grandchild watch it go round and round the track.
Great video! Question: Was there only one power connector or one for each train? And what is the power rating on the transformer you used? Thanks!
There was one power connector for the entire layout. That supplies power to all the rails in the entire layout, and all trains running on those rails pick up the power from the rails. The power supply I was using has a maximum output of 10 amps... enough to run five G scale model trains on one layout all at the same time.
How much power your G scale locomotives will need depends on how many electric motors there are inside the locomotive. Some of the higher end locomotives, typically the ones that cost $800 or more, will have two electric motors inside the locomotive... while lower priced locomotives will only have one electric motor. So, if you're running all single-motor locomotives on your layout, a 10-amp power supply would have enough capacity to support a lot more than five locomotives on the layout all at the same time... maybe ten or so.
@@JimZim Thank you...that cleared things up!
Good job! So if you have 12 DCC locomotives, how many analog locomotives do you have? Also I heard you got over 14 million subscribers. Keep up the good work!
You can find a complete listing of all the locomotives in my collection at the bottom of this page: jimzim.net/ModelTrains.html
Regarding the number of subscribers, it's actually 479,000 subscribers... and over 361 million views to my UA-cam videos.
@terrajones6921 Sorry, somehow I missed your question and comment when you posted it months ago. You can find a full inventory of all the locomotives in my collection at www.jimzim.net/ModelTrains.html Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page to see the locomotive inventory.
No, I don't have quite that many subscribers! I wish I did! I currently have 484,000 subscribers. But my videos have been viewed over 368 million times!
gomez adams would be disappointed there was no crash or explosions
hello jim zim in which country do you live
In the USA... up towards the Northwest corner of the country, in the state of Washington. (Not to be confused with the capital of the country, Washington DC)
I have a set
How to buy??
I buy most of my model trains from www.trainworld.com
The locomotive is here: www.trainworld.com/shop-scale/g-scale/mth-70-2152-1-g-sd70ace-diesel-engine-w-proto-sound-3-0-bnsf-cab-no-9379.html
Of course, you would need a lot more than just a locomotive. Tracks, a power supply, some rail cars, perhaps some switches. You could easily spend thousands of dollars.
@@JimZim thanks
@@JimZim can I use for restaurant food sirvice in table?
That would be very difficult. Things would have a tendency to tip over unless absolutely perfectly balanced. Control of the trains would also be very difficult. I would never do that if I owned a restaurant. It likely would be a total nightmare, and a good way to flush a bunch of money down the drain.
My six years old son do this even better 😝