Why N Scale?

Only 43'...but because its N and NOT HO...it feels like 100' ...LOL

 

When I started in model RRing, there was no N scale, I saw a Kadee N box car, GTW, in the LHS in 1972 and have been in and out of N ever since. Law School, marriage, kids, job travel all have a way of stopping model rring. Been back full time since about 1989, N only and have had n-trak modules, large home layout and now 61 t-trak modules with a large home t-trak layout. Yes, there is some frustration in N as to new products, but, just make do with what is available. In my retirement, I just enjoy watching the trains run and seeing how many 40' MTL box cars I can add to my stuff. Enjoy and relax with this hobby, have fun and enjoy the ride. later, Craig

 

You and me both.

 

I started with HO. When I was stationed in Germany with the Air Force, a local hobby shop had a pretty good selection of N Scale and it just looked so much easier to deal with considering our frequent moves. By luck I found another military guy with a bunch of N scale stuff and he wanted to switch to HO scale when he got out. We traded equipment and I've never looked back.

 

I think I started like all Europeans with a Marklin-set.
After one year in Canada I like to model US – Prototype.
For long Trains I was short on space, so I started to switch over to N-Scale in 1976.
I am real happy with this Normal gauge.
It’s a lot better than the Horrible Oversized!

 

I switched from HO to N scale in 1983. My son wanted a train but he wanted a little one not the big one (HO) like his dad. So I got him a Bachmann trainset with the infamous F7 complete with the white gears that cracked. That was followed by a B'mann GP20 which also succumbed to a malady. Finally I stopped in a hobby store and saw an Atlas RS11. I bought and took it home. It was a hit. I went back to that hobby store and bought another RS 11. They were then followed by RS 1's. My son soon lost interest in trains when he discovered sports. Little league, soccer, youth football, swimming, basketball etc. now occupied his time. But the N scale bug bit me hard when all I could set up was a 4x8 sheet of plywood and watch the locomotives chase the caboose. About this time I went to a train show and saw my first Ntrak layout. I have been an avid Ntrakker ever since. I still have those RS11's and RS1's and I still run them. My son, who is now approaching 40, calls me every Thanksgiving to tell me to get out his RS11's and the cars he bought thirty-two years ago so he can have a train around his Christmas tree. I have hope for the boy yet.

 

Why N? Sure there are some failings, like too tall track and almost no body mounts out of the box, but the reason for being since at least 20 years ago is simple: Track to scenery ratio. A decent looking freight train can actually be out of one station before it goes into another.

 

There's always hope for them, once the hook is set.....

My 25 yr old just relocated back here. Have put him to work full time in my business, which is working great. But, he is camped out in the trainshed! And it has brought back all the memories of running trains at the Helena Railfair on the old layout I use to take there when he was 5 and 6. Good memories, sooooooo, I caught him drooling a little on the new layout! And all in N-SCALE!

 

Up to the time I went into the military it had been early 3 rail stuff and then HO. Early in in the 1970s I switched to N scale and primarily steam power. Was a large variety of track manufactures back then with a lot of European designed and made track and turnouts, some which weren't the best of quality and are not around today. A lot of the Bmann stuff ran fairly well and it wasn't until much later with age that the split gear problems started developing. Besides the ability to have a lot more railroad in a smaller space that sold me on N scale, but also there used to be a lot more available parts and materials to scratch build almost anything. And a huge selection of detail parts and I was primarily a scratch builder anyway. Still have detail parts in my boxes from back around 20 years ago. So I will stay in N scale for the foreseeable future until these old eyes and hands can't cope with it anymore because it will allow me to have the small scale empire I want until that time comes.

 

It's just small enough that I have space for a layout with a continuous loop, and just big enough that most of the equipment I want to run is actually available. I'm not about to sell off my HO and Z, but right now N offers a way forward in the direction I want to take.

 

You guys just have to go back further with Bachmanns when N scale was N gauge and Bachmanns had metal gears that didn't/don't crack!

My circa 1970 F7/9s still run as well as they ever did which I realize isn't saying that much and they sound kind of like the perverbial coffee grinders but there you have it.



Doug

 

Even if I had a 100x100 foot space I would still use N. There is just so much that can be done, and the quality of the offerings is excellent. Maybe Z will eventually rival or overtake N in quality and Z will be the next big scale because it takes advantage of the space even better than N, but that won't be for a long time. American Z Line is doing good work, but the prices and selection still leave something to be desired. N is currently the proverbial "sweet spot" of model railroading. Good quality, visible to most, and gives you the most bang for your square foot.

 

Those are some great photos, hard to believe that some are of N scale.

I started in HO scale when I was a kid but went dormant in the hobby during a 6 year stint in the Navy. When I got out, I was in train withdrawal and being stuck in an apartment in Florida, built a small N scale layout which could be slid under a bed. A few years later I finally managed to move home to Montana and built a house with plenty of room in the basement for a train layout. The little layout was used and incorporated into a layout with over 11 scale miles of main line track.

One problem, this was in the late 70's and the locomotives at the time were basically garbage as far as I was concerned. I had over 20 locomotives and only 2 of them would run half way decently. Also I couldn't find any locomotives with the road names I was interested in. I fianlly just tore out the entire layout and moves on to HO scale. This change was done in the early 80's. I had the room available and enjoyed the better running locomotives and with the larger size of HO started custom painting locomotives for any railroad I wanted.

Today, N scale locomotives are outstanding compared to what I had back then, but I am glad that I did make the change to HO scale because as I am getting older, the old eyeballs aren't as good as they used to be.

 

I started with Lionel, but my parents gave me a Postage Stamp train set one year for Christmas and I was hooked. I've modeled in and/or collected about every scale over the last 50 years, but N scale still has a hold on me. I like all of my trains, but I LOVE my N scale trains.

That being said, my future plans in N scale are to have a layout, but to keep it very simple and fairly small. My main layout will either be large scale or O scale, as I am getting older, and it just makes sense to do whatever modeling I can continue to do in a larger scale. Also, the kind of buildings I like, typical small town Americana type structures, don't have a lot of impact in N scale.

I must admit that if American prototype TT scale ever took off I would be in that scale in an instant.

Jeff C

 

From 1979 until last year I was in G Scale. At 73 I found it easy to get down to work on G Scale but getting up off the ground became quite a task. I thought about having an indoor G Scale Layout but with 1,100 feet of track to use I couldn't convince my wife to give up the first floor of the house for trains. I selected N Scale because it afforded me the opportunity to have a sizable layout without the size. As for the smallness, at my age I was using a magnifier with G Scale so it's not a problem to be using one with N Scale.

 

I think if I was a transition modeler - or a shortline/branch, where a single locomotive and six cars would keep me happy, I'd have stayed in HO.

But I have the problems of a) limited space b) a true love of Santa Fe - and the only way you're going to do justice to a four-unit lashup with either a passenger train or autoracks/long trains is to go N. I'm very happy in N.

Bluntly, I also enjoyed the challenge. It's always been great fun for me to be the 'first one' to try some stupid new thing in this scale, like an operating 25-tonner, a working Heisler, a Santa Fe rotary snowplow, or scratchbuilding the entire town of Flagstaff as it was in 1972. I'm a modeler, and with a smaller layout (my big one is 5'6" x 8', it's entirely possible to push the envelope on getting it right - from equipment to buildings - via scratchbuilding and modification.

If I could simply order everything out of a catalog I'd be bored senseless. There's still a lot of untapped frontiers in this scale.

I do think that if you don't want to paint, decal, or do any heavy modifications - that you want to primarily buy and assemble - that you'll be frustrated with N. Whole lot of things you either can't find or aren't made. I've made a second job of filling some of those holes, it's worked for me as a cottage business, but I fully recognize that's not the norm.

I try not to get hung up on some of the minutia. I've had no problems with truck mounts. I still have a lot of Code 80 rail, and on my prototype with dark rail and dark ballast, I've come to the conclusion I'm not tearing it all up and redoing it - not worth it, just doing all new work in C55. I'm still very happy with DC, only got frustrated with DCC and somewhat irritated over the loss of tractive effort putting boards in locomotives creates. While I don't count rivets, engine room doors, or ribs, I do think that color, weathering and texture drive realism more and admit a full obsession in things like getting colors right.

The ability to do 'normal' railroad design in less caricature, wider curves, sometimes no compression at all, that's something rather unique to N. And if you cross over and really do try modeling, rather than complaining/waiting/unboxing as a strategy, it's very, very rewarding. Lots of new things to try.

 

"Unboxing." I'm going to steal (crossout) borrow (crossout) honorably adopt that...