Greetings all Having been a model railroader for some 40+ years and always in N-scale (well I started with Treble O electric in the UK) (thats as close as I am going to put it) I have realised that my aims and interests are still not cut and dried. Having spent the last year starting a bedroom empire in N-guage (which will continue as I love to see trains run) I have decided that there is a craving inside to do some things that just don't really work well, as yet, in N. For me, that is detail work, building and industrial scenery and.... sound I have all my DCC and computer control equipment and have been spending the entire Xmas / New year period doing some very heavy thinking. I have decided that in addition to my N-gauge empire (for now) I am also going to build a small (10' x 1'6" ) shelf switching layout in HO. The period will be the same as my N layout.. CN/GTW 1940 - 1965 (Green & cream and steam). I will use the new peco Code 83 North American track, and it will be built on the Iain Rice Jigsaw principle, allowing me to swap scenery and industries on the layout to vary the feel and period of the layout as I see fit. All locos will be sound and there will be an abundance of little detail scenes and dioramas, lighting and atmosphere, all of which are much easier to accomplish visually in a larger scale. Being used to working in N-gauge, it seems to me that the space and availability of HO gives me a huge arena to play with, and the small size of the layout, should mean that results can be seen fairly quickly. I have already ordered a Proto CN GP9 with Sound to start me off, and am looking at the Proto 2000 0-6-0 switcher in GTW and possible a light mikado with a few detail changes to make it even more GTW to move forward, all of which are either sound or sound capable. Here's my question (finally I hear you say ) There are a multitude of manufacturers of freight stock, and being a newbie to HO, I have no idea of the merits of each manufacturer. My aim is to have a limited number of items, but I would like these to be good models and not so-so models I am looking for accurate, metal wheeled (although these could be replaced) and good quality. I would really appreciate some recommendations of what companies I should start my search with. I am happy to use Ready-toRun or Kitbuilt stock. Thanks in advance and I hope it won't scare too many people to see someone moving up in scale in these days of everyone seeming to move down Regards Graham Evans
I'm sure you will soon get many views points from the various members. In the mean time take a look at this section of my website where you can view some examples of various manufactures. Delaware and Hudson in Miniature - "Scale Models / Replicas - HO Scale" Example:
Graham- There are many manufacturers who do multi-scales. So the quality you know in N, can also be found in HO. Such as Kato, Atlas, InterMountain, Kadee, (Micro-Trains in N), Athearn, Life-Like, and so many others. You should not have any troubles finding the good stuff you desire! Boxcab E50
To add to Boxcab's comments, if you are after the quality end of the market, ignore Lifelike branded items apart from the Proto range, they have a number of useful models for your era. Athearn stuff has a big variation in quality, some of the RTR stuff is very good, some is 'okay', their Genesis brand is excellent however. Other manufacturers to look at would be Red Caboose, Branchline Trains and Accurail.
Thanks very much guys I happened to drop in at my local supplier this morning, and he too mentioned the Accurail kits, so thank you Pat, I have followed your advice and bought a couple. I also bought some replacement wheels and some Kadee #58 couplers for them. We also spoke about taking a hacksaw to a BLI Light Mike and turning it into a GTW 0-8-2 switcher.. now theres an interesting conversion for a new entrant into HO We will see what happens next.. Interesting, that same buzz of excitment is coming back from the very early days when it was all brand new is there again Regards Graham Evans
The Kadee cars are absolutely outstanding, as are the Athearn Genesis line. If you prefer to build and detail your kits to prototype specs, go with the Proto 2000 line. I am always amazed at what my kits look like when finished, and I always pick up at least one kit whenever I visit a train show, whether I need one or not!
As a newcomer to HO myself, I can concur with the recommendations above. I particularly like Kadee, fully detailed and ready to run out of the box (apart from weathering). P2K, Genesis, Intermountain, etc. are also great. I was in HO quite a number of years ago, and nothing of the quality of current offerings was available then. Now we are spoiled for choice
