Complete finescale novice

Howdy all, Ive been away from the computer for a few days, so its nice to see some good detailed information in reply,

In all honesty I have very little knowledge of either P4 or EM having worked solely with OO and smaller scales (N and NN3 more recently!)

Having read through that EM strikes me as being a good starting point to play with, and gives me a good excuse to try track building (with my layout being in such an early stage again it seemed an ideal time to think about changing over!) i think, with the amount of stock I have to kit build it could be time to really go for it!

Next question with the EM gauge, would that effect the size of buildings and what have you (again, I point out I am TOTAL novice hear) and second, where is the best place to get some information on track building? I have some Peco code 100 Nickle silver track, could that be re-gauged and used? or is it best to start from scratch??

thanks for the replys guys

I have to say that Nickle silver would be my preference, i had a good look at the C&L website (thanks guys!) and the 100M pack of NS code 75 track sounds like a good price (compare to a box of Peco or similar, which you get about half the rail in!) I think i shall put the code 100 to one side for other duties and get hold of set of gauges.

Cameron,

I take your point re EM/P4, and actually think P4 is the better looking gauge, I have a LMS 2P without a chassis at the moment, so it seems a perfect opertunaty to play with a 'new' gauge

I think, given my stubborn nature I will be building points from scratch, as the layout needs more than a few of them, so the cost of buying pre built ones would near on kill me... Copper clad sleepers, now there is good sense, I noticed that one of the other track builders on hear (I think it was 16A) got some excellent results with it, and the idea of soldeing track to sleeper sounds very good, even for a simpleton like me...

Soldering does not bother me, and I invested in the Precision Gold soldering station (really good piece of kit for the cash it was to!) and now I never use cheep solder...

Keep the ideas coming lads and lasses, this is giving me many ideas...

Sean

How do Jim,

I do keep thinking that in my mind, I am modeling steam (1930's!) era, at the moment, I have swpped and sole a lot of my late 60's stock from the previous layout, and a lot of the not so good bits (A HUGE thank you to Richard Johnson for his input) have been removed, so I am back to bare boards near on, hmm, P4, I think this could be well worth doing, Jim, and yet again, I am thinking, as you say, same effort....

As most of my locos for this are still unbuilt kits, or part built kits, (at the stage where I am going to need wheels sooner rather than later now) I am very open to which gauge, and I do admit, the kits I have are mostly inside cylindered locos (3F, 4F, Prince of Wales, Flatiron and a J50 at the moment) so that should let me cut my teeth nicely on the locos before a more complex re-gauging of the Hornby Patriot I have....

OK ive been swayed P4 it is

Sean

I thoroughly recommend then, I get most of my goodies from them, from resistors to PCB and solder...

from what I have read, a lot of people just use the template to create V's and blades, I have just ordered 3 P4 roller gauges, and a 3 point gauge (not that there will be much curved track to play with...)

Templot, I can use it for singular pieces of track or a point, but when it comes to much more than that.....

I shall keep my eyes out for a copy of trax 2 many thanks for that...

I know what you mean, my friend, I seem to have found very few kits that make me swear too much, the BEC J17 being one of them, the running board castings had the strength of card board in a washing machine...

Sean