I’VE BEEN OUT OF THE HOBBY FOR MANY YEARS AND AM NOW RETURNING TO IT - BASICLY AS A NEWCOMER. DUE TO SPACE LIMITATIONS, I CAME TO THE CONLUSION THAT IF I WERE TO GET BACK INTO IT, I WOULD HAVE GO WITH “N” SCALE, EVEN THOUGH “HO” SCALE IS NOT OUT OF THE QUESTION, JUST A SMALL LAYOUT. AND THIS IS WHERE I NEED YOUR HELP.
CAN ANYONE TELL ME THEIR EXPERIANCE WITH “N” SCALE?
WHO MAKES RELIABLE STEAM AND DIESEL LOCOMOTIVES?
WHAT ABOUT PASSENENGER AND FREIGHT CARS?
TRACK?
WHAT ABOUT THE “EVERYTHING STAYING ON THE TRACK AND NOT DERAILING ISSUE”, DUE TO THE SMALL SIZE?
ANY OTHER INFORMATION WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECEATED (sp).
Basically, I’ve been in N scale for 5 years or so.
Reliable Diesels are: Atlas (#1 overall), Kato, Intermountain, Precision Craft Manufacturing (I think that’s their name), Life-like/walthers, and I’m sure theirs a few others.
Steam: I don’t know to much about. I think Bachman Spectrum is okay, and Walthers seems good. Model Power has a ton of offerings out there.
Frieght cars: Atlas, Kato, Walthers, Micro-trains, Bachman, and I’m sure there are some more I can’t remember. Passenger cars I have no clue.
Track: the two best for Flextrack are Atlas and Micro Engineering. There’s code 80, 70,55,40 between the two.
Everything runs fine on the track, only problems I’ve had are cars and locomotives swithching the points on turnouts that don’t have ground throws/switch machines.
One word of warning: Stay away from Bachman’s standard line of locomotives. Spectrums are okay, though.
MY FIRST CHOICE OF TRACK PLAN IS THE CARLSBAD, EAST PORTAL AND ZINITH RAILROAD PUPLISHED A NUMBER OF YEARS AGO IN MR.
THE SECOND TRACK PLAN CHOICE WILL BE BASED ON A MODEL RAILROADER ARTICLE WRITTEN BY JOHN ARMSTRONG SOME YEARS AGO- STARTING A SECOND 50 YEARS WITH Z SCALE. NOT VERY MANY SWITCHES, BUT LOTS OF MAINLINE RUNNING.
THE ORIGINAL Z SCALE LAYOUT IS ROUGHLY 5 1/2’ X 5 1/2’, WHAT IS THE CONVERSION SCALE TO CONVERT IT INTO N SCALE SIZE?
DO YOU THINK I’M STARTING WITH TOO BIG A LAYOUT?
WHAT SIZE OF LAYOUT DO YOU RECOMEND THAT I START WITH AT FIRST?
10 x 10 is a good, modest size space to begin with. You have a lot of options, ranging from the good old 4x8 island in the middle of the room, to a variety of around the walls type layouts.
My suggestion is to start with something relatively simple, such as a Carolina Central type “door” layout. While this won’t be the 10x10 room filler that perhaps you’re dreaming of, it will be a very good test bed for you to knock the rust off of your modeling skills, and decide if N scale is really your medium of choice. There are some absolutely fantastic small layouts that have been done in this fashion, and a couple have good websites that support them…
The biggest advantage to the door layout is that it is very “do-able” in a reasonable amount of time. There are numerous track plans available that can be as simple or complex as you like, and you have the option of starting out with simple train set track like Kato’s Unitrak or Atlas c80 snap track, or trying your hand at the more fine scale appearance of c55 by Atlas or MicroEngineering. You can also practice building water features, bridge piers, and structures, without worrying about having a large layout to “finish”.
Regarding “keeping them on the track”, remember that the results you get are directly related to the time and care you put in. If you are careful installing your track, and take the time to check the wheel gauge on your rolling stock, you should have no trouble running your trains.
Once you’re satisfied that you have the tools in your toolbox to take on a larger project, you can either incorporate the door layout into the new plan, or strip it for salvage and start anew. If you feel like
I’ve been actively into N-scale for a little over a year now and agree with Packers #1 on selection. I’ve accumulated quite bit so far, built a 4’ x 6’ layout, and am planning on another, analog, as yours. All the trains I have in inventory have “knuckles” which work graet and are realistic as well. Read the advice on the forums as I did and you can’t go wrong. KCC
After nearly 20 years in HO (starting with my first real model train set at age 8), I switched to N scale. I found overall that for the most part, the principles of model railroading apply across all scales; that well-laid track and well tuned rolling stock will be just as reliable in N as in HO, and that N scale can be detailed as made to look as good as HO.
However, N scale is not without its challenges. Chief among them, of course, is that it still lags HO in terms of available products. Another is that because of its light weight, N scale equipment is much more unforgiving of bad trackwork than the larger scales. Yet another challenge is that while you can convert virtually any N scale loco to DCC, it’s generally harder to find room for them and very difficult to do sound (though not impossible).
All that said I am very happy with my choice to go N scale, and I think you will be too. Rather than a detriment, N scale’s size is its strength. Try running 20+ car trains on a 3x6 layout in HO!
1.CAN ANYONE TELL ME THEIR EXPERIANCE WITH “N” SCALE?
I been in and out of N Scale since 1968 and I “dabble” in N today.I say "dabble because I also model in HO and am a member of a N Scale club.I am 60 and find I can work on my N Scale easier then HO.Why is this? I find HO is more fragile then N because of the tiny details found on HO locos.
2.WHO MAKES RELIABLE STEAM AND DIESEL LOCOMOTIVES?
Wow loaded question! To my mind Atlas is the top of the heap followed by Kato and then Walthers/Life Like.Kato and Bachmann(Spectrum) offers steam locomotives.
3.WHAT ABOUT PASSENENGER AND FREIGHT CARS?
To my mind Atlas and Intermountain has the best selection of transition freight cars.As far as passenger cars it would be Kato,Walthers,Intermountain and Con-Cor.
4.TRACK? Good question with many answers depending on the modeler.My preference is Atlas either Code 80 or code 55…However,I been studying rather to use C80 or C55 on my soon to be started 2x4 footer and I decided C55 is the better looking track so,my choice will be Atlas C55.
5.WHAT ABOUT THE “EVERYTHING STAYING ON THE TRACK AND NOT DERAILING ISSUE”, DUE TO THE SMALL SIZE?
That is not the problem…Here’s the real problem…Track work! Lay smooth track work and you should have zero derailments and to be brutally honest accept nothing less then derailment free operation and that holds true for any scale.Use quality cars that comes with quality wheel sets.Skip the bargain basement blue light special cars.Stay with the quailty brands such as Atlas and Intermountain for your transition era freight cars.
First of all welcome back to MRXRDING!!![#welcome] my friend, Here are my answers to your Questions:
Great,love it!!![:D]
Kato,Athern,Atlas. in that order[bow]
Microtrains!!!
Make sure your track is connected good, NO KINKS, and on radius make sure have the right measurements so your eqipment will roll smooth and look realistic!
If you don’t have that much space, choose a layout that will suit your needs, a switching layout for example is good, or a small point to point. Anyway good luck there are COUNTLESS maginzines on Nscale, go to your local hobbyshop and ask someone about Nscale,there is also a website: Nscale.net, you will find all the info you will need there, also here on this forum,I forgot the thread but look for it, it’s all for Nscalers[swg] For track use Atlas flextrack it’s the best, you can use, it will work with you not against you[:-,]
Uh, I despise nscale.net. Never liked the atmosphere, a little to heavy-handed modding when you screw up just trying to help a guy. Trust me, the best way to get info is to use these forums and www.nscale.org in conjunction. between them, you’ll have all the answers you need.
I model HO, but have operated on several N scale layouts. They have operated just as reliably as HO scale layouts I have operated. The key is how much care YOU put into it. I have operated on really crappy HO and N scale layouts too. If you take your time and shoot for quality, then you’ll have a good layout regardless of scale.
The last N scale layout I operated on was a BN layout set in the 1970’s, with car cards and full CTC. It operated flawlessly.
Who makes reliable steamers?Personally,I find the selection is somewhat limited as there are a few that I’d like to see but there are still quite a few interesting models around.
Highly recommended is Bachmann’s 2-8-0 Consolidation.Somehow,it surpasses many of their other offerings and has created a solid reputation of it’s own for being a strong and reliable puller at a reasonable price.
Model Power has come out with nice models of the 2-8-2 Mikado and 4-6-2 Pacific.I own both and like them.Decent pullers,they look good and run very smooth.
Life-Like also offer nice steamers with their Heritage Collection series.I personally own a 2-8-8-2 Mallet that I like a lot.They also offer a 2-8-4 Berkshire that looks very nice but since I don’t own one yet,I can’t tell you more.
One very appealing model is Con-Cor’s 2-10-2,wich I intend to acquire some day.It has all the features of an excellent item and seems promising.
Then you have what I call the “high end” steamers with the 4-6-6-4 Challengers and 4-8-8-4 Big Boys.Athearn are offering both in N scale BUT I’ve seen signs that leads me to believe that reliability isn’t their strong point.I’ve purchased one and am worried I might have a lemmon on hand.
Kato is offering a very nice GS4 4-8-4 (Southern Pacific’s Morning Daylight replica) that I’ve read only good comments about.However,it would look a little strange without the cars that go with it,so one feels he has to buy the basic car set that match it.An expensive package for some but certainly a great looking train set.
Over the past few years,I have assembled an interesting collection of steamers by going on the “used” market (through Ebay).Their technology is somewhat outdated but they all run decent and some very well with the exception of my Rivarrossi Big Boy that fried its motor after 10 minutes.
Now depending on the radiuses of your curves,be aware that bigger steamers (2-10-0,2-10-2,2-8-8-2 and o