Why have we chosen N scale?

N scale assimilated me... and my income.

 

I've done European H0, and got frustrated by the space I need to build a realistic looking layout. A friend of mine convinced me to step over to North American N scale, trains are a bit bigger then in Europe, so it'll still look good, and scenery can be made very realistic in a smaller scale. Finally, the virus infected me, I'm doing NA N scale these days, working on my first N scale layout!

 

It had us at hello.




"It says, 'I Choo-Choo-Choose You' ...and there's a train!"
- Ralph Wiggum

 

As others have said more space=more railroad. But honestly, it allows us to purchase more equipment!!

 

Yes, its the space thing. But it is not about cramming more in. Its about more space BETWEEN scenes. As the Reid brothers say "spaciousness". I can allow much more country running between towns and other locations than I can with larger scales. The adavntage in N, as others have said, is modeling the "big picture". We can allow for more roominess in our scale.

Every time I see a great HO layout I always say "Just think what this layout could be in N."

Sure is fun watching that long train snake its way around those river valleys and mountains eh? I love listening to that slack action in the longer trains as well. Sorry HO, but 20+ cars just does not say "unit train."

My HO friends, who have also run N, have told me there is a lot more "monkeying around" with the couplers in HO as well (Kadee #5s). With our standard MT couplers and trucks. I have been told it is much more a mattter of set them up and run than HO.

I find myself jealous of the vast selection and variety of HO. I also find myself jealous of the ready to run prototype specific details in Ho rolling stock. But these factors still (for me) do not beat the "spaciousness" of N.

 

That's the big trade-off I made when jumping from HO to N. But having truck-mounted couplers is a small price to pay, you hardly notice they're there unless you pick a car up and turn it on its back. But now I can run Superliners and Auto Carriers without shame!

 

One word: PORTABILITY.

I'm in the Air Force and I need to have a layout that'll come along with me. Here's a picture to illustrate; that's my whole N scale layout and roster in the back of my minivan.

 

I was wowed by the small size of European N when I saw it in the local hobby shop in my home city, Hobart, Australia in the 70s.

For a relatively small city the shop had a huge selection.

Unfavourable exchange rates a couple of years later virtually killed European N modelling in Australia.

I always liked scales smaller than H0 but was less than wowed by the range available in TT - although to be truthful I prefer the size of TT - and Z is just too hard for Australian prototypes.

Ben

 

I started in N scale at age 14 in 1968 because dad and i lived in a 3 room apartment. so space was a factor. It also seamed that at that time that you got more bang for your buck. I still have engines and rolling stock from that time. Two of my engines from then still run. One well and is used regularly (Atlas F7) the other is Steam (Riverossi) doesnt run as well and is only run as an extra ocasionly. I like the scenery to train ratio / spaciousness also. Rolling stock has been converted to micro trains trucks n couplers with low pro metal wheels. engines have had their flanges ground to operate on code 40 rail. Too much invested, time & money to switch, as long as my eyes hold out! Magnifing glasses are a must!!

 

Well, I've made the switch (sorry about the bad pun) and have hopefully moved from HO to N and won't go back just "one more time" as I've done in the past.

I've noticed several comments about how HO looks to the eye vs N scale and thought I was the only one with that problem with the move to N.

So, for better or worse, I'm moving in on N and my other train buddies will be getting some good deals on my "antique" HO equipment.

AD (almost hurts to say that)

 

I "N" Therefore I Am

For all the reasons already stated including:
1) Was given a set of "Postage Stamp Trains" in Jr. Highschool.
2) Even though or perhaps because I only had 2' x 4' to work in I dreamed of long trains running and drew track plans with unlimited resources. Some parts of those have been incorporated into the Grey and Grandure today.

"Have Fun - Run N"

 

I did it to try and get girls. Never did get the girls but still have my N scale!

 

I'll approach this from the perspective of someone who "went the other way"

I started with American Flyer and went to HO. In Highschool, I switched to N, because my Dad was not willing to give up the Basement realestate to build what I wanted and I started using the space for other things.
That first 2x8 N-scale layout was nice. I had fun with it till I killed it through a poorly constructed extension. Since then I've been living in small apartments and now a condo and have built a series of small layouts none of which I've completed. It took me a while to nail down why. I just didn't like N-scale. My number 1 complaint has been the quality of the basic locos. Athearn has a number of Blue box engines that are under $50 a piece and have solid mechinisms. in N-scale, you've got one or 2 life-like engines at that pricepoint and quality. Other then that, you're either running old splitframe Bachman junk or you're running "expensive" high detail stuff. In other words, the price to enter the scale is steeper. Heck, bachman now sells some HO 4wheel pickup and 4 wheel drive DCC engines for under $30. They're low detail, but still, you can get right into it.


My second and far more critical problem is that I just never felt N-scale looked right to me.

I went to the Belmont Shores open house a couple weeks ago and it's a very excellent layout, but for some reason, those N-scale trains just looked wrong. I have the same experience at the San Diego Model Railroad museum. The N-scale layout there (on the rare times I see it running) just lacks realism compared to the two HO layouts. The O-scale layout is a more classic design and has the associated issues itself.
HO feels right to me in size and detail, even on the most basic of engines.


HAving said that, I've seen pictures of N-scale scenes that look great, so in some sense it's a matter of perspective, but I can't argue with what I've seen and done in person.

One more thing, I've seen a lot of N-scale railroads that have speghetti bowls of track. Certainly not all of them, but I feel like it looks worse in N then in HO.

So, I switched to HO a couple months ago. I had all the equipment already, so that wasn't an issue. I have about a 10'x6' space which isn't much. But I'm happy with the layout now. I often think about what I could do with it in N-scale, but then I realize that the answer is that I'd change very little I'd maybe add a spur or two.


So that's my personal choice on scale. Please don't take my thoughts as anything more then what works for me and what I feel. I don't mean to start a fight or anything. Just how I came to my choice.

 

I went n-scale because to me HO looked toy-like. I know that sounds oposite of what everyone says. Yes the track is more lifelike on HO. Yes the detail can be better in HO. Yes, Yes, Yes, to all of the thing usually said.

But the truth is that most HO layouts are very small for the size of the rolling stock. That is to say that most are 4X8 etc. To me at least, they all look like a toy train going round and round. The reason being that the landscape is so limited compared to the trains themselves. It is the expansive landscape that makes the overall effect of n-scale so satisfying. It looks like a real countryside and towns rather than just a few trees and buildings with a train dominating everything else.

Here I'm admitedly talking about most of the layouts I've seen. If I had David Barrow's Cat Mountain around the room 200+ feet of mainline and such I'd see things differently. But I maintain that "most" people have limited space. When we have limited space (and I'm not just talking tiny necessarily) we end up with a toy train set in HO and a railroad in n-scale.

At least that's the way I see it myself. Walk into a hobby shop where they have a couple of layouts set up to draw customers. Their space allotment is limited and if you look at the two layouts (HO and N) you see a toy train vs. a railroad.

Just my observations.
MARV

 

I very much agree with your reasoning regarding the appearance of the trains being more 'toy-like' in larger scales. Its is due to the relative amount on compression required to create a scene in a typical area one may have. Considering that in N scale... a 4 x 8 layout has 32 sqft of area which equates to 818,790.45 N scale sqft (18.8 acres)... versus 5.56 HO scale acres or 1.69 O scale acres on the same 4 x 8 space.

 

It Chose Me

Edit: Forgot I posted already. Well, here's a bit more.
A person with eyesight as bad as mine would probably gravitate to G scale. The truth is I don’t care about details, historical accuracy and such hence my fantasy freelance railroad with steam, electric, diesel bullet and hypermodern equipment.

I was given “Postage Stamp Trains” in 68 (plus or minus) as a kid in the 7th grade. In high school I built a version of a small to point by Lynn Westscott.


There was no turning back at that point.
If you look closely the basic design of the plan is visible in the current plan:


More about the layout:
http://www.windingstream.com/rr/grey_and_grandure.htm

 

American Flyer at 8, N scale at 17, nothing until 62, then N scale. Same as others have said size and space. I build one 4x7 layout. track work was terrible, trashed it. Incorporated it into a 13x8 L shape layout. In progress. Between then and now I've designed track plans, refined them, trashed them, started over, tweaked them. Finally said that's it. I'll build my last.

Firm resolve until I see another track plan. Oh Me, Oh My. Why does mine always wind up looking........ well ya know. Will I ever be satisfied with it. I doubt. I may just wind up with a single line loop to loop with bunches of spurs off each side.
See ya

 

My main reason is a very large layout in HO is an empire in N.
Not to mention N has come a very long ways from the early days.
I was really big in Lionel & TT. Have had HO & American Flyer but not as much in them as the other scales.
Then when N did come out the very small size got me hooked, never looked back since.
Sold all other scales and expanded big time in N.
Have been expanding every year since.
Authough now at my age I had to get several pairs of magnified eyeglases, reading glasses and a bright multi light head band from Snap-On tools.

Ernie