I have come to what may be an obvious conclusion. Nscale seems to be the least expensive scale to model. At my LHS, the average Nscale freight car is maybe 12 bucks. Many are less expensive and a few are more expensive. The O scale and G scale stuff is way out of my price range. The track and switches, not just the rolling stock, are so expensive. So, I guess if you have a limited amount of space and money, N scale might be the way to go. So much for stating the obvious.
Z Scale is also pretty expensive.
Sean
I don’t think that it’s quite that clear-cut.
While some O and G pieces might be more expensive, N and HO scale rolling stock, motive power, and track work of similar quality are pretty close in price.
If you only want to have a loop of track with some spurs that would be 2x4 in N, 4x8 in HO, and 4x8 or larger (whatever fits your choice of track in the larger scales) for S, O and G. Then of course, the cost of benchwork materials, ballast, ground covering, etc. etc. will be cheaper for the smaller scales.
But for example, if you are in a situation where you have a spare bedroom of 10x14 feet that you want to put a layout in, things start to even out. You will normally have much more trackwork, buildings, rolling stock, and motive power in the smaller scales. You will also have similar benchwork costs and scenery costs, as you are covering the same area.
It really depends on your situation as to which one is cheaper.
—jps
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It depends on what you want to model. A short European narrow gauge train in G scale will cost less than a lengthy HO intermodal set, and you do get a lot of model for the money. Z scale appears to be the most expensive - locos are more expensive than N scale equivelents as are cars, and they don’t offer much more flexibility as they’re not much smaller. Some scales are surprisingly cheap if you shop around a little - I’ve seen HOm equipment for very little outlay on ebay in recent weeks despite the high retail prices on the scale.
I agree, N scale and HO are very similar in price.
Least expensive: HO
Most expensive: live steam
Try this SCARY NUMBER. This is per squar foot of layout:
“N” $250.00 “HO” Normal $300.00 “HO” $850.00 and up, “O” $400.00, “G” 400.00 to $550.00. Enjoyment PRICE LESS!
All the numbers are based on a FINISHED layout. The figures came from 1 case of beer, 6 guys all over 50 and 1 bottel of Johnny Walker Black.
Enjoy, cost is just a number.
I still find some surprises at the hobby shop. For instance, I’m going to use some Z scale buildings on my HO layout to represent a small mountain town off in the distance. By the time I finished pricing the buildings, it would have been about three times as expensive as what I would have spent on HO buildings for a foreground town. Needless to say, I’m only using a couple of Z scale buildings to represent the town, instead.
And why should I pay $30 for an HO scale FLAT CAR? Granted, it’s a built-up beauty, but thanks, I’ll stick with 3 or 4 Athearn BB flat cars for about the same price.
Was looking at an ad for a brass N-scale 2-8-8-4 Yellowstone, a couple of months ago–a real beauty. The price was the same as for an HO PSC model of the same locomotive.
And, considering its size and heft, the Airsto G-scale USRA Mallet isn’t THAT much more than P2K’s sound-equipped HO counterpart, if you compare material and craftsmanship.
So I think it’s all relative. Look and shop. Every scale has its bargains, and every scale has it’s wallet-draining surprises.
Tom [:P]
I don’t think that scale is as important in determining what is the “most” or “least” expensive. I believe that the amount of work and time that you are willing to spend at it actually determines this. The more that you are willing to do yourself brings the overall cost down, but inversely costs more in time/work spent doing it.
Here is a good example. One of our club members models the Maine Narrow Gauge RR’s in HOn30. The only locos availible are brass, which cost several hundred bucks each and he couldn’t afford what was to be a ten loco roster. What does he do? He uses cheap N-scale steamers, generally the Bachmann 0-4-0 Docksider, obtained at train shows etc, used for about $5-$10 and cuts down the frame, puts a decent motor in it and builds a detailed styrene boiler around it. Total expense, after buying the original loco, motor, detail parts and styrene, about $40 max, but he also spent over 50 hours, not at one time of course, building one loco.
I agree. One of the things to think about is the relative footprints of cars, locos, etc. O scale is very roughly 4 times the size of HO in area - where you would have 1 boxcar in O, you would have 2 in S, 4 in HO, 8 in TT, 16 in N and 32 in Z.
Of course if you’re really a collector trying to accumulate a lot of cars and locos then HO with it’s low cost lines is probably your best bet.
I remember going to a clinic given by the late John Armstrong. He said “they all cost the same, all you can afford”.
Enjoy
Paul
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I don’t think it is nearly that obvious. In fact one of the big reasons (in 1986) I switched back to HO from N because it was too expensive. I would see an advertisement for a loco and get all excited because of the price and then realize it was HO.
One can make anything as expensive or cheap as they care to. Money isn’t nearly as tight as it was back then and since I have gone to the LHS and purchase zillions of detail upgrade parts for an HO loco. By the time I got done I had spent more than I would have buying a new LGB G-scale. And I’ll bet the LGB would be running long after the HO gives up the ghost.
I think it has a lot to do with where you are, too. I’m in miggle Georgia, and here there’s hardly no one running anything but HO. Well, I’m sure there are, but for the most part, I think HO is in the majority. Whether that makes it any less expensive is anyone’s guess.
i would say…they are all the same. You’ll spend til you are out of money!
They all have thier Highs and lows. I would say Ho is one of the lowest costing and O and G are the most expensive.
FiremanLA has the right idea. It doesn’t matter what scale you are modelling in you spend what you have available for the hobby.
$300-850 per square foot? That sounds awful high to me–I built a museum display of 4 square feet, using what I think were fairly spendy materials, and costs came to around $500. I’d hazard an estimate that most folks who are reasonably handy will spend more like $100-150 per square foot of layout.
HO, due to its dominance of the marketplace, is certainly the cheapest under most circumstances.
I think something HO really has going for it is Athearn.
Could you buy $7 boxcars in N scale? I seriously don’t know.
Athearn is what makes the hobby seem accessible to me. If I had to pay $100 for every locomotive, I just wouldn’t want to do it. (yet - ask me again in 5 years).
I’ll keep to actual accepted hobby scales,
HO is most economical, many inexpensive items to choose from.
Most expensive?
7 1/2" live steam ride on easily! A loco can run into many thousands of dollars, Hundreds just for trucks for your frieght cars, hundreds for rails, frogs, switch mechanisms, etc. then add in hundreds of thousands of dollars for a home with a lot large enough to run it on!
Okay, maybe I was wrong about stating the obvious. John Armstrong’s answer is the best one I have heard.
Any scale can be the most expenisive or the cheapest depending on what you want to model. I personaly have 3 scales, G scale in the garden, this consists of a small loop of track around the pond, a LGB mogul in the yellow and silver bumblebee colors and a caboose, Indoor overhead Lionel loop in our living room, consitsts of the set I got from my dad that was made in 1949. And a small HO layout in the front room of our mobile home that is based on the area and time of Casey Jone’s wreck. I am also aquiring O scale 2 rail stuff slowly to build a layout when we get a real house in a few years. Ebay is the boon of the hobbiest on a budget, espicaly if your willing to spend some summer nights searching on there, folks arent thinking about trains as much as they are out in the good weather. All the prices on all the scales go up, way up in the months precededing Christmas. Just my 2 cents