Speaking from experience, both in N scale and the traction modeling hobby, I hope you enjoy your decison - good thing you’re boxing things up - you may wish to revisit your trains again. Check out the East Penn Traction Club: http://www.eastpenn.org - as a great source site. There are Yahoo! groups for Traction modelling in all sorts of scale - even O.
I am back from my short hiatus, I needed a day or two without playing with trains. I am back & I just needed the short hiatus to prevent stress. I am still going to model O-gauge & probably mess around with G-scale for fun. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I am NOT quitting the O-gauge hobby.
Well,
It depends on what you want to do. I like both, as well as HO scale. I have a Bachmann Empire Builder set from a few years ago and a Model Power 2-8-2 that I got on sale from trainworld for $60. I enjoy running them from time to time on the kitchen table, but I still prefer O.
They both have their good and bad points.
Cheese
Wow. Sounds like somebody is riding the bi-Polar Express!
Jon [8D]
I’m schitsophrenic, and so am I! [(-D]
While I have no plans to quit O gauge, I am starting to appreciate HO more and more. We have a fair bit of HO motive power and many pieces of rolling stock now. And all of it is dirt cheap compared to O stuff. Used rolling stock in great condition can be typically had for under $5.00. And locos for not much more. And decent new locos can be had for under $100. Take a look at the Historic Rail catalog. On page 27 I believe, there is a wonderfully detailed scale NYC Hudson for only $79.95. And a set of 8, count them, 8 NYC heavyweight passenger cars for only $78.95! New passenger cars for less than $10 each! Ho scale has almost any engine you could imagine, with and without sound and DCC.
What you could do is look for less expensive brands like Williams and Ready Made Toys, they have great quality and low price and are O gauge and much less expensive than Lionel or MTH or Atlas or Weaver.
Modeling N gauge is really expensive as I have seen N gauge engines for at least $110.00 at my local hobby shop.
What ever you choose have fun! It is your hobby.
Lee F.
Jim,
Do you find H.O. to have this one problem that I did? The small curve radius is almost the same size as O gauge. What I did that surprized me was to put both 027 track and H.O. track on the same sheet of plywood using curves only, well the 027 fit inside the H.O. track to my surprize. Also found out that there are three or more sizes of H.O. curves commercially produced, starting around 15 inch and going up to 21 inch curves, at least that is the main supply of track sizes that I have found. I am not putting down H.O. at all but just pointing out that the layout will take about the same size as O gauge trains.
Just ordered the Reading Crusader passenger train in H.O. and it only cost me $233.00 with shipping from Historic Rail.
Lee F.
Lee,
It’s not the size of the curves that matter to me with HO. It’s the level of detail, scale fidelity, and above all, low prices that are attractive to me. And as I stated, you can buy a model of almost any 1:1 train ever known to run, including hundereds of European style trains.
The kids want to start building a small HO layout for their trains. Right now we run them on the floor with Bachmann track that has a plastic roadbed, much like FasTrack.
Have to haul the kids to school now. Then off to HD for some things. Paint and repair day around the house today so I can head out to the Big E on Sunday!
Jim
Jim,
Just wanted to let you know that there is no real layout size advantage in H.O. but as you mention Jim there is cost factor and detail. Transformers are almost as expensive for some H.O. but you can get some great bargains at train shows. I bought a two train H.O. transformer used for $8.00 at a train show and it works fine, had to adjust the control knobs and now it works great, one was too far down and sticking so I raised it a little. Usually you can find used H.O. frieght cars for $2.00 to $6.00 at most train shows, may need a hook coupler or something minor, at that price you can repaint them for your favorite railroad. Another area to check for is train auctions, I got a great bargain at a train auction here in Deerfield Beach(southern Palm Beach)FL, bought a Conrail engine and caboose for $10.00 and sold the engine again for $10.00 and painted over the Conrail emblem on the caboose and stencilled it for FEC(Florida East Coast Railway) as the color of blue was very close.
Lee F.
I second this, Lee. I was stopped cold by a display case of Bachmann’s HO Thomas line at a local hobby store yesterday - the selection was vast, expansive and relatively inexpensive - their A4 ‘Spencer’ was an outstanding model - the level of detail on the brake vans was amazing. I was thinking - this can’t be for kids. Then again, I still find it personally easier to work with the models in O gauge. Sure fun to browse.
Never model in a scale you can accidentally swallow…[:-^]
There was a flamefest on another forum a few weeks ago about various scales. There was even someone who was insisting that O scale is more popular than HO scale (I have no idea where he’s been for the last 50 years). I was one of the few defenders of HO and N scale. It was clear that the people who were bashing hadn’t really spent much time with the other scales. I prefer O for several reasons, most of them personal, and my second choice probably would be S. But there’s a lot of nice stuff out there in HO, N, and G. Whenever I’m at a hobby shop that has multiple scales, I always look at what’s available in the other scales–not only the rolling stock, but also scenery and buildings. It’s a good way to get ideas.
This Christmas, at Kansas City Union Station, all of the local clubs of various scales and gauges had layouts set up and open. I really enjoyed seeing all of the layouts. Some were better than others, but what could possibly be bad about spending an afternoon running around looking at half a dozen train layouts?
I suspect I will eventually end up building a small N scale layout just so I can spend a little time in another scale. I’ve seen some fold-up bookcase plans that would be doable. It wouldn’t be an empire, but it would give me something a little different.