Model railway layout for a dolls house

[croft farm]

The Daughter of a friend has asked for a "train set" in her dolls house. Any ideas ? I you have made one would be great to see a picture! rgds R

[Mike Stamper]

Z gauge is the smallest working railway.

Here's a web site, but there is loads more via Google.

Review Marklin 81701 Z Gauge Train Starter Set - Model Railway Engineer, the multi-award winning model train blog

cheers
Mike

[jamoldover]

If you want a working train set in the doll house, that's one thing. If you want a model of a train set that's properly sized, that's another. There's a 1:12 scale model of a Lionel 1:48 Union Pacific train set available from The Paper Train Factory -Model Train Kits (I think that comes out to an actual 1:576, which would be about 1/3 the size of Z gauge). Another possibility would be to use some of the 1:300 models (which also include tracks, signals, and some buildings) available from doprava.unas.cz >> Hlavni strana to create something, either in 1:300, or smaller if your fingers have the dexterity. That would come out to roughly the size of G scale in a doll house. Most of what's available there is European, which may or may not work in the setting you're dealing with. I don't think I've seen anything else from a paper model standpoint, although I have come across some small metal train cars that would be suitable for dollhouse use. They're based on cast metal toy trains that were sold as pull toys back in the early 1900's, though.

Joshua

[Vermin_King]

It kinda depends on the size of the dolls, doesn't it?

[croft farm]

It would appear the most common scale for figures in a dolls house are 1/12 scale

[croft farm]

Originally Posted by Mike Stamper

Z gauge is the smallest working railway.

Here's a web site, but there is loads more via Google.

Review Marklin 81701 Z Gauge Train Starter Set - Model Railway Engineer, the multi-award winning model train blog

cheers
Mike

ModelRailwayEngineer: Hints, tips and reviews for model makers says The smallest space required for an OO gauge oval layout is 3ft by 3ft where this can be achieved in half the size of its smaller brother for example. This means you can build layouts in unusual places for something different and if you have the space, you can get more track, do more and have more fun in the space with Z gauge.

Would it work by just scaling down existing card rolling stock!
I am sure a static layout would look just brill and they have said the loft in their dolls house is empty!

[michik]

Originally Posted by croft farm

Would it work by just scaling down existing card rolling stock!
I am sure a static layout would look just brill and they have said the loft in their dolls house is empty!

Surely this works!
This is the minibox station Petrovice printed at 25% of its original size (tracks and train are from doprava.unas.cz >> Modely).

The scale is 1/1200, which is somewhere in middle between H0 and TT for a 1/12 scale doll.

Of course, things get a bit fiddly at that size...

[airdave]

Sure, the scale of the doll house itself is important,
but first you need to establish the theme/era of the doll house.
And that will tell you what type of miniature railway is correct.

Victorian?
Post WW1?
Post 1960s?

O gauge -about 1/43 (Lionel trains, etc) anything before WW1 and to present day
"track on the floor"

HO scale 1/87 appeared in the 1920s
...great if you want a "tabletop railway".

N gauge 1/150
didn't appear until the 1960s, but good for tabletop at even smaller scale