Being in large-scale for the last 7 years will spoil you completely rotten. I just began reworking my HOn30 micro-layout that I started a few years ago but put aside due to frustration with the quirks of smaller N gauge mechanisms and getting them to work reliably. Now I’ve decided to finish it and have unearthed whatever HO stuff I had in storage to find details and scenery stuff so I can get finally be done with it. [%-)]
I have made two very important realizations.
Small 4 wheel N gauge locomotives suck giant ostrich eggs! [soapbox]
How did my eyes ever focus on any of the details of anything this bloody small before?[:O]
I’m not kidding on #2, I just pulled out some garbage cans in HO, there the size of coffee cups in G! Holy Moly, I thought I had eye-strain before, now I KNOW I’m getting old. I started to do this seriously in N, but quickly moved to Hon30 to get better detailed buildings. I built several Woodland Scenics building kits, and I had several small bashed 4 and 6 wheel locomotives and lots of bashed cars. I did this for a few years, never really giving the tiny details required a second thought. But after a while, the tiny mechanisms started going bad till only one, a Bachmann Docksider, still worked, the rest having crapped out, one
I’m 64 years old and fortunately my eyesight is still 20/20. But somehow there’s a big difference between 20/20 at age 64 and say age 40. My eye doctor says otherwise, but he’s wrong and just too young to know it. Most people my age will know exactly what I’m talking about.
Well, I am almost 73, have pretty good eye sight, and maintain a large HO 3 deck layout, and a fairly large large scale in the backyard. There are some moments, but generally I do well with both. So I really can’t relate to what your problem is. But I hope you do feel better now.
I’m 53, wear strong bifocals, and for some dumb reason I go ahead and start painting 122 ‘N’ scale unpainted figures. Again! And I did this not once, not twice but 4 separate times!—the only thing that worked in my case was the optivisor and some STRONG lighting—And N scale mechanisms make me really grumpy[|(][:-^]
Its just that I’ve been away from HO for so long coming back to it has been a bit of an eye opener. the skill sets in large scale modeling are very very different from HO or N. Dont use Microdrill bits, teeny tiny screws and iddy biddy bolts much there. Reading about stuff online and in magazines is one thing, realizing that all of your paint brushes and drillbits are 3 times larger than they need to be is another. The whole kinda “back to basics” things most of ya guys take for granted in the smaller gauges, I’m having to re-learn all over again. [:I]
I figure if any questions come up or if I have any tips or secrets to gleen from the masters here, I’ll have this thread to ask them on, and I can post progress pictures. Hey, beats having 6 different threads all on the same topic, right?
Ok, guys, N scale did improve quite a lot, in terms of detail, running and availability of accessories. But even if your eyesight is not yet impaired there are a couple of reasons to go for HO scale.
It is the sound and the sight of those smoking beauties made by MTH and the like - this is railroad feeling you cannot get in N scale - yet!
Ahh, I know what you mean, those eyes just aren’t what they used to be…
15-20 years ago, I could thread a needle or loop a chain on an opened eyebolt and almost do it in the dark.
I noticed that I was needing more and more light at the workbench to do the simplest of tasks. I can’t imagine being out of the hobby or changing to a larger scale only to be frustrated once returning to HO. Optivisor and more light…
I’m 109 and had both eyes shot out in the war… The BIG One, and I don’t like anything. I’ve got a wooden leg an iron lung and steel plates in my head too!
But I like N scale, because anything bigger is hard for me to pick up! Speaking of picking things up, the nurse is coming in for my sponge bath!
It’s not so bad, because the plate in my head is magnetic, so I always know where to look for my coupler springs!
I find that HO is about right for me…N has come a long way in recent years and Z is fine if you’ve got eyes like an eagle and steady hands. I would consider larger scales if I had more room and more money…
Might as start to keep track of this project.The Micro as built to date. The idea was an easily portable self contained display layout. Front view showing the base built for it, the grey paint is just a base coat, it will painted closer to my large scale southwestern themed portable layout.
Base holds the powerpack and a storage drawer for trains.
Yep. N’s too tiny, HO is still too small. I haven’t ever seen Z - people claim there are trains running on their Z layouts but I don’t see anything. [(-D]
O’s too big, G won’t fit in the house.
So like Goldilocks I go with the one’s that’s just right - S [swg]
… here is another contribution to the gauge war - a new enemy has been sighted! It is T scale from Eishindo, running on 3 mm track, the scale being 1/450!
Now if you can tell me how to fit a sound decoder and a smoke unit to it, i am with you!
I still like N scale, but I have also gone to a larger size in order to be able to work on it easier. The picture below shows a Bachmann N scale 4-4-0 headed downgrade on the connecting rod of the 12" gauge Ottaway 4-4-0 that I am currently rebuilding. Plenty of room on this one for a sound decoder and smoke unit, but they aren’t needed - smoke and realistic sound are built in! If Bachmann comes out with a coal fired live steam 4-4-0 in N scale, I might be tempted to switch back to N scale…
