Model Railroaders - Help me pick a Scale

In My Humble Opinion
1

Since I was a kid, I’ve always liked trains and railroads. I had a small model railroad when I was young and was always interested in the hobby, but until now nothing.

Now, I’ve got some space and am looking for a hobby that I can do over time and not feel pressured. I figure now is the time to get into model railroading.

But I’m stuck at the gate. As I get ready to start acquiring the stuff I need, I go back and forth between choosing HO scale or N scale.

Both have good selection of locomotives, rolling stock, track, and kits. I understand that there hasn’t been a significant difference in quality between N scale stuff and HO scale stuff in some time so that is not a concern.

I like that N scale gives me more possibilities over time given the space I have. I plan to start small, but would build up over time as skills and abilities increase. There is more space for operational possibilities in a given square footage with N scale than for HO.

But I am worried that N scale would be too small to handle for things like building kits, improvising building stuff from scratch and the like - fine motor skills aren’t known to improve with age… HO scale seems to be better in that regard. I want to be able to enjoy building stuff and not get frustrated with it.

I really only want to make one investment in terms of locos, cars and track so I don’t want to go down the “try one, then switch” road.

So can anyone with experience share their thoughts, recomendations and ideas?

2

Think about affordability. With HO scale, stuff is dirt creap. Z scale will put you in the poor house. (For comparison, a loco will cost you around $80 or $300, respectively.)

3

  1. HO is cheaper, and lots more stuff is available.

  2. If your interest is in little vignettes, little scenes of towns and suchlike, HO offers more possibilities. If you want to see looonnng trains wending their way through immense vistas of rural scenery, N is better.

  3. Do I finally get to say “Hi, Opal”?

  4. Easier to get HO trains squarely on the rails. Don’t laugh.

  5. Better scale appearance with HO; in N, the rails are relatively too big. And accessories like autos, etc, tend to be more misshapen-looking.

4

A lot depends on your preferred emphasis of model building vs. operations (if you have enough time of course you can go all John Allen and take them both to the extreme of course).

I’m in more or less the same boat as you and have been gravitating more and more towards HO over the last 30 years. I suggest you do what I did: buy and build a few N structure kits to get a sense of the modeling experience. They can always be used in the background of an HO layout to increase the sense of depth so they won’t go to waste either way. I did that many years ago and it convinced me that for me, HO would be more satisfying. But they still look great and add a lot to my HO layouts.

OTOH, if you’re really interested in mainline operations N is hard to beat. The quality of off-the-shelf equipment available in both scales these days is spectacular by historical standards.

5

You want inexpensive and/or superdetailing? HO

If you have little room and want to run long trains? N

If I wasn’t into HO for several grand and 30 years, I’d be going N.

6

The Code 55 track has gone a long way towards fixing that problem. Of course, it’s pricey.

(Code in this case refers to rail size. Code 55 is .055" high; most commercial N track is made with Code 80 rail)

7

Like the OP, I’ve not been into model railroading for a while. But after looking around a bit I’m considering ON3. I think that’s it. O gage on HO track which works out to 3’ gage. Nice narrow curves and big enough rolling stock that it’s easy to work with.

8

I went HO and found a lot of great deals on line. It allowed me to build a good size layout with remote powered switches on the cheap.

If you want a really elaborate layout however, spend the money of N gage.

I like HO and use both the basic tracks and the EZ tracks for my kids and for around the Christmas tree. This way the rolling stock is compatible and we get the best of both worlds.

Jim

9

I like & respect HO. but my Dad had ‘O’ gauge Lionel round the tree growing up. It just feels ‘right’ to me, but ymmv. Santa got the boys a Lionel ‘O’ gauge Polar Express set a few Xmases back. (Ho-ho-ho!)

10

Lionel is the best, but HO was affordable and small enough to build a pretty elaborate setup.

Here is the 3 layered train setup we built last year and some links to some good model train sites.

Jim

11

[Jean-Luc Picard]N-gauge[/JLP]

12

Either is good. With HOs you can make lame rapper jokes…but you can do the same with the N-word.

Sailboat

13

If I had the space (and outdoors as well), I’d go G gauge. But I don’t, so with a choice between H0 and N, I’ll go with H0 for the greater level of detail, cheapness and easier handling.

I’ve just bought a house, and although I could set a whole room aside for a layout, right now I’m planning to install a switching layout in the closet of what’s going to be my office.

14

Wow!! I haven’t read/heard that name in years. It takes me back.

Thanks!

15

FYI, that’s HO (aitch oh), not H0 (aitch zero). The term stands for Half-O, i.e. 1/2 the size of the O-scale that was more-or-less standard when HO was introduced.

16

In modern-day America perhaps, but not originally.
When the German company Märklin introduced the H0 scale in 1935 it stood for “halb-null” (“half-zero”), half of Märklin’s 0-Scale, and here it remained a zero to this day.

17

Cool. Learn something every day. Thank you.

18

I am currently starting an N-Scale module that combined with other modules in the future will represent the Great Northern RR Cascades division from Seattle through Stevens Pass to Wenatchee, circa 1950.

Because I have limited space and may have to move in the near future, modules are my only choice. I like to make a realistic scene, and N lets me make mountains that seem to be big enough to be worth tunneling through, and that serves my modeling needs for the Stevens Pass. The lazy curves the railroad takes along the shores of Puget Sound are also perfect for N, so some of the choice may have to do with the prototype you are modeling.

A lot is determined by how much space you have. If you have a large area that can be permanently dedicated, HO is probably better, although fine work can be done in all scales.

As far as modeling scratch and kit structures, the scale isn’t as important as you might think. Don’t be fooled by photography. A photograph of an N-Scale scene will look much rougher than an equivalent HO scene, but the camera is merely magnifying defects. In person, both scenes look much more equivalent in terms of neatness and detail.

As a previous poster mentioned, Code 55 track looks very presentable in N, even when photographed, especially if properly painted/weathered. Peco makes code 55 that has a portion of the rail embedded in the ties, making for a very strong stable track. The tie spacing is somewhat greater than typical North American standards, but this is scarcely noticeable and may even contribute to the illusion of more scale-accurate rail height. They also don’t model the inner spike/tieplate so all but the oldest (Lone Star Treble-O-Lectric anyone?) equipment will run fine on it.

One of my pet peeves in N for many years was the non-prototype appearance of the rapido coupler. Now that you can get Kadee for almost any N application, this is no longer a problem either.

Invest in some magnifier goggles (or whatever they are called) and some fine tools and you should be ok in any scale. Check out some of the new laser cut kits from Blair Line or Laserkit. Dill’s Market is a good starter kit to see if you can handle the scale. As another poster said, you can always stick it in the background to force perspective if you decide to move to HO later.

While N will never catch up to HO in terms of variety of things available, more products are available all the time. At this point, the selection is good enough that you should be able to obtain structures and rolling stock to represent almost any road or era.

Pay attention to some of the N Scale work that is featured in Model Railroader and N-Scale magazine. Some of it is hard to tell from the HO stuff. The scale has come a long way!

Let us know how you make out. I hope to have some photographs of my module to post once some track is laid and some scenery roughed in. Hope you will share as well!

19

Both HO and N suffer from out-of-scale rails (unless you want to get into some serious scratch building), and both will make curves look ridiculously tight compared to prototype. You can do things to minimise the weirdnesses - modeling narrow gauge is one idea, and especially modeling things like mining railways and such. If you have four-wheeled freight wagons on narrow gauge (such as a mining or logging railway), the curves won’t look as silly as if you’re running long wheelbase bogie passenger stock.

I’d a diehard railfan, and I’d love to get into modeling, but apart from having neither the time nor the money, it’s the problems of scale that I can’t get my head around. After all, prototypical trains don’t run around in circles all day.

So do what I did - get into computer-based train-sim. Sit right in the cab, feel the pull of several thousand tons behind you, get the braking just right, overcome wheelslip, etc. Hook it up to some good speakers and a big monitor, and it’s awesome.

20

What are you using?

I have always been crazy about trains (having almost always lived in places without them). Had a model train as a kid that my dad barely let me use. Loved Railroad Tycoon way back when. Now I play with my toddler’s Tomy train (so sad and so cool at the same time). Computer train sounds about right for me, I guess. Please point me in the right direction.