I'm not sure smaller houses are the cause? I do know one thing. When I want to run a 80+ car D&RGW coal train with 15-18 motors, that's including swing and rear helpers...I can do it cause I got the room. And it doesn't take much room. When I see the larger stuff with two engines, 20 cars and maybe a helper...Your choo choo's have gotten too big for their britches and you need to rethink what you want to model son. If you're gonna do it, do it right. Oh yeah, What makes N scale so popular? A: Its size can allow you to build a empire.
Exactly. Space isnt the limiting factor for me. I just love loooooooooonngggggggggggggg trains! :tb-biggrin:
One reason I joined this forum is because when I did a search for N Scale on google, Trainboard popped up on the first page at the time. I was looking for resources and info on getting back into the hobby. One thing that stood out about this forum compared to others was the amount of daily activity and the quality input. Yes QUALITY input. Here, as has been mentioned in other posts on this thread, there are lots of techno-savvy modelers. I personally played with O27 as a kid, my father had an old MArx set that was his as a kid. When I got the modeling bug at 16-17, my choice was N. Why N? Well one big part of it is because Peter, at Ted's Hobby shop, encouraged me to get into N because you could pack a lot of Railroad into a small space, I listened, and the rest as they say is history. My first layout was a 13 by 3 foot dogbone, with a mix of traditional and non traditional roadbed and scenery. N scale permits you to have an empire in a small space, plus I find there is not a big price difference between N and Ho. N can still be enjoyed by the whole family without busting your budget, something that you have to consider when you pursue your hobby and have kids and other expenses to take into account. If I had to start over again, I wouldn't have it any other way. N scale was the best choice I ever made, and joining Trainboard was the best decision I ever made! Thanks to all of you here who inspired me to take the plunge and get back into the hobby. And keep up the good work, the creativity here is an inspirational to all of us. That's my 2 cents worth. Cheers! Adam
Thats a mile long consist!!! Doing the math (approximately)... 80 100T hoppers @ 4" each = 320" plus 15 Tunnel Moters @ 6" each = 90" for a total of 410"/12 = 34.16' long train (1 mile in N scale is ~ 33'). I'd be chasing the tail of the last helper engine on my layout!
So curiosity has gotten to me. What makes N scale so popular, is it the size? If it was size you would think HO scale would be the most popular, but it's not if you look at the visit stats to each scale section. I run G scale because I have slight vision problems and could not see N scale properly at close range. ------------------------------------- First HO is still the popular scale but, N Scale has seen a growth over the past few years and may become the dominant scale in the coming years as HO prices continues to spiral out of control due to the requested road specific details and highly detailed cars. Now from my lessons learned files comes this tidbit. I will no longer build a HO switching layout thats less then 10' since the smaller sizes limits what can be accomplish..Now comparing at a 1'x7' switching layout in HO against a 1'x7' N Scale switching layout-well there is no real comparison because you can have some much more using N.. Of course N Scale does lack the wide choices of HO but,that may change in the coming years.
Randgust said it best; I wanted to model a portion of a Railroad, so I stuck with N Scale. HO was slightly too large, and Z was too small:tb-wink:
I like long trains... My first N-Scale train was a Christmas gift in the mid 1960s, but I never quite got into running it much. A family friend gave me a 5' x 9' HO layout and some trains in the 1970s, and together with my grandfather, my feet were firmly planted in HO. I later joined an HO club in LA and spent several years collecting, building, and painting a good sized collection. About 20 years ago I purchased my grandparent's house, and then promptly moved my family here. The house had a nice wood shop (16' x 24') - perfect for a new HO layout. However, shortly after our move we got broken into, and 90% of my precious HO collection was swiped (Atlas, Kato, brass, etc.). Homeowner's insurance covered $0.75 on the dollar, which amounted to a tidy sum. I deposited the check and headed straight for the LHS. Once there, the first thing that caught my eye was a large glass case filled with the latest N-Scale items - Atlas, Kato, Rivarossi, etc. - and I asked the shop owner, Roger Clarkson of Pacific Coast Hobbies in Riverside (now closed), if I could test run one of the N-Scale locomotives. Wow - I had no idea N-Scale had come so far! The locomotive was as smooth (or nearly so) to that of a good HO locomotive, and the size would allow me to build more than just a switching layout in my wood shop. I was hooked! I began searching out all the LHSs I could find - Long's Drugs (defunct), All Aboard (defunct), etc., so that I could lay my hands on anything and everything that appealed to me. Naturally, this resulted in quite an eclectic grouping of various roads, but I didn't mind (still don't) - my brain was now permanently wired for N, and only rarely do I look at what's going on in HO. The amount of items available in N has been growing steadily over the past few years, as is the quality and price. Some manufacturers are better than others, just like any other scale, but the junk piles are now few and far between. Items that I would have shied away from several years ago (Life Like, Bachmann, et al) are good enough to use straight from the box, or only need minor tweaks to make them shine. With the maturity of the Internet and eBay, LHSs are a thing of the past (I would support them otherwise, yet there are none close to me). The icing on the cake? BLMA, Intermountain, and other outfits are filling the voids the big dogs haven't got to (or won't). With a bit of patience (decent eyesight and dexterity is a plus), there's no reason an N-Scale layout couldn't be as detailed or more so than its big brothers, not to mention what others have said regarding the amount of RR for a given area. We live in good times.
Hmmm modeling a railroad, that will be next year. The new basement ummm house will be filled with trains. It's so nice when your other half tells you that the new house has to have a basement for everyone's hobbies. So my daughter will get to keep her layout, which I will soehow incorporate into the new one, and Dad will finally get his empire! SWEEET! loll Sorry couldn'T resist! Cheers Adam
At the risk of being obviously obnoxious, my answer is that it is so much easier to detail in N scale, whereas HO is comparatively clunky and clumsy. I don't know if I could so something like this in HO. Also, my eyes have gotten so nearsighted that when I hold a model up four inches from the end of my nose. (Also, it is easier to cheat detail in N scale that seems to be there when it isn't, really. Too small for people to see mistakes....)
N scale for me because of most all the reason already posted. I am 61...my eyesight aint that good no more. I have an Optivsor and a magnfying lens worklight. I do OK. BUT...sitting back and watching the L O N G trains run...the scenery doesnt have to be perfect...because its all little blurry anyways...LOL. As far as the notion that HO is the most popular scale...I think that stat is history ! JMO...yours may very and thats fine. AND...if you look at any of the other train forums that have all the scales and not just here at TB......N out does the rest by 300% also !! I dont necessarily place credence in that there are more posts in n scale because we as a group are just more outgoing, friendly, knowledgeable etc. etc. I think "N" is a formiable scale and bigger then most will give it credit for. If you look at whats coming out quality wise...I think the manufactures already recognize that ! N Scale...it's not just for kids anymore !! .
Sure, Stu - Member Profile - RailImages.com This is a very nice small layout which has evolved. The evolution is captured in photos within the album.
You're welcome! These were four member's layouts I picked off the top of my head and is not a slight on anyone else who has shared their layouts in RailImages. It was my pictorial reply to the original question - what makes N Scale so popular?
I'm not doubting your vision problems, but for some people, that's more perceived than actual. When I started N scale, I bought one of those Rix re-railing ramps because I thought N scale trains were too tiny for my hands to manually re-rail, but now I never use the ramp and I easily re-rail trains with my bare hands all the time. I too have slight vision problems - I have a mild cataract in my right eye and a treated glaucoma in my left, yet I can see N scale just fine. For any super-detail work, I have one of those magnifying glass stands with the metal holding clip arms on it. Once you get used to handling N scale, it doesn't feel that miniscule, and the other scales feel grossly oversized. HO looks big and clunky to me now. In many respects, it's already changed. I first had the "N-scale itch" in the early 1990s, but I didn't see much intermodal stuff available back then. Walthers just came out with their doublestack cars and containers in HO, so I decided to stick with that scale. Now, for me, there's a lot of Intermodal in N. The selection is almost equal.
When I moved to this house I suppose I could have gone to HO. I have a space about 13' x 7'. But if I had done that, I would have either been forced into narrow gauge, or put up with a little switching layout. Instead, I wanted GP7's and F7's, and I wanted them to GO somewhere. I wanted what someone with a basement layout wants, but I only had that little space. So I stuck with N scale. Sometimes, like when I'm applying car numbers one at a time to an N scale car that are no more than 1 mm wide, I have my doubts. When I lose detail parts because they are stuck somewhere on my finger, when I have to search my work table with a piece of masking tape, or when I can't pick up a decal out of a water dish because of surface tension, I have my doubts. But nothing can shake my faith in N scale when I look at the massive scene, as big as all outdoors, that takes up my 13' x 7' space.
