time for change

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

recently, some things have happened that now grant me full use of our 1100 sf basement. up untill now i have not had a layout due to space restrictions. so over the last five years ive aquired quite a lot of n scale stuff for my future layout. but now, i think i’m going to sell it all and buy ho scale equiptment for reasons as follows:

  • HO has more to offer as far as equiptment, structures ect

  • the price is about the same

  • i’m thinking about DCC ( i’m a one man crew)

  • i have severe arthritis in my elbows and right hand

  • i just cant see n scale being where i want it anytime soon ie: theres no reason that anything available in ho scale is not avail in n scale.

  • scratch building is easier

  • the list goes on

i hate to sell off my stock, but i think i should break even as most items are’nt opened yet. has any one else been in my shoes here and how did it work out? any one else have any comments about n scale and its lack of equiptment? i just get so “depressed” at the LHS or swap meets confined to my two isles of n scale verses the majority of the store is HO…any and all comments will be considered. i know its mine to do what i want with, but would ove to hear others comments… thanks

2

I was into N scale at one time. I had to sell all my N scale track and equipment due to medical reasons. I have severe neuropathy (nerve damage) due to diabetes, thus making the handling of small things a dicey proposition, to say the least. I also have arthritis which makes working with tiny details a nightmare. I can work with O scale equipment quite nicely but due to space limitations I can’t have a good O scale layout. The answer was to go with HO scale.

3

I can feel your pain!

Back when I had, at best, N scale space, all of the kits for my preferred prototype were HOj. (Ready to run? on a junior Sergeant’s pay, WHAT ready to run?)

Now, with almost everything I could want available in N scale at much lower prices than the HOj equivalents (and my income much more substantial,) arthritis has made handling anything smaller than HOj scale (or US prototype HO) a very dicey proposition.

Happily for everyone concerned, I have finally obtained title to enough space to build the HOj layout I’ve always wanted. Now all I have to do is live long enough to get it somewhere close to finished!

Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)

4

1100 sq ft is not very large (10’x11’). If you run passenger trains, I’d recommend keeping ‘N’ gauge.

5

wrconstruction, I quit HO Scale for N Scale over twenty five years ago because the room available for me allowed little more than 18 inch radius curves and that radius was fine for N Scale but was horrendously small for HO Scale. Now twenty five years down the road I am closer to seventy than sixty, I REQUIRE spectacles, and N Scale is horrendously small for my arthritic fingers. I don’t know just what is in my future - I am currently without an operational layout - but going back to HO Scale is a consideration.

All of the ‘advantages’ of HO Scale over N Scale outlined in your post are certainly true; as for me, I would have to get rid of multi-thousand dollars worth of N Scale equipment. When I bolted HO Scale I sold my accumulated equipment for over a thousand bucks, a loss - I’m not sure just exactly how much all my N Scale equipment would bring. Then again there is that matter of those 18 inch radius curves; that factors out to 33 inches in HO Scale - 24º - and I don’t know whether I would ever have the space to use that radius a curve so I reckon I’m probably stuck in N Scale.

6

You probably MEANT 110 sqf LOL.

Well, I am in HO and have been tempted by N scale as well. It seems all the kewl stuff is coming out in N scale leaving the HO folks to sit by the Announcment list for 2 years waiting for stuff to arrive. But the demo of a sound equiptted N scale engine that I cannot hear at all cemented my decision to stick firmly with HO.

I probably remain in HO until age takes it’s toll and then move on to O gauge myself.

7

my basement is 28 by 40 feet… 1120 sf minus the 10 by 10 utility room.

thanks for all of every ones input.