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Re: HO or N?

I've been out of the hobby for many years until just recently. Way back when, N scale was an unreliable novelty.

I recently bought my wife an Atlas N scale loco as a souvineer to keep on her night table. We like photographing BNSF trains on our RV trips and she is fond of the way they look. I never intended to ever run it.

While she had the flu a couple of weeks ago I decided to pick up a loop of ready track and a powerpak as a surprise so she could actually watch her night table curio run.

Still in the undecided mode here. I had originally thought that my > Rock Island pike would probably a 5 x 9 layout in HO. Now I keep > eyeing this spare bedroom with a 3' X 11' area along one wall. It > really would be a better place for a layout. So, I find myself > considering what could be done in N scale in that space. I like N > scale, I have looked at it more than once. What I am wondering are > the operating characteristics of the smaller scale. Compared to HO, > how well do N scale cars stay on the track. Can one do switching > operations just as well in both scales or is N scale mainly for > running long trains. Any advice here would be appreciated. Thanks > Marty Hall
Reply to
tkranz
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I do know the feeling.

I knew N scale way back there as well and it was horrible. That is why I chose HO at the time.

I have a friend here locally that is working on an "imaginative" N scale layout of about 9'x11'. I have seen and heard how nice the locomotives run. Quite impressive. I have actually considered switching over to N but am afraid that my eyes and hands will not be able to do the work needed.

Take care,

Art

Reply to
Art Marsh

I know the feeling Art, two factors keep me from N right now.

  1. Large hands and 50 year old eyes, even with the reading glasses on, I have trouble with our club N layout.

  1. My chosen era, 1880s, seems only Bachman has a 4-4-0 in N and everyone I have talked to says they runs like crap. Also no 1880s rolling stock available.

Reply to
wannandcan

A significant improvement to this is on the way in that Atlas will soon have the Micro-Ace 2-6-0 available once again. (1880's model) Pics are on their website

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It's supposed to be a jewel of a runner too. The first run of these came out a couple of years ago and went quickly. Supposed to be VERY nice; on par with the Kato Mikado. I'll buy two. As for rolling stock...................MT trucks on the Bachmann stuff is about it for now.

-John

Reply to
Pacific95

On Wed, 04 Feb 2004 22:24:20 GMT, "tkranz" purred:

Then use a magnifying visor, like I do. That way they seem larger than O when you work on them. N has so many advantages, the ability to do more realistic scenery to train ratios, running more prototype train lengths, having towns that look more like the real thing, and the ability to have a decent layout in today's space restricted buildings. Welcome back to model railroading.

cat

Reply to
cat

But the MagnaVisor won't make the handrails or the track look smaller.

Reply to
Steve Caple

I couldn't do the things I do (in any scale) without a magnifying light. I use one of the table mounted units with a light built in.

I do get a chuckle out of dedicated HO folk who say N is too small, then proceed to super detail their rolling stock with parts as smaller, or smaller than, anything in N scale.

Mike "55 year old eyes" Tennent "IronPenguin"

Reply to
Mike Tennent

On Thu, 05 Feb 2004 08:25:06 -0500, Mike Tennent purred:

True and they should meet the guys who do ships in 1/700 th scale complete with crew. Now that makes Z look huge. To top it all off, a lot of those guys build thoise ships from paper. Now that's modeling!

cat

Reply to
cat

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