I'm thinking about switching to N gauge

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M

MercerMike

New Member
Been thinking about this for awhile, I have moved and the house I now live in has no basement. I have a "spare" room available that is 11' x 11.5', I have quite a collection of HO gauge items amassed, however, I just cannot get the right layout going that I want. This is why I was thinking about switching to "N" as I can get more into less space, or so I think! Anyhow, would like some opinions about switching gauges. Basic plan would be to sell HO items on ebay for example and then use the money from these sales to buy N gauge things I want. Also need opinions on who makes good stuff and who I should stay away from, are all manufacturers the same scale size?, is all N gauge compatible? Friends say I am making a mistake as I should be going larger instead of smaller at 53 years old but I say "crap!, I have a good set of bi-focals and I am ready to go!! Any opinions on anything that can help a possible newbie to N gauge will be greatly appreciated and thank you.
 
My philosophy is go as big as you can and still do the things you want to do.....so if you can't build what you want in HO then make the move.....but be sure you can do what you want in N before hand. If neither scale works, then you need to revise your plan.

It has reached a point where there are really no bad manufacturers.....but there are some items to avoid. Your best bet is to ask here before making any buys you aren't sure of. This site http://www.visi.com/~spookshow/locos.html will give you what you need to know on locos. The only real incompatability between n scale equipment is with the old Rapido couplers vs knuckle couplers, but you'll only encounter that if you buy older stuff.......noone uses them any more......and they can be changed out if you do end up with some.
 


Change Over

OK MercerMike. I had the same issue you have, HO or N? I have only 3x6. Boy I wish I could work in a larger area. My opinion, and remember every one of us that respond to you are giving you our opinion, is the same as MRLDave. I have always liked the HO scale. It has the best detail for the size and the product, track, scenery, trains and accessories are very easy to work with. It ends up with, you like HO but can you live with N scale? My layout has most of what I wanted all be it in a smaller amount. I have a passenger depot, freight depot, two full oval main lines (connected with a double crossover). I have some buildings, a lake, a stream and waterfall. I also have a State Park with a baseball diamond and camping areas. I have a freight yard with multiple sidings. I use 9 regular turnouts along with the double crossover. So as you can see I have a lot of "stuff" BUT, is it long enough to satisfy? That is you decision. If I had your situation I would go with HO if I could fit in my desires. One thing I found was that the availability of all items is larger in HO than in N. More accessories, more trains, with better detail, and more structures. I did have to get a lighted magnifying headdress to work on the N scale items. Maybe I would have had to get that anyway (over 70) since I cannot read well. Menus are held across the room. I am having fun and the layout is doing what I want so N does work. One thing I found as to whom to go to for product was my track and turnouts. I wanted to make the turnouts look at least semi-real so turnout activators needed to be under the table or hidden from sight thus, Atlas turnout were out. In some places the turnout motor would be under the layout but the distance to the turnout was 3" to 4". That is very problematic. What I found was that the Kato turnouts have hidden motors under the track. Great design. Oh but, they have already designed track bed with fake ballast. Poor? No. There is an article in this forum that explains how to ballast the Kato turnouts and snap track. It works great and the real thing, it looks great. I could go on and on but I believe that is enough for now. If you have any specific question please feel free to ask. Oh, buy the way, I found some layout design software that works great and it is freeware. It is "anyRailEN4". Use Google to find the downloadable program. It has almost all manufactures track and turnouts and it very versatile. Try it. I like it. As soon as I figure out how to do it I will post some pictures and video of my project. Best to you and good luck..... Harlan
 
Don't worry about your age. My dad is 78 and still models in N scale. I'm 42, and switched to N when I was about 8 or 9 years old. I use Peco track exclusively as it looks good, performs well and the point motors can be hidden below the baseboard easily.

I'm an experienced modeller, building both as a hobby and as a living, and have no trouble adding high levels of detail in N scale. Moving from HO to N will give you four times the area to work on, but you should avoid trying to get four times as much in the layout. The scale gives you the opportunity to create more realistic curves and landscapes, plus run more realistic train lengths winding through the landscape.

Here's a few examples of details from the layout I'm currently working on. First is a general view of a quayside and dry dock, complete with Destroyer ( Kit ) and Liberty Ship ( Scratch Built ).
quay198.jpg


Firemen damping down a burned out building. The water is formed from fine fibre optic cables.
quay_firemen10.jpg


Approach to one of the yards.
quay_yard165.jpg


The Bridge of the Liberty Ship.
quay170.jpg


Another view of the yard.
quay_yard170.jpg
 
Thank you for your reply, yes opinions will vary and I am open to them all, input can be a good thing. Going to go to the track plan site and try some things out..I'd like to see pictures! We have some 4' 9" x 8' 6" medium grade brown paper at work and I brought home 2 pieces and am going to do some figuring in both scale, will follow your advice and do lots of research before deciding on what to do..thanks again.
 
Using N scale

Here might be some hellp for the layout. I found a freeware (no cost) software that is a design software for model trains. It has everything you need to design a layout in any scale. I used the n scale part and it had a section with multiple vendors (Peco, Kato) track that can be put onto your layout and it gives you the correct allignment. It is fantastic. It is AnyRail4EN.exe. Use google search to find the software and then download it onto your computer. You will find that the design of the layout will be done fast and accurately. Try it. Good luck, Harlan....:)
 
Here is the web site for AnyRail:
http://www.anyrail.com/index_en.html

The free version of the software allows up to 50 sections of track to be used. For larger layouts, you would need to purchase a license key.

An alternative is XTrackCAD, which is also free but has no limitations on the size of the layout you can design.

- Jeff
 
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