"Off The Rails ..." Topic

… are you? Or, more specifically, do you have of lack railed transport in your wargaming terrain?

Trains, subways (tubes, metros, …), shinkansen, The El (or any elevated rail) … that sort of thing. Ah, what they heck – rollercoasters and such, too.

I have Old West trains in 28mm, N scale moderns for 6mm MechaKaiju games, and a 8mm subway. I also have a 'coaster on a map (of an amusement park), but no "real" coaster terrain.

No railed transport but I do have railroad tracks I use for WW3 Team Yankee tables sometimes.

This calls for a terrain poll.

Very interesting subject Etotheipi.

I use Hornby's track planner set which is pretty well 6mm 1/300th scale for the tracks. Think the range is discontinued but I got lucky on E-Bay.

link

However I'm stuck at getting actual 1/300th trains for the cold war. Irregular miniatures and H&R do some but they are mainly WW2 and ACW, Can't afford z-gauge stuff.

Does anyone do trains in the European modern age in 1/300th I wonder.

I have a 25mm train I use in Boxer Rebellion scenarios featuring Admiral Seymour's Peking relief column and a 15mm armored train for General Kitchener's reconquest of the Sudan.

I have O gauge for my 28mm games and 15mm track from BattleFront.

Used to have a 6mm WWII armoured train but no tracks!

I have track, but I seldom use it.

I have a 25/28mm sized early 20th Century European style engine and cars that I've used for Very British Civil War gaming and a 15mm "Thomas the Tank Engine" set that I use for Russian Civil War gaming.

Jim

I have an S scale Lionel train (ACW, wild west era) and the tracks. I have not repainted the train so it looks kind of hokey right now.

Steve

I have track for 15mm hut no trains or stations.

What scale would 15mm be?

I don't have any trains but I would love to learn how to create the terrain I see in RR layouts for my wargames!

Desert Fox, there are plenty of terrain books for model railroads. Check out Kalmbach publishing.

I have N guage Kato Unitrack but rarely ever use it. I think only at shows. To be honest its just a terrain piece you would not normally expect to see much rolling stock on the battlefield. I know there are the odd cases where that is not the the case.

For me its generaly a triumph of art over common sence. Its faster to set up without it and generally adds little to the game. To me, to make it worthwhile would need a lot of special pieces, bridges, embankments etc that would really not justify the storage space.

Within the last year or two, I ran a miniatures game at a convention with train tracks.

The game was set in an abandoned mine and ore refinery. There were train tracks among the various refinery buildings.

If I recall correctly, they were hard plastic toy tracks purchased at a yard sale, cleaned up, and painted. They looked pretty good, if I say so myself, although no ended up using them or fighting over them.

That's as close as I've come to rail transport.

I have a DIY maglev setup (modular) for use with CB Infinity, but I have no conventional rail for say WWII or CW … need to rectify that, actually.

@Kropotkin303, Irregular still has a diesel loco on the books, and you can buy it as a set. It looks Cold War enough.

@Desert Fox- not such a good idea, the way model railway scenery is made makes it very fragile and impractical for gaming.

No trains or the terrain that goes along with it in my inventory. But I have seen some nice trains & terrain that I could/would use if I bought them!

@Bigby Wolf, would it be possible to see that maglev setup?

I use trains in 15mm games.
I believe trains are a great addition to many games.

1. Western. trains can be used to bring in reinforcements.
2. Russian civil war armoured trains.
3.As scenics in WW2 games.
4. In the Edition 3 of "The mIll". Gamette = Train wreckers 1944.

For track I use PECO HOm. Also TT (Table Top) gauge track is readily available. The flames of war track is ideal for gaming too.
A train in games show game always "attracts the eye".

I have some microscale track painted up--objective, possibly cover and pretty. I found a matching armored train tidying up last week--WWII, maybe? But it could be a long time getting painted. I don't normally go far enough east in my gaming.

I have some track and a few pieces of rolling stock, but I've never used them.

von Schwartz…

Given the popular [but not NOT all encompassing] notion of 15mm being about 1:100.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TT_scale

But I've used HO scale bits from time to time, because they're often [much]cheaper and [much] more readily accessible than anything in TT scale. Also, as many others have found, HO scale stuff just looks a little more proportionally correct next to a 15mm figure, given that they are almost all standing on manhole covers for bases.

I suspect HO scale rolling stock would normally look too large against 15mm miniatures. I couldn't speak to that from experience, as I've only ever looked at trackage as a scenic accessory.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HO_scale

That being said, several manufacturers do make small ranges of trackage and rolling stock suitable for standard gauge railways in 15mm.

I recently built a Wagonway suitable for 17th and 18th century games.

The only battle I know that took place near one was Prestonpans, but last week I used it in our refight of Edgehill…

I recently purchased a papercraft set for gaming, comprising a diesel loco, flat wagon, and track tiles.
I also have battlemaps for railway stations (operational Western, Victorian, underground, and an abandoned suburban station with rollingstock that appears to be in use by criminals) along with a train map designed for a certain Deadlands adventure. I did have Bachmann On30 rollingstock, including two locomotives; but I am not storing 28mm Western 3d scenery at home any more.
I do still have Mayhem rail, and maps for more trains, plus HO trains for road warrior terrain.
Still think I should get me some OO stock for gaslamp fantasy, but these things are some time off.

Back in 1999, I published a Plastic Army Men game, with a scenario involving a train arriving in the game, with supplies, and reinforcements, for one side only. The Attackers were charged with closing the mountain tunnel through which the train would arrive, to prevent this disaster from befalling them…

Earlier this year, I was able to play out that scenario, on a 12-foot by 30-foot table, using 54mm Army Men figures, and a properly scaled train model. It was an absolute blast! More fun than a Human Being ought to be allowed. The Attackers had other objectives, as well: destroy eight water turbine generators on a river flowing out of a city; destroy a water tower supplying the enemy troops within the city; destroy two LP tanks, supplying the factories within the city. It was a very close game…

The Attackers destroyed all eight of the turbines; they hit the train's engine, disabling it; they managed to destroy all of the enemy Tanks, while they kept their last Tank in working order; they killed the majority of the Defender's forces! It was a narrow victory for the attackers, who executed a beach landing, with little initial resistance.

We had an incredibly good time, playing the game for two days! I gotta say, when the Attackers punched two AP shells through that train engine, ruining two of its four generators, I was amazed. When they later blew the wheels out from under a freight car, we all roared with laughter, at their incredible luck! The train was a hoot, in that scenario. And it did not throw the game to the Defenders, as I was afraid it might.

Trains are a lot of fun, depending upon how they factor into the scenario. For us, it played exceptionally well, without unbalancing the game, without it becoming an absolute linchpin to winning the game. Cheers!