I am brand new to this also and was steered here by Watash (thanks again). I'm enjoying this topic in particular as I am wrestling with wanting to start my first ever layout and what scale. I understand HO and N, what are those scales with the 3 attached? I planned on starting with just 4x8 but setting it up so it is expandable later. I am active duty Navy and move frequently, don't want to go too large until I settle in one place for a while. Thanks for your ideas, what a great resource this place is. Russ Gordon greenshirtrwg@yahoo.com
Welcome to the TrainBoard Greenshirt! I knew you would like it here! You may wish to consider making 2x4 foot modules for ease of moving. They take some work to start, and make them able to stack up into a single case for moving. It depends upon how you are able to be moved from place to place. (Wont work on board of course, but landside they can be moved or stored along with furniture). We'll talk about that some if you want to. [ 10. January 2003, 13:08: Message edited by: watash ]
Those are narrow gauge. The 3 stands for 3 foot gauge (3 feet between the rails). People in HO that model narrow gauge use N scale track and folks in N scale will use Z scale track to model narrow gauge. You will see HOn3, HOn2 1/2, and Nn3 to name a few.
First things to ask yourself - How good are your eyes? How steady are your hands? If you're good to go on both, then N is a good choice for the most train world in the smallest space. If not, well then HO is going to be the best for you.
Hi All, Tnx to everyone who's input a lot of great info. Here's what I finally decided to do. It didn't take long for me to figure out that I needed to get some hands on experience with model railroading in order to figure out just what I want to do in the furure. I bought the book "HO Railroad from Set to Scenery" and have started building that layout in HO. It's a 4 x 8. Not exactly a dream layout but offers some great switching and a couple of loops to "WOW" my grandkids (and it has done just that). So far the track is laid and I'm running trains (my 6 year old grandson is getting to be a pretty good engineer). I'm just getting a good start on the scenery. I set it up for DCC and really like all that mode has to offer. I don't know if I will ever finish this particular layout but it is going to be a great learning tool to help me in making good decisions later. So far I like the HO size a lot but will continue to give N Scale a hard look for all it has to offer.
The most important thing you can do is to get a layout up and running. There are many arm chair modeler's in this hobby, one reason because the hobby can be so intimidating. It sounds like you are having fun, especially with your grandson and that time is so precious - I'm sure I don't have to tell you! Hope you get some scenery in and build some structures to further your knowledge in the hobby. I have two friends who for the past 8 years have said they are going to build "their" layout. I have given up on them ever building anything, but I play along and ask them questions about it anyway.
Welcome to Trainboard. Remember, we don't care wHO you are, or HOw skilled you may be- you're at HOme here. We have quite a few topnotch modelers wHO will sHOw you HOw to tackle certain subjects- be it layout planning, tracklaying, or HOw to utilize the space you have. Oh for the record, I'm in HO scale (can't ya tell? ) But seriously, I've also built a decent little N scale layout on a hollow-core door, and that's a pretty decent size to start with (and hollow-core doors are pretty cheap to come by). I'm lucky to have a 38 by 23-foot room with an HO scale layout, but every once in a while I imagine it full on N scale tracks.
