3 track O gauge looks extremely ugly unrealistic and horrible. Most of O guage trains don’t look proportioned, are unrealistic, and toyish. Sticking with 2 rail O guage is a step up and as long as you get those rare hard to find proportioned locomotives and cars; i:e Lionel Acela and Friends, (coaches) Lionel GG1, and Atlas ALP-44 you’re good to go. HO is the best scale and appears sooo fine. HO is the mediocre scale. But even HO seems to be a little big nowadays. Model railroading originally started in G scale and got smaller. N is getting more popular but is a little too small for me to enjoy but can manage. Forget Z and G unless you’re running trains outside on the garden.
In my humble opinion, HO scale (or OO scale, as I model British trains) is the best compromise between size and detail, though N scale has come along way in those past 50 years.
Not so long ago, there were pictures of an amazing O gauge 3-rail layout published here in the forum, unfortunately, I cannot find the link any longer. The layout was beautifully detailed and you needed to take a second look to see, that it was 3-rail!
Don’t know where you are looking, but there appears to be tons of 2-rail O scale rolling stock around. A friend has a huge O scale 2-rail layout under construction in its own building, and his rails are literally covered with freight, passenger, MOW equipment, and locos - from small steam to Big Boys, diesels small and large. Quite a few if not all of the steam engines are brass, as are the diesels. So the biggest problem with O scale 2-rail is the cost, and not the availability.
A good compromise is O scale narrow gauge - On30, the track width is the same as HO scale. Cars and locos are smaller than full sized O scale because the prototypes were smaller. Big but not huge. Bachmann puts out a decently priced line of mostly steam locos, freight and passenger cars.
I think that is one of the things people that collect O like. Takes them back to there child hood days. I have seen some O gauge layout on U Tube that are huge and there has to be $100,000.00 dollars invested and look like a well done child layout.
There all so been some 3 rail layouts where the center rail is black, with ballast you really have to look to see the center rail on U Tube. They where model to look real and did look great!
My LHS has some O gauge that look like toys, but all so have some MTH engines that look pretty prototypical. If I had the funds I would buy one just for display.
Alloboard, may I ask why you brought up this subject?
Cuda Ken
Where’s the prototype for 0n30?
I would go with 0n3.
Wolfgang
[%-)] So are you saying you want something bigger, or smaller, than HO?
There are intermediate scales available. S is alive and well, TT not so much.
There are many small lines that used 30" gauge, but using 30" for actual 36" gauge isn’t much of a stretch, 1/8 of an inch or so. Go with On3 if you have deep pockets as much gear in this scale is expensive brass. I’d rather be able to afford a $125.00 Bachmann Shay in On30 than need to pay $1000.00+ for one in On3.
I’ve got two Shays, a Climax, 2 Forneys, two 2-8-0s, two 2-6-0s, two 0-4-0s, a 2-4-0, three railtrucks, three Galloping Geese and a whole lot of other On30 rolling stock, all very affordable! I would not have had one of these locos if I had to buy it in brass. Most have DCC and many have sound.
You’re kinda comparing apples and oranges. O three-rail toy trains are just that - undersized toy trains designed to go around sharp ‘tinplate’ curves. Right now however, about half of the stuff Lionel and MTH makes are 1:48 full scale models. For an example, check out Norm Charbonneau’s layout. As for two rail, there are probably more correctly-scaled products available than any time in the past, at least in the last say 50 years. For info on both, check out O Gauge Railroading magazine.
As for the track itself, Atlas, Lionel Fastrack, and other manufacturers make 3-rail track that is much more prototypical looking than standard steel-tie ‘tinplate track’.
Not sure what you mean by HO being “a little big”?? Real trains are much bigger than they were 50 or 75 years ago, so cars and engines of today when scaled down are bigger than models of earlier equipment. Plus not sure how HO could be “the best scale” but also be “mediocre” (i.e. not very good)??
Well sort of. Marklin was the first maker of trains in multiple gauges, numbered 1-2-3-4 with No.1 gauge (1-3/
Stix,
thanks for posting the link to Norm Charbonneau´s layout - this time I have bookmarked it! If I had the space and the funds - I´d be tempted to go his way!
There is a difference between O and O27. O27 is indeed undersized and often shortened out of proportion. Items like the GG1 are available both ways. 3rd rail is a personal preference thing, if it really bothers you then go 2 rail.
Personally, I find S scale to be the best compromise between big enough to see and work with, yet small enough for a layout in a reasonable space. Others of course find it differently. That’s why there are currently 6 scales (Z, N, HO, S, O, G) with sufficient commercial support to be a good choice. TT can be done, but the commercial support is very limited.
On30 represents a good choice for narrow gauge. It’s pretty close to the same size as S. It can cost less, but some On3 manufacturer’s are making On30 versions at On3 prices. Part of the appeal of On30 is being able to keep the cost down by using HO track, trucks, locomotive mechanisms, but the commercial support, even Bachmann, is starting to go up in price. One thing to watch with On30 is that the buildings are still 1/4". Unless you used undersized/compressed buildings you don’t get much more on your layout than with O standard gauge - of course if you like 1/4" buildings then it’s a plus.
As with so much in this hobby, choosing a scale and gauge is a personal balancing of pros and cons.
Enjoy
Paul
As far as O gauge, I grew up with the outside three rail scale O gauge (my dad was a Santa Fe engineer) and I still have a few of the cars we built, plus a Lionel full scale hudson that I have been offered some big bucks for. (it sits on a high shelf in the layoutroom on the fireplace mantel surrounded by HO gauge so some idiot won’t try to steal it. I have a garden railroad outside which uses the better Llagas Creek track and switches and USA diesels and cars with Kadee couplers and using the RCS radio control battery power. But my main love is still my HO scale Santa Fe in Oklahoma. So I try to appreciate the qualities of all scales and gauges, but HO has my heart. Besides, O gauge in the basement in place of the HO would produce a far smaller in operations type layout which I would not be happy with.
Bob
The fact that there are 3 rails on many O guage layouts doesn’t really bother me. Then again I just like trains in general so it can be an ultra realistic 2 rail layout or a post war tin plate layout. I love it all. I’ve even hand laid track using O-27 rails. It actually looked pretty good. As a person who has always been into N-scale, I have recently been making the transition to O scale. I also have HO but just can’t get into it. Most other people are and that is reason enough for me not to. Keep in mind I only have a usable area of about 10’ X 10’ to work with so a larger scale wouldn’t seem to make much sense! While I like all scales and fully respect them and the modellers that use them, for me O scale is about the detail that you can impart on it that you just can’t in other scales. It’s not to say that there aren’t some very realistic N or HO layouts out there. There are. Some so impressive that I wish I could shrink myself and live on them. By comparison though N scale track can never look as real as a very detailed O scale track. If you can get it as detailed, you definitely can’t see it without magnification! I’d rather have a small highly detailed layout built around a couple of industries rather than a large less detailed layout crammed full of track. Large layouts take forever to build anyways. Especially on a highly detailed level. Besides, if I ever move, I can always add to it.
Although I enjoy operations and long trains, I find myself building more than running as this is what I really enjoy. I especially enjoy handlaying track which many others don’t and lately it seems like I’ve only worked on track display shelves. It is for these reasons that I have transitioned to O scale. However although starting from scratch, I am not going 2 rail. I have a particular fascination with different forms of 3 rail. One of them is old outside 3rd rail. There was a mastery to those layouts that is nearly lost today. Back then more people hand laid their own track and p
Well, I thought some of the new O-gauge tracks looked really good compared to what I had in the 1970s. There are more ties and the center rail is blackened. The huge advantage is the simple wiring for a toy type arrangement. One does not have to worry about creating a short circuit when making loop back track arrangements. Much better for the small ones these trains were designed for.
As someone else already pointed out that just depends upon where you are looking. I’ve got bunches of Atlas and AHM O-scale stuff left over from the 1970s that is just as well proportioned as any other scale.
The whole G-scale issue could be inserted here. Technically it is G-gauge which supports many scales from 1:20.3 (Fn3) to 1:32 (umm 1 scale?). I have the 1:20.3 size and use it indoors.
I’ve succomb to the effects of Proto 48 as of late, the expense is a bit of a wake up call when compared to my current S scale modeling. I’ve got a Sunset 3rd rail SP mogul currently being converted and backdated to dipict my chosen era. If one aims for a simple branchline themed layout the time and expense devoted to scale switchwork and tie plates with correct profile rail becomes manageable, RTR rolling stock can be upgraded and redetailed to offset the absorbant cost of Proto 48 kits (strictly my opinion, $185.00 for a double sheathed boxcar kits seems excessive to me-regardless of scale) However I find the kits from Southern Car and Foundry quite a bargin even with the addtional cost of trucks/couplers involved. converting diesels is much simpler, conversion kits that can be done with hand tools are readily available.
Dave
I don’t think Z would make a good scale for out in the garden.
LOL
As an American Flyer afficionado, I applaud your stance on 3-rail O gauge. Go post this thread on the Classic Toy Trains forum and see the reaction you get.
Rich