I’m doing a TT Scale focus on my About.com site (http://modeltrains.about.com) this weekend. I thought perhaps some of you might be interested in reading a little about what is happening in Europe with a scale that is largely forgotten here in North America (even though it was invented in the US).
Best!
I researched getting in to TT scale years ago, but there was so few American products available until I elected to stay with HO. I, too, think that TT is the right marriage of N and HO. However, a new manufacturer would have to offer a full range of track, buildings, cars and engines to even come close to gaining a foothold in North American model railroad economics.
TT actually came out in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s. The first time I read about TT was in 1962, at which time it was derisively called “Too Tiny” by the HO, S and O scale crowd. There were too few makers of TT items, and too few items from which to choose, for it to gain in popularity. Another problem with it at the time was electric motor technology. Motors small enough to fit into HO scale did not run very well, and TT was even worse.