Well I can't post pictures here because I haven't been here for 3 days. Anyway my room is in the basement of our house, it flooded, floor got replaced, I was kicked up to my old small room for about 8 months. In that time frame I got N scale, which I have wanted for years. I have a fair amount of HO and a small about of N, I have two 4x8 tables I could put one in for sure, maybe two if I'm lucky. So which scale do you think? I will post pictures when I can... Ben
Either size has it's own merits. In a very limited space, most often you can accomplish more in N scale. What size is the room which is available for use? Have you considered a shelf style layout, around the walls? If not, please do throw that possibility into the mix. Sorry about the 3 days. That feature stops the hit & run porn spammers, (plus others), from the tactic of quick signup, uploading their filth, then scurrying off. And thus causing us a big headache. So we have enough time to review new folks, and weed out the garbage. It works very nicely.
Oh no it's fine, I understand if that's the reason, I see why that is an issue. The room is about 17x13, I need to fit at least a bed in there and a dresser, so room isn't really an issue. Ben
hey, if you don't allow filth, why do you allow pictures of Southern Pacific diesels? any ways, a shelf layout can be done in about the same space for either scales. Linda Sand had an article, Big City Railroads Don't Require Big Spaces in Model Railroad Planning 1999, pg 38. It was a modern HO layout that was a U shape in 5x9. Your 4x8 can easily be modified to be that large AND it wouldbe huge in N if built to that size. I prefeer N myself.
OK. Don't forget to consider windows, door and closet locations. Those will also restrict where you can palce your chosen style of benchwork. You might want to take some graph paper and sketch out the room perimeter, etc. Then see where the bed and chest must go.
I'm leaning towards N myself, I have quite a bit of track both ez track nickel silver (which I know bachmann isn't the greatest) then I have some older Atlas (steel track not a whole lot) Then HO I have Power Loc which is plagued with dead spots which is probably going to go bye bye soon, and I have Atlas track from the 80's as well (a decent amount) Plus the layout I could have with N is huge. Ben
Check out Tim Horton's layout, a friend of mine, here in North Vancouver. I've been to his condo and I can assure you he has less room than you have yet he has a very effective layout. I don't know what page is going to load with the link I'm giving you but if you don't see his layout image, check out on the tabs on the left "layout design." By the way, if you find N scale too small, model the modern era as many of the rolling stock and engines are as long as 40 foot box cars and f units in HO. I purposely am modelling the modern era so that I have larger rolling stock. His layout is double decked with a helix connecting the two levels. One advantage of N scale is that you can have more loops with less width, an 18 inch radius helix is all you really need: http://www.bcrdawsonsub.ca/ Tim's helix: [my friend Graham is inside photographing Tim's helix]
