considering switch to HO

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Any advice?

Actually, I’ve recently been reliving my childhood with some three rail O. I am frustrated with space limitations as well as the cost. Before I sink too much $$ into O, I am considering the jump to HO. I sure could do a lot more in a little space (4X8) and seemingly for less money. However, I am quite ignorant on HO manufacturers and quality issues. Any advice would be helpful.

My primary concerns are to have decent looking stock that runs smoothly. I am not into “brass” or the super high end stuff. At this point I don’t need the latest and greatest, but don’t want cheasy plastic junk either.

I seem to like some of the IHC line-up.
Even Bachmann seems pretty good to me, but I guess there is a big difference between their “standard” and “spectrum” lines.
Would you recommend starting with a starter kit, or getting individual pieces on my own?
Also, I will be doing most of my research and purchasing online. What HO stores or sites do you frequent online?

Thanks for any and all advice…

2

IHC steamers are good basic starter locos. They run smoothly, are basic on detail and very generic (ie not road specific in anyway). I think they are excellent value. I would avoid IHC diesels as these are very poor IMO. I personally avoided Bachmann in all forms until I recently got a Bacchmann Spectrum Shay. This is a fabulous, well made, detailed smooth running loco.

Other brands you should consider. Atlas make fantastic locomotives, some of the very best I own and they are very good value. If you are not going DCC, look for Atlas Classic or Silver series locomotives. LifeLike Proto 2000 or Proto 1000 are also good value and well made. Avoid the other LifeLike (non Proto) like the plague. Look also at the Stewart (Part of Bowser now) locos.

As for rolling stock Athearn Bluebox kits are simple, and good value basic models. Most all you can buy is decent except for LifeLike and Bachmann basic lines.

Many of the starter train sets have the basic lower quality products so many not be a good point to get going.

3

If you are looking into HO scale, try an Athearn set. This would get you started & would have everything you would need for a basic oval including power pack/transformer relatively cheap.

I would stay away from Bachman & LifeLike sets, These are below what I would consider decent. I don’t know anything about Spectrum (Bachman) but Proto (LifeLike) are excellent sets.
IHC steam loco’s & passenger cars are decent but the diesels & freight cars are basically crap. Don’t even bother with IHC’s sets.

Rolling stock, Athearn BB,RTR & Genesis, Roundhouse, Accurail, Proto 1000 & 2000, Walthers, Atlas & Branchline are decent to excellent ones to buy, depending on your level of detail wanted.

Passenger cars, Athearn, Walthers, Rivarossi & AHM are decent to excellent.

Walthers have minimum radius’ required but the others will negotiate 18" curves.

I hope this helps.

Gordon

4

I am a happy HO’er. I personally would not start with a train starter set as they usually are low quality and will present more problems getting started. All the above mentioned is good info. I like the Life Like P2K. I have ten of their loco’s and they are a good loco at a decent price. Great detail. I just put sound in three sets of various F units fm the P2k/P1K line. I agree Atlas makes a great loco. Athearn is making some great Loco’s. My favorite is the Broadway Limited w/sound but of course they are on the high end of the cost spectrum so I pick and choose that brand. I just got one of their SW-7’s with sound and it quickly became my favorite loco. www.modeltrainstuff.com (MbKlien) is a great place to check first they have some of the lowest prices I have found. And you can order online from the website. Trainworld has low prices also but you have to phone in your order and that for me is a pain. The one drawback from downscaling is smaller parts and pieces. My eyes are old and tired but I still find I can manipulate the itty bitty pieces quite well. Of course I loose two springs to install one so I have to keep a good stockpile of spare parts. I sometimes have to go thru the vaccuum to salvage little parts.
Terry[8D]

5

I bought some Trainline locomotives from Walthers. I think they are in transition right now. There had been talk of discontinuing the line, but they’ve since re-thought that out. You can find them on ebay, though. They are smooth silent runners and come with directional lighting. I avoided the IHC steamers because I’d heard the flange depth on their drivers can be a problem with code 83 track. I have a couple of Atlas, Proto 1000, a Bachman Spectrum Shay, an Athearn Genesis, and a couple of Broadway Limiteds, as well. They ALL run great…

6

check out my post in the Classic Toy Trains forum
Randy

7

I’ve been into HO just about from the start. I have a few O gauge pieces, but I’ve always felt HO is small enough so you don’t need the entire house for a layout but big enough so that you still get nice detail. With the new products coming out these days, details are fantastic. With DCC, sound, and high quality that doesn’t require a loan from a bank, I feel you can’t go wrong.

You can pick up a decent quality, sound equipped NEW engine for under $200 US. In fact, I have a couple that I paid $150 for! They run, look and sound great. My wifes uncle, who is a HUGH O gauge nut, looked at my stuff and is just amazed about the detail & quality. Take it from me, when Uncle Bob says he’s impressed, take it to the bank!

Any way you go, have fun![:D]

8

Fifteen months ago I was pondering the scale question as well, considering space requirements, cost, and also suitability for a child. For us the best compromise was HO, though if not for my son, I might have gone to N, as the cost seems similar to HO and one can do much more in the same space - on the other hand, perhaps the trains are too small.

On a 4X8, I think you cannot really “do” much more, in track, in HO than in O - particularly O-27 - but the HO trains look better to me doing it. On my son’s 4X7 I am sure I could make the same layout in O in the same space, but the same number of car train would be longer and fewer cars would fit on each siding, and there would be less space for buildings, etc.

My son has mostly Bachmann Silver Series rolling stock and a couple of their DCC-on-board diesels, running on Bachmann Nickel/Silver (gray roadbed) EZ-track.
Of the roadbed track lines, this line seems to have the best variety, but I think the Kato Unitrak is more robust - with a price to match! The locos, while not equal in detail or running to the best from Walthers/Lifelike Proto 2K or 1k, Genesis, Atlas, Stewart, or Kato or Bachmann’s Spectrum, do run well, and come ready to run on DCC or DC.

An exception to the rule of lower quality in trainsets is Bachmann’s Spectrum sets. These have Spectrum locos, Spectrum/Silver Series Rolling stock, and the Nickel/Silver EZ-track. Their website is http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/index.html

I agree with all comments above regarding Athearn Genesis, Walthers/Lifelike Proto 2000 and Proto 1000, Atlas, Stewart, and Spectrum locos. You should beware what is “new” though - many shops, and I suspect this includes the on-line retailers whether or no they have physical shop, will have stock that is years old. An example is in the Spectrum line of Diesels - the Dash 8 has been in the line for years but has been revamped; early ones were split-frame and not DCC-ready, but can carry the same product number as the cu

9

Have you considered N scale?

10

I agree with all the product recommendations above. One advantage of HO is that it offers (by a large margin still) the widest availability of everything from locos to track to superdetail parts…

For me, the choice of scale is extremely subjective. Yes, the smaller the scale, the more you can fit in a given space. But going only on that, we’d all be running vast empires of trains that were etched on silicon and viewable only with an electron microscope… there must be something more.

For me that something more is a very subjective response to scale… What is the smallest scale (for space purposes) that gives you a satisfactory ‘gut feel’ for the look and feel of the trains? For me, that’s a question not of scale but of actual, physical size. It’s the opposite of scale in that ‘bigger is better.’ Taking my "logical extreme’ the other direction, we’d all have 1:1 trains if this were the only factor…

Size wise (more realistically) my concerns are whether it allows me to model sufficient detail, to have sufficient size and “heft” to the trains, to have buildings, cars, signals and peripherals of a size I find pleasing, etc. For the moment, DCC is a concern too. Certain scales (TT and below) still make it far more difficult to install decoders in many locos, to install sound in most locos, etc… But at the end of the day, it’s mostly intangible, but for me a “big boy” loco in a scale that made it only 6" long wouldn’t be satisfying. For others, the ability to have that big boy pulling a string of 60 reefers (and not have it wrap 2/3 around their mainline with the loco chasing its own tail) would be more important…

In short, to me the choice of scale is a combination of scale where “smaller fits more” and actual physical size regardless of scale, where “larger is better” (at least in my opinion. For me, that “sweet spot” is HO, but I don’t think there’s any one “right answer” other than the one You pick for You.

11

leave the dark side and come to the light…the HO light that is! …Ho has the most products on the market … and you can get a fair amount of railroad in the space provided …N scale is also nice, but people like me that can’t see too well and can’t get their big bear claws around something that small just isn’t feasible…if you can, get a copy of the Dream, Plan, Build, DVD from kalmbach…there are step -by -step plans in an added feature of the DVD to build a real nice 4’ x 8’ layout from the ground up…chuck

12

All good advice given above. The only other advice I can add is to read. I picked up a lot of good ideas from this and other forums, just by browsing through threads. Also, any of the hobby publications offer great advice and can give you an idea of what’s possible. If you’re lucky to live near a good LHS, that’s another good source.

I’m not running any trains yet, but every purchase I’ve made so far has been greatly influenced by things I learned on this forum. I too had some apprehension about IHC steamers, but bit the bullet today and ordered the new 2-10-2, after considering all the comments – good and bad.

If you kind of meld all the good info here with your own priorities, you can’t help but make good decisions. The only thing I’m finding is that the selection in this scale is so vast it’s hard not to spend $$. Best of luck!

13

Lots of good advice there. Let me add some advice my dear ole Daddy gave me when I was a littleun. When you need a tool, son , buy the best one available it will last you a life time. I still have all the tools I bought over 70 years and some of his too. The same goes for anything in life, especially model trains. Don’t waste your money on junk. Buy good stuff that will out last you and you be glad you did.

14

The cool thing about HO is that it’s affordable. O and G borderline on un-affordable as far as my research has shown.

It may depend on your goals also. If you want to own a fleet of Loco’s, HO or N seem to be the only way to go. If you want one or two loco’s, O could still make sense.

You could buy inexpensive HO loco’s and have fun weathering, detailing, etc., without worrying about destroying a $500 piece of equipment.

15

Diesel Engines: HO diesel manufacturers that I would recommend for starters are Bachmann, Bachmann Spectrum, Life-Like P1K, Walthers, Atlas Trainman, Roco and IHC. The IHC diesels are mostly plastic, but they run well and can be made to look good with a little detail work. The newer Bachmann Standard diesels have a decent shell on a Spectrum mechanism, except half of them don’t include flywheels.[:D]

Steam Engines: IHC, Bachmann and Bachmann Spectrum are the only ones I know of that have decent, under $200 steam engines in HO. Bowser also offers a ready to run 0-4-0 Dockside switcher for $50, which has a very good mechanism, but a plain shell. They have a super detail kit and valve gear kit that you can buy seperately, making them look like a rediculously high quality brass engine.[:D][:D]

Freight Cars: I like the Athearn, Stewart, MDC/Roundhouse and Accurail car kits. They look decent and don’t cost much. The only problem with the Stewarts is they have very fat axles that should be replaced, if you want it to roll very freely, unless I’m the only one who’s had this problem. I like Intermountain metal wheelsets best.[:D]

Track: If you want track with a plastic roadbed connected to the track, then Bachmann E-Z Track is good, and I’m pretty sure the Atlas raised track is good too, bu