HO vs N gauge. need advice

[StrasburgNut]

N scale is good if you have nimble fingers and good sight and a lot of patience. Not to mention the budget for scenery and what not. A lot more of the points I was going to say have already be brought up, so no point in to saying them again.

I want to to a nice coal mining operation and enjoy it in the nice size space I have. But, If I do an HO scale shelf layout a bit higher that then main layout, I can put in a nice size N scale shelf layout with larger sweeping curves. There is a drawback to that. It will cost most in the long run. And yes, availabilty is another big issue. A lot more in available in HO than N.

I am still up in the air as to what I am going to do. Honestly, I am still a while off until the "first rail is spiked to the tie" so to say, but it is nice to plan and think about what you want to do. That is the fun of it.

Just enojy it.

 

[nof]

I'm living in Sweden and have seen the Swedish prototypes since I was a little kid. The difference in prototypes between Swedish and American prototypes is that in Sweden the trains are lower, no double stack cars. They are also shorter, never seen a train with 100 cars. In Sweden almost all lines are electrified and the locos are very short but powerful, 10000hp. I can't speak for the rest of Europe but it's similar ro Sweden in many aspects.

I have just started with model railroad myself and did choose N-scale and American style trains. The reason is that I want to have a lot of tracks and trains on the space I have. And there is a lot of equipment to choose from to a lower price. The difference in HO and N in availability is there but as a N-scaler I have more to choose from then I can afford to buy anyway.

Models of Swedish locomotive are ~3 - 4 times the price of an American diesel probably due the limited production volume, Models of German locos might be a little less costly.

DCC is in European models are now now made to NMRA standards. There have been some old DCC version that is not compatible with NMRA. And of course the Märklin three rail system is one of it's kind. Lenz is a German brand of DCC equipment sold in US as Atlas. Lenz was the inventor of the DCC standard that is NMRA now because they gave it to NMRA.