Well, Kids... Not long after I celebrated my 25th anniversary in the model railroading hobby (Dec. 14, 2011), I finally started divesting myself of my HO scale stuff. I had made the decision a while back that I was going to upscale to O gauge, due to the fact that it was just getting to be too much for my eyes. I'm 36, by the way. I've had "low vision" all my life (I'm an albino) and working on HO for a half-hour here and there when I was in high school and college wasn't too taxing on my eyes. But, now that I've been in "the real world" and actually have time to spend "tinkering" with my various hobbies, 4-5 hours working on projects gets to be a bit much (even with frequent breaks to rest my eyes!). So, the only way for me to stay in the hobby is to upscale. I'm a little sad to leave HO, as it's been my scale of choice for over a quarter-century, but, I also look forward to my new projects in O. And, it's not just the new scale that excites me... I'm drastically changing my modeling theme as well, as I am leaving the North American modeling scene and lookiing "across the pond" to the British Isles and modeling some of their wonderful steam equipment. Right now, I'm particularly enthralled with one of Sir Nigel Gresly's A1 (later modified to an A3) express passenger locomotive and British railway icon, the #4472, "Flying Scotsman." To say it's a beautiful piece of equipment would be doing it a diservice. I plan to scratchbuild the equipment on my O layout, and one of the locomotives will be based on the 4472. And, speaking of the Flying Scotsman, I belong to a model railroad club here in Minnesota, and want to build a model of the Flying Scotsman in OO scale to run on the Club's HO lahyout (as HO and OO run on the same gauge track). It will be built to appear the way she did in 1969 during her goodwill tour of the United States with the locomotive fitted with a cowcatcher, bell, chime whistle and headlamp hauling the nine car passenger train decked out in chocolate and cream livery. I think this project will be a wonderful "retirement" project and a dignified end to my HO modeling career. (Dare I use the term, "swan song?") Anyway, I'll start a thread on the project once I get things rolling on that. Right now, I'm looking at equipment (Hornby products) and reseraching more about the train on its tour of the US. But, I will keep you guys updated on that. So, this is my official announcement of my leaving HO scale. It's been a wonderful 25+ years and I enjoyed every minute of it. And, God help the O scalers... there's about to be a lot more LNER (London and North East Railway) "Apple Green" 1:43 scale (British O scale) steamers plying the rails of southeastern Minnesota (and possibly the tri-state area)!!! RULE BRITANNIA!!!
O scale is really an interesting scale to work with, seen many cool things done with it! I knew a guy who went from HO to N, back to HO, and finally decided on O because it fit his ideas well. The mass of O scale is impressive.
If not for the relative cost difference (and space requirements), O scale would have been my first choice. All the best with it!
I have a friend who built a beautiful HO layout on his own freelanced road and was featured in several magazines with that layout. Shortly before I met him, he tore down the entire layout and was building a new layout. I helped his with bench work and wiring before he decided to go to O scale. About a year later he switched scales again to narrow gauge and redesigned the layout once again. Then he went back to HO and a big redesign once again. I ended up moving away from Pittsburgh/Weirton area, but the last I herd he went back to O scale and stayed there. I was very impressed with the O scale rolling stock that he had in his collection. The details were so nice and the ALCO S2 he had (with sound) was an absolute beast. I was hooked! So I'm sure at some point in my future, perhaps 20+ years down the road I'll be an O-scale 2 rail guy. Ooooh, the switching and detail possibilities in a basement layout in O-scale!
Boxcab, No worries. You'll get pics of both the OO Flying Scotsman build and my future model railway layout(s)!
I guess you'll be hanging out here now: http://www.modelrailforum.com/forums/index.php?showforum=83 Keep us posted on this new layout build.
I've been on there for quite some time now. Basically since I started getting into all european trains. If you're gonna do O scale you're gonna need space. http://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/displayForumTopic/content/5512461211870139/page/1
I remember when I was a young I had a neighbor who had a small O scale setup in the basement. Just an oval of track, but it covered a large area. Having grown up in Winterpeg, I absolutely never thought of an outdoor train setup. That is an informative forum thread......even for an HO scaler. I had to force myself to stop reading after the first page and bookmark the site. Thanks traingeekboy! Jim
Enjoy the switch, i'd be curious to see what you dig up on the Scotsman's tour as much as the train, feel free to post that at as a prelude... I've toyed in the pastwith getting the Hornby Live Steam OO (yep, you read that right) model and reconfiguring parts to run on the DCC voltage (water heater etc.) and put aDCC controller onto the micromotors used to direct the steam for her American tour... But seeing as that'd take the skills of an electrician and a plumber, and I'm neither, that's a long down the road project, and I may end up just scratching it under an American steamer, since we have so few of those anyway...
