i have seen so many different scales and im on my 2nd layout and im not sure what to buy? what scale is best? which scale is not good? thankyou!
Go with N scale… It takes up less room and there’s a lot more variety in it than there once was. HO is great, and if I had the extra room and money would build an HO layout, but…
Good luck to you in finding “it”.
trainluver1
This is like asking “What woman should I marry?” Completely subjective. Based entirely upon your physical and financial circumstances as well as numerous unknown personal preferences. Good luck, though. [:)]
Brett has it right. Ya gotta go and pick up the various scale items and see how they ‘feel’ to you.
The general consensus is that as you get older, the larger sizes are easier to work with.
The smaller scale means you can get more into a given square footage, but you have to be that much more careful to lay the track well. Smaller stuff rides over rougher trackwork poorly.
Still most variety and experience is to be found in HO, although both O and N have very strong callings…with good reason.
Have fun!
The scale you choose is a compromise between how much you want on your layout and how long you want your trains versus how big the pieces are to work with and now much 'presence" you want the trains to have. The six viable scales are Z, N, HO, S, O, and G. They all have enough commercial support to be used (you may have to mail order depending on where you live for some of these).
You said you are on your second layout. Since you aren’t sure, I would suggest you try a different scale from your first one,
I started with HO, moved to O and then settled on S. This is the best compromise for me. The pieces are easy to work with, I can see it better, I can get a decent layout in my space.
Enjoy
Paul