It’s been something like 30 years or more since I had a train set. Last one was a little HO setup. I’m thinking I’d like to get back into the hobby now that I have more $$ and more room to build.
Visited a nearby dealer (Stockyard Express) today and looked at their extensive O scale set ups. While the trains are very impressive, I don’t think I want to go that big.
This dealer doesn’t do much HO, but he had a few locos and cars and he showed my some. Wow, the locos were much bigger than I remember HO being. So I’m thinking maybe I’d like to go down to N scale, which wouldn’t take up as much room or would give me a lot more track for the same area.
But I was looking around a big Internet train site this afternoon and it appears there are not nearly as many options in N scale as in HO. For instance, MTH doesn’t even make N scale stuff.
So my first question concerns the relative merits of HO versus N. I can easily accommodate a 16’x8’ set up or perhaps even larger. But one guy today pointed out that if you go 8’ wide you might have trouble reaching the middle of the setup. Good point.
Is there a good primer somewhere I can read through and make these basic decisions? A subscription to Model Railroader will be a must, but I’m looking for every source I can find.
One thing I have to be completely honest about is my general lack of digital dexterity. When it comes to fine motor skills and the ability to work on small, delicate pieces, well…forget it. I’m about useless. I can do basic soldering and welding, but nothing fancy. When God was handing out patience and fine motor skills I think I was taking a nap.
Thanks in advance for ANY advice about how I should go about taking up this hobby again. Even if it’s that I probably should find another hobby that doesn’t require digital dexterity.
Instead of thinking it of as a 16 x8 foot box, do a round the wall of your room, 18-24 inches shelf and that will give you easy room to reach stuff and will give you room to do a penisula and give you more mainline length. As for books… Kalmbach makes a great series of books, from the basics of starting out to more advance stuff and you should be able to find some of the books at your library or you can buy them right here. I got several books from the library and soon after bought a bunch since they make a great referece down the road. I would not worry too much about any fancy electrial work on locos, most of them are plug and play with DCC decoders, if you go that route. The worst I have dealt with is Atlas for putting in a DCC board but once you done one, any future ones can be done in about 10 mintues with about 8 of those minutes getting the shell off and on. My recommendation- get yourself a trainset- Atlas trainman train set is good start, make yourself a 4 x8 loop and run your train some so you can get a feel for them and then if you like it, start your bigger layout and if you dont then you have only spent about $100.
After being condemned to armchairing for way too long a time, I just re-entered the active part of the hobby. My choice was N scale, as a have literally no room for a permanent layout and a very small budget for my hobby. I am building a set-up of mini modules, which I can assemble to form a layout on my desk. When not in use, I store these modules on a shelf above my desk.
Although N scale does not offer as many options as HO scale, choosing the “perfect” scale is finally a matter of personal likes and dislikes. Detail and quality of N scale equipment has come a very long way since its introduction in the 1960´s and is in my opinion matching HO scale to a large degree. Just take a look at this beauty:
The space you mention in your post allows you to build an interesting layout in either scale, but N scale will allow you to have those broad and sweeping curves. A 30" radius in HO scale equals a 16" radius in N scale.In N scale, you can either put a lot more railroading into your space, or create a much more realistic setting for your trains to run through.
Bachmann, Kato, Atlas and Athearn seem to be the leading brands in N scale - MTH has not (yet) joined their ranks - not really a loss, though.
Get a copy of Track Planning for Realistic Operation by John Armstrong. If you only read one book, this is the one.
8’x16’ is indeed too wide to reach across, but does indicate you have enough space for any scale. Z, N, HO, S, O, and G all have more available than most people can buy. While HO has the largest selection, I wouldn’t let that be the deciding factor, consider them all based on what you want to do.
Welcome “back” to model railroading, and welcome to this forum.
In terms of the big question: YES, there definately is room in the hobby for folks with a wide range of dexterity skills. There is likely more “ready to run” items on the market now than ever, and some rather well detailed assembled structures are now available, too.
Recognize first that, as with almost everything else in our world, the hobby has changed a great deal over the past 30 years. Some of the things that were “truths” 30 years ago - especially concerning electronics and wiring - aren’t the case anymore. Many are still struggling to keep up with the changes, but you have the opportunity by re-entering the hobby now to avoid some of that conflict as you start (the Direct Current “DC” vs Digital Command Control “DCC” change is a primary example).
You pose many questions that are critical to resolve at least to some degree to focus your energy and to prevent the expense of trying to get one of everything. Looking before leaping is definately recommended! Your post raises questions about scale, layout design, and the level-of-construction difficulty issues, but you should also spend plenty of time examining what kind of railroading interests you. Questions about era, main-line vs short line vs switching, urban vs rural vs “backwoods”, portion of the country that is of interest… all of these deserve to be examined before you lay out much hard-earned money.
Read, enjoy, study. This forum and other web resources make the learning process easier than it used to be. The recommendations in posts above about Track Planning for Realistic Operation and some of the other Kalmbach starter books are good ones. I hope that you enjoy the journey. Welcome aboard.
Welcome to the forums and back to model railroading.
A lot has changed in the hobby and there is good information above. I’ll just add a few comments.
Get a small set, either pre packaged or pick out an engine, cars, track and power supply that appeal to you. It will help feed your interest and give you something to play with while you read and update yourself on the aspects of the hobby.
Definitely do some reading before you do much spending. I was unable to build a layout, so I bought to satisfy my psyche. I did get things I will fit my plan, if I ever get the layout built, but that could take awhile. I try to set aside a certain amount weekly (cigarette money, since I don’t smoke) and plan use that as a guide to my spending. Obviously getting started takes a bit, but once you are going it can be a good guide.
Your reach is an important factor in the width of your layout. Height of the layout and your height are also conciderations. Many folks feel chest height is a good viewing angle, others like it a little lower. Raise a board or piece of plywood to various heights, put a couple of buildings on it and see what you like. Viewing angle is one thing, but you also have to concider reach, Reach onto the temporary layout and see if you are going to hit trees and buildings. Reaching over them to retreive a derailed car or loco can be disasterous if your layout is too high.
I’m sure you will have more questions and there are many folks here waiting to answer them.
This is strictly my opinion based on being age 74 and having had trains of some fashion since my first Christmas (age 6 months). Dad was a Santa Fe engineer, couldn’t wait to get me a Marx set then graduated to scale O gauge in our attic. I moved to HO when I was in college and have been in HO ever since.
I now have an entire basement area, 29’ by 33’ excluding furnace room and a bathroom. Plenty in HO especially since I have a three decker.
However, several years ago I looked at N gauge as a way to get even more in the basement. Looked good, really considered selling off and starting over. Now at my age, even though I am very healthy, beginning arthritis and my eyes aren’t as good and working on HO diesels, spiking, some of what I used to consider as simple, not so easy now. I shudder to think of working on N gauge, and wouldn’t mind now going back to O gauge. But I have a garden railroad in the backyard, so the HO remains safe in the basement.
I guess what I am trying to tell you is that what looks good now, may not in the years ahead as eyes fail and the arthritis kicks in.
I’ve dabbled in model railroading since I was about 19 years of age and built a few layouts in both N and HO scale. Based on what you said, you can always build a layout to accomodate your “comfort zone.” What I mean is if you worried about a layout being too wide to work on, you can always design one that access areas to get to your work…I don’t mean pop up hatches (I’ve got two on my layout and they are a pain) but create something in a horseshoe fashion that allows you closer to those hard to reach places. Like others have mentioned, get a few plan books and start brainstorming. As for the gauge, sure I’d like to fit more onto my layout and easily could if I went N-scale…but to me, HO scale is more appealing and easier to work on. In a few years I’ll be pushing 50 and after working with miniatures for so many years, my eyes need things a bit bigger…the reason I’m comfortable with HO scale. Lastly, visit some existing modelers’ layouts to get ideas on what size you may want and study their design. I have a buddy who pondered on scale but also wanted to use his garden as his layout medium. He joined a garden railway club and decided that he wanted to be different and build a garden railroad in O scale. He is scorned by some and admired by others…but that’s what makes him happy and he’s comfortable with it; do what makes you happy and you’re comfortable with no matter the scale or size. Good Luck, Steve
You have been given some excellent advice in my humble opinion. The only thing I have to add is that NONE of us were “Given” fine motor skills. They are things that must be developed! I am sure that you will find your first efforts will not compare to the things you accomplish later in your modeling life. I am a plumber/pipefitter by trade, you know, the guys who when something doesn’t fit quite right, get a bigger hammer, yet this hobby has helped me develop my fine skills. Just do not get discouraged. Take your time, work on smaller, less expensive projects and your skills will develop. Have Fun
N scale can be very frustrating for anyone with aging eyes and fingers. I use N and HO and I have a lot more fun with the HO because I am not using so much of my time battling to get trains to stay on the track when they cross a switch.
As for the book “Track Planning for Realistic Operation”, I bought this and it was not what I expected. I was hoping for advice on achieving realistic goals. While I got a lot of good information on real rail yards much of what it covered was on a scale much bigger than I planned to build. Good book for a club size system, but for my 12x8 L it let me know what I could not achieve unless I wanted to dedicate space for 20 side tracks in a rail yard.
I vote with Kevin. Fine motor skills improve as you use them.
There are also lots of tools that will make things easier. For example there is a screw gripper that has fine claws for holding small screws while you start them. Even if you decide to buy all RTR (ready to run) rolling stock you will have to deal with coupler and truck screws. Kadee makes a jig for holding couplers during assembly. There are jigs with aligator clips that act like a second set of fingers to hold things during assembly. There are also visors with magnifying lenses to give you a better view of smaller parts. Micro-mark sells a lot of this type of stuff.
If you want to take a stab at improving your fine motor skills you could start with some Athearn Blue Box freight car kits. Athearn has discontinued them but they are still available at lots of train stores and swap meets. They are (should be) very inexpensive. The first one will be awkward but by the fourth you will be rolling along and soon looking for more kits to build. You will want to check coupler height (Kadee has a jig for that too) and adjust the weight for best operation, but that is part of the fun too.
I modeled HO, until I figured out it was taking up way too much room for me to achieve what I wanted. I proceeded to sell all of my HO stuff, and get into N Scale. HO does offer more of everything than any other scale, but I know for sure I’ll never own everything I’d ever want in N Scale. There is a ton of N Scale merchandise available, so don’t think you’re shortchanging yourself that much by choosing the smaller scale.
HO has the most available both new and used. At 63 my eyes and manual dexterity are challenged enough with the small HO parts. I can’t even imagine how folks work on N scale equipment.
Thanks for all the helpful responses. I think my next move will be to find a hobby/railroading shop that sells HO and N scale so I can pick them up and look at their size, etc. and then make a decision on which way to go. Right now I simply don’t have enough firsthand information, having never seen N scale in person.
Once I know which scale I’m going to build I’ll do some research on brands, etc. I’ve heard of Atlas, Bachmann, Athearn and MTH, but I don’t know anything about the relative merits of one versus another.
Then I’ll buy a couple of Kalmbach books on planning and starting a model railroad and go from there.
Thanks again for all the assistance. Once I get going on the process I’ll report back on where I ended up.
One other way you could get to see and feel a lot of stuff is to take in a train show/sale. There is an ‘events’ page on this site under the ‘resources’ tab in grey at the top right of this page. Just leave your wallet at home the first time you go or you might come home with all sorts of goodies that may not fit into your final plan![;)]
I’m 27, and have done HO exclusively, except for a short time when I tried out N-scale then switched back to HO as I far preferred the greater availability of materials of all kinds. That said, there is still a lot of great stuff in N-scale that runs and looks excellent. However, converting locomotives to DCC and sound somewhat difficult, but it certainly can be done. I converted back to HO as I liked the larger size and feel that I can still handle it for a much longer period down the road then I can N-scale, though I know people far older than I who do much better work in N than I ever could in HO. I think the suggestion to check out both and see what you like is an excellent one and second the notion.
In the space you’ve described, there’s one more choice that could be a winner - On30, which is 1:48 scale on HO (standard) gauge rails. The prototypes used mostly small engines, short cars and simple track patterns - much easier to model than anything that would justify running a six-axle diesel. From the point of view of an arthritic old coot with less than wonderful eyesight, that’s where I’ll go if I start finding HOj (1:80 scale) too much of a challenge.
Aside to Sir Madoq.
That is, indeed, a fine example of a Hokkaido-modified D51 class mike Now all you need are the four wheel wagons that it usually pulled. (You do know it’s actually 1:150 scale, I presume.)
Chuck - N scale in Japan is actually a mix of scales. Standard gauge Shinkansens are modeled in the “regular” N scale of 1/160, whereas the “normal” trains running on 3´6" tracks are modeled in 1/150. It looks sometimes a little funny, seeing a Shinkansen next to an old steamer on the same 9 mm track, but apparently the Japanese manufacturers did not want to introduce a further gauge. Correct gauge, would be close to Z gauge track.
To make things even more complicated, British N scale is 1/144. So much for adding to the confusion … [swg]
