Here is a new topic or at least one I haven't seen. What is your favorite aspect of N scale? Are you a collector? Do you like to scratch build? Maybe Ntrak is your forte. Maybe it is your layout or maybe it is something you do with the kids. I'm sure there are a lot of different likes and dislikes but let's just keep it to the positive aspects. Also you may want to give your opinion on what you would like to see as the next step or improvement in your favorite aspect of N scale.
My fav part is takking a undec Kato or Atlas engine, and painting it up as detailed as I can! The thrill of the hunt, finding that right EMD in the right color scheme, then detailing, painting, decaling, and weathering the model to look like the prototype. Then hearing my friends say, your a sick man! Lift rings in N scale anyone?
Well let's see. Painting ,detailing (mildly)and decaling locomotives and cars. Taking building kits and bashing them into something large enough to warrant rail service. NTRAK,though it's beginning to wear a little thin with me. All aspects of my home layout.
As an N-scale newbie, I'm not really qualified to enter this thread because I haven't encountered all aspects of this hobby as yet. However, so far, I've enjoyed the scenery aspect and I'm looking forward to getting into all the little scenery details once the structures are up (I wonder if that makes me compulsive excessive?). One observation so far: there appears to be an almost an unlimited number of aspects to this hobby. If one starts to get bored about one aspect, there seems to be a gazillion others to get involved in to keep the interest and enthusiasm high. It looks to me that in order to research and model every aspect along a railway right-of-way, one would have to spend more than a lifetime!! I expect to be kept busy for many years...
I immensely enjoy recreating what I see in miniature, so I like create good looking scenery, building buildings, superdetail locomotives and cars, work on track and to some extent electronics. I however dont like and am slow in benchwork and the "construction" neccesary to have a layout. I recently am starting in remotoring and regearing my locos to match them closer to the prototype and improve their running ability (what 1:1 locos stops dead on a turnout or starts and stops like a jackrabbit?). Mike Mike
<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>As a fellow Ntraker I would be interested in knowing more as I too have some reservations about the future of Ntrak.<hr></blockquote> I am simply getting tired of the whole 3 track premise.It is getting downright boring watching 3 trains chase their tails around the square circle. There has to be more to modular railroading than this The plus side though is meeting alot of nice people at trainshows [ 01 August 2001: Message edited by: Catt ]</p>
My favorite area is operations. You can get so many more sidings and towns into the given (1:1) area. Second favorite is collecting/trading on Ebay. They have over 1100 N-scale items for sale at any time and just checking them out and searching for bargains is a lot of fun. I balance the last with an autopilot on my car to the local hobby shops so that we both stay in business and within our respective operating budgets. Wiring the DCC encoders is something I leave for the pros.
I tend to get more of a kick out of planning and building a layout than running trains. Although I do like letting a long intermodal cruise around the main, whilst running a local, and switching the yards Detailing locomotives is enjoyable, but I like the varied aspects of model railroads, as it keeps my interest. All I need is more time to do it all
<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Catt: I am simply getting tired of the whole 3 track premise.It is getting downright boring watching 3 trains chase their tails around the square circle. There has to be more to modular railroading than this The plus side though is meeting alot of nice people at trainshows [ 01 August 2001: Message edited by: Catt ]<hr></blockquote> Maybe this should be a whole new thread. I'll leave that up to the moderators. I share your thoughts on Ntrak. It is great for shows like GATS and Greenberg and the like. But it wasn't designed for operation. I am trying to get my local Ntrak club to expand the horizon and be more of an N scale club with Ntrak as one facet. So far inertia is winning. But I do like the shows especially the kids when I ask them if they want to run the train and hand them the controller. We have experienced a reduction in the number of big train shows like GATS and Greenberg in our area. We want to start doing more local community fund raisers for volunteer fire departments, Boy Scouts or other civic organizations. Ntrak can not fall by the wayside it has done a lot for the scale and can still do more. We just have to come up with new ideas for it.
Catt/Inkaneer: Very much agree about the three track thing. The pictures and articles I've seen on OneTrak have really impressed me. As of yet, I have nothing resembling a home layout, just a module in a club layout, but when I do get to buying lumber for myself I think I'll try OneTrak.
Actually it was designed for operation.The inside track or branch line was to be used for it. Somewhere along the line somebody got the idea that people did not want to see operation all they wanted was to see trains run We have tried operating at several shows and people are simply fasinated by it.The real problem seems to be with my group that once you get that monster up and running your too damn tired to do anything but watch your trains run. Ya know I think your right. Hey Moderators do you think this should be a new thread too? [ 02 August 2001: Message edited by: Catt ]</p>
My fovorite thing to do is detail engines!! I just really enjoy seeing a scale recreation of the real thing that has most if not all of the features as the real ones! Lift rings are a good start , but you have to add all the underframe piping, brake lines, sand pipes on the trucks, air/water seperators, step lights, etc., etc. That is my idea of detailing to the max. As for N Trak. Remember guys that one of it's main purposes is to promote the hobby, and that it does well. People at mall shows get excited when they see two or more trains going by each other, and I still get a kick out of the people having so much fun just watching my models cruise by. On a last note, remember that a three track mainline can be prototypical, I have a three track main just 10 miles from where I live and it runs quit a long distance (this would be the BNSF line from the LA harbor to Cajon). I do agree that after a few hours, watching a train chase it's self does get boring.
While I enjoy most aspects of the hobby except fixing what I've messed up, I enjoy scratchbuilding freight cars and structures more than anything else. I would enjoy scratchbuilding engines, too, but cannot make a working N scale mechanism. I have done some serious steam locomotive kitbashing, though. The internet has been a great boon to scratchbuilders and kitbashers as there is an amazing amount of information out there and people who are willing to share what is not already posted.
One asspect of this hobby that I enjoy is the histories of railroading and the attempts to model it. The other part is comming up with a fictional railroad (class 1 (Gorre&Dipheated) or a branchline).
I have to agree with Scott on detailing engines, since that is a part of building the model from the blueprints. Also I agree with Frank on operation. I can spend hours watching the valve and side rods working on any scale steam engine, especially when dad is driving beside one racing across the prairie, or just switching cars in a yard. I enjoy seeing all the different color patterns (Cain't spel skeems) on diesel engines too, and I'm not picky about seeing a guy's Canadian engine passing the Texas Eagle in Alabama, we got to have some passenger service too at the Show One club used the NTrak idea to allow one operator (engineer) to work with the engineers running on the center track. Yard switcher makes up two trains in yard and sets them on ready tracks with caboose attached. Center Track train would pull up, un-couple leaving train, and take road engine to roundhouse. Meanwhile, Yard engineer, gets train on center track & pulls it into yard. A different engineer would come out from roundhouse and back into one of the trains in the yard, then pull out onto the Center mainline and go! This idea was to allow various members to have some run time, and have different kinds of operations going on all the time. The outer track closest to the visitors had a train running all the time, that had to crossover after 10 laps, and get another engine, engineer, and train. The switch and road crews would change, but the routine was the same for the show, and went smoothly. There was a larger crowd of visitors at the roundhouse and around the yards than anywhere else.
I like to research the History of the railraod and its equipment. I particularly like the chance to create something different. Things such as the first EMD SD45 (GN 400 Hustle Muscle) and the Desert Storm SD60 are an aspect of the Hobby I enjoy. Detailing an engine to replicate a prototype I find rewarding. I have not gone to the lengths of detail some of the great examples we often see posted on trainboard such as Gatts and Craig Martyn but I like what I have. I also enjoy long trains and running and creating something a little different like a Heavy Duty Flat with a power station consist including turbines and transformers.
My favourite part of N Scaling? As much as I like the researching and modifying locomotives to closely match a prototype, as Mick alluded to, and the laying and ballasting of trackage (I'm pedantic about it to a fault), I have to say the part I really enjoy is scratchbuilding and kitbashing structures. As frustrating as the feedmill is becoming in it's detailing stage (try scratching safety ladder cages!) I get a kick out of it. Call me a frustrated architectual modeller. Gary.
My favorite part of Nscaling,hmmmm.That would have to be the feeling i get just looking over my yard covered in cars with the engine terminal packed waiting for there assignments. I feel for a few brief moments out of the day that I am in total control, just like the rail barons of old . No matter what type of day I am having sitting down to do a little yard work and preparing the days roster gives me a warm fuzzy as stress melts away.Yeah thats what I like most.
