3rail - Interior Door Modules

Do Interior Doors make good 3-rail O-scale Modules?

In truth, not really. Although not too heavy, they are not as light as custom constructed modules [EXAMPLE]. Although portable, they won't fit into smaller vehicles.

Their big advantages though is that they are a sturdy pre-constructed surface (easily covered with low-pile carpeting) which can often be found used at a very cheap price. Dimensionally a single door is just big enough as a module to hold an interesting O-scale stand-alone trackplan. If you don't have access to the tools/space needed for custom module construction, then an interior door module (perhaps just resting upon saw-horses) might be a viable option.

The below examples of purpose oriented interior door modules were designed using Atlas 21st Century O-scale 3-rail track in SCARM (files included). To keep construction costs down, a minimal number of turnouts were used. The track plans intentionally incorporate semi-toy animated accessories and cars into their design (see: *.pdf), in order to show that even the uncommon and odd-ball cars of Tinplate 3-rail Modeler Railroaders can be given justifiable destinations. Although trackwork and building footprints in the *.scarm trackplans are drawn to scale, the building and accessory graphics are rendered in simple block-form without any detail. Where actual Toy buildings and accessories are indicated however, they are dimensioned upon actual (but frustratingly often underscale) plastic toy train structures.

Single-Module Track Plan Examples:

Air Express Transloading

Airfield (*.pdf)

~ Airfield (zipped *.scarm)

Antiquated Urban Light Industries

Bygone (*.pdf)

~ Bygone (zipped *.scarm)

Compound Ladder

Ladder (*.pdf)

~ Ladder (zipped *.scarm)

{a useful module to construct for use with any type of layout}

Double-ended Staging/Fiddle Yard

Staging (*.pdf)

~ Staging (zipped *.scarm)

Fantasy Missile Proving Ground

Missiles (*.pdf)

~ Missiles (zipped *.scarm)

Fantasy Suburban Firefighting/Rescue Services

Emergency (*.pdf)

~ Emergency (zipped *.scarm)

Island-style Rapid Transit (live third rail traction equipment) Station

O-scale Island-style Rapid Transit station

Island (*.pdf)

~ Island (zipped *.scarm)

Rural Coal Mining

Mountain (*.pdf)

~ Mountain (zipped *.scarm)

Return Loop Track Plan Example:

To accommodate a return loop's wide width, these modules (left side loops illustrated) turn the interior doors 90 degrees. A set of at least three doors are required to form the integrated module, but the doors lengths are trimmed down to follow the front edge of the loop. The entry point returns to a 30" width, so that they can be directly connected to a standard interior door module.

Full Service Passenger Facility - (more suitable to O-27 rollingstock)

O-scale full service passenger facility on a return loop

Action Station (*.pdf) - four doors wide ([slightly over 4'] x 10')

~ Action Station (zipped *.scarm)

Modules built upon an Interior Door

Do Interior Doors make good 3-rail O-scale Modules?

Single-Module Track Plan Examples:

Return Loop Track Plan Example: