Thanks Jeff, good stuff, I worked in your area for a few years at the Fruehauf plant in  Avon Lake.

WOW, I am amazed, I had 5 replys to my questions, thank you jward, ebnut,johnson bar jeff.23a-614, I learned something from each of you.
I think I can resize my layout to 39 x 48 and use 18 r for the curves and maybe still get an inner loop with 2 turnouts. All of my N stuff will be e-bay soon including the 33 buildings I hand made from very strong reinforced 1/8 wall cardboard. I think the building of a l/o is more fun and challenging than running the trains.
Thanks again guys
larry

Thanks Jeff, I do have a N Scale layout but find it difficult to work on the trains are so small I can,t do much with with them either.
Thanks for your advise, I may be able to add a few more inches to my space by moving my wifes sewing machine cabinet to the garage, good luck with that....
Larry

I need to buy a new HO train set, I like Bauchmann and have a small area for a 48 x 48 inch layout. I would like to use some 15 degree track. I am trying to find out two things. I assume you would need 6 pieces of track for the 180 turn is that right? and second which Bauchmann HO train models run best on short radius turns
Thanks for your help,
Larry  lake Wales Fl.