HO Gauge or N Gauge? What do you have, and why?

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Mostly good advice here so far. I can't add too much but here goes nothing:

I have modeled both. HO works better for me because of detail work (I like doing it and it can be a bear with N) and steam locomotive availability (very limited and very expensive in N because what I'd want has only been done in brass)

Space is something we all fight with and strangely enough the problem doesn't go away no matter how large the layout gets. I belong to a club with a 4000 square foot layout and we still fight with space, at least for scenes and what buildings will fit where.

You'll need to decide what you want to do. Want to watch them roll? Or do you prefer switching, or maybe a short line with elements of both? If I had it to do over again, I'd make that decision first, then pick a scale. You can put a lot of layout into a dedicated room in either HO or N.

I looked over your profile and there isn't much there yet so I don't know how old you are. if you're a younger guy you'll have good eyesight for a while yet. I know many modelers who have gone over to On30, O, or even garden railroading because of eyesight and eye hand coordination that isn't what it used to be.

HO does have the best variety and availability, and still has the largest share of us. I second Willie's recommendation of hitting a train show and checking out layouts. It all looks pretty in the hobby shop!
 
I went from O-27 to HO as a teen. I guess I wanted better realism. There wasn't much N scale then or at all, TT was your smaller scale. Since I have a broad railroad interest including traction, HO is the best choice anyways. Building my current layout I snatched some N scale and threw something on a 2x4 module gave me some running fun, but its all HO, the N scale is stashed away, but maybe I'll throw together a small N pike.
 


I would go HO mainly because of the vast amount to materials available! It is easy to work on and not too expensive if you find the right dealers!
 
It depends very much on what you want to see. Modern six axle diesel's and anywhere near a realistic length mainline trains nscale has the advantage. I went with HO on my latest layout. I like how easy it is to modeled derelict and light trackage. On the other hand I can only fit 20 or so cars where my former nscale empire fit that had 300 cars on it. I try to leverage the strength of the scale I working in.
 
The main thing I like about HO is the larger size allows much more room for detail and additional functions and features plus a larger speaker for sound.
The gap between N scale in both tech and availability keeps shrinking though.

I actually went with HO recently because I got an Athearn Genesis CNW F7 AB set with DCC for dirt cheap. I am still tempted to switch to N because it supports the way I want to model things better with larger spaces between tracks and industries and much larger radius curves for the longer cars.
In fact I think if I got my money back out of the engines and the 8 cars I have I would just switch now before i really get started on the layout.
 
I went with N just because I can do more with it in a smaller space. I do prefer the size of HO over N and the more selections when it comes to vehicles, structures, and loco's/freight.

I would saying having an HO scale layout as a child and now an N scale layout, you definitely need more patience and a calm hand when dealing with N due to it's size.

Steve
 
The one thing I did notice about HO is many of the cars are $50 apiece. Whereas most nscale cars are $15-20. I would love billboard reefers but can't afford them.
 
RBMNfan said:
The one thing I did notice about HO is many of the cars are $50 apiece. Whereas most nscale cars are $15-20. I would love billboard reefers but can't afford them.
Click to expand...
Where are you looking at cars? I don't believe I have ever paid more than $36 for a new HO freight car. Mostly now I look for the Intermountain type cars for $10-$15 each at swap meets and the used market.
 


Energy , pure energy.

bcp said:
N gauge is the preferred choice in the future. It is often mentioned in Star Trek, but they never show a layout.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jd1Ih8EUmw

:)ö

Bruce
Click to expand...

That's just to funny.

Anyway, I model HO, but have some "N" track for my mine line. So, I guess I do both worlds. I even thought about putting in a short point-to-point HOn30 trolley line from my yet to be built town across the river and back.

I selected HO when I restarted my layout 10 years ago. After taking some time off due to life changes, I wanted to get the best visual appearance with what would fit in a 5x16 space. I bought a On30 and a couple pieces of N with some track off ebay to run along some old HO once my layout frame was completed so I could visualize the scale and what would fit in the space I had.

I loved On30, but the buildings would eat up my layout to fast. The long trains of N with the slack being taken up on start up was just amazing, but my eye sight made N a bit too small for general use. So, I stuck with HO and I'm glad I did. I wish I had the room for G, but that is limited to a circle under the Christmas tree, I could not even make a loop in a 5x16 space with G.

I boils down to what space you have, how much modeling you want to do, and if there are any visual/physical limitations you need to deal with.

Both N and HO have good availability of commercial products with a reasonable price spread. However, the larger scales have the advantage of being able to borrow products from other hobbies with less conversion to make them usable in scale.


My suggestion is to consider where you and your layout will be in 10 plus years and base your decision on where you want to be. I have parts on my layout from layouts I built 25 years ago that have been dismantled due to job change, house moves, and other life events that seem to get in the way.

Above all have fun. Model railroading can be a life long event and the scale you chose can be changed.
 
OK you have me totally second guessing my scale choice yet again so I will answer this thread a second time to more specifically explain why I cant settle and maybe it will help you.
One of the main issues with HO that I mentioned in my previous reply and can't find a solution for without significant compromise is minimum radius.
I tend to agree with the numbers on this site: http://macrodyn.com/ldsig/wiki/index.php?title=Curve_radius_rule-of-thumb
If you accept those numbers it becomes difficult to manage full length passenger cars on a layout that has a 4 foot width because they can only run a loop around the outer edge of the table without kinking around corners and looking silly even if they can pull it off.
I hate switching layouts and I want at least one mainline train I can get rolling and forget about while I am fiddling with industries and yard switching to feed cars to it as it comes around.
Going to a 5 foot width is one solution, but that still doesn't help a ton and you either need to have the layout as a full walk around or you cant get to many things or inspect scenery up close. Many people don't have room for a 5 foot wide layout in the middle of a room.

Basically I look at it this way, HO is better in every way, but the vast majority of people have to make space compromises to make it work the way they want and have to really stuff the layout. With N you basically just doubled the size of your train room plus you can reach across twice the amount of layout.
Imagine how much you could comfortably put into an 8x16 HO layout table that you could easily reach to the middle of. That's what 4x8 in N scale is like.

So the best way to come to your decision would be to decide EXACTLY what you want to model and what general layout you would like, and then figure out if you could make it work with your available space in HO scale or if you will have to go with N.
 
I model HO scale. I tried to do N, but eyesight and finger dexterity just isn't what they used to was!
As far as space goes, you don't have to make your layout on a tabletop, such as 4x8. With the room needed for a 4x8 layout and access all the way around, you could have a very nice shelf layout 2' wide all around the room. That's what I'm doing, except one side will be 13" wide. My train room is about 9-1/2x9-1/2.
Or you could have a couple of 'blobs' 4x4 with a narrow shelf connecting them and access in the middle. Don't picture your room as a spot for a big table, look at it to see the potential for different layout configurations.
And remember: your eyesight isn't likely to improve over the next 15 years!
 
I agree. A lot of my freight cars I have had for a long time, most are old Athearn blue box kits, but recently I have found a few Kadee cars at swap meets and never paid over $25 even for them. I guess you could pay that much at a hobby shop paying full retail for high end cars.
 
The expensive cars I was talking about are the new Rapido rtr cars. Their actually $45 not $50. I am building my fleet slowly from era appropriate Accurail kits when I can find them.
 
I have compromise on running full length passenger cars in HO. So my passenger train is a steam loco (Varney 1950's vintage) excursion pulling old timer 50 footers. I tried to cut down a modern (1960's) 83 foot coach to make it look right on tight radius. But with wide axle passenger trucks under a 50 foot car did not look right either.

In small space HO with careful selection of rolling stock or N with virtually unlimited selection. Both can be impressive layouts.
 
I model in HO because when I started, there was no N scale. When it did come on the market a friend of mine tried it and they ran so poorly compared to HO that he sold all of his equipment and went back to HO.

To convert to N now would be a total waste of time. There are hardly any locos available that fit the era I am modeling.
 
When I was in N scale in the late 70's, Carey echoed my complaints. Poor running locomotives and being that I was interested in the Milwaukee Road and Northern Pacific during the transition era, these was absolutely nothing available for these railroads.
 


As you can see from my Avatar, I model the SOUTHERN, and in steam. For years, until Bachmann brought out their 2-10-2 and 4-4-0, P2K with their 0-8-0, there was nothing available in HO that were SRR prototypes except in brass, or a Bowser kit or two. I have enough of those engines in brass now to do a good job of representing the railroad. IIRC, for N scale there is/was a Kato USRA 2-8-2, and a Model Power USRA 4-6-2, and 2-8-2, plus Model Power is OOB now, and these locos supposedly had a poor reputation for quality as well.
 
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