What I love about N Scale

[thomasjmdavis]

All this talk about boxcars.... The reason I am in N scale is that the N scale distance from Polk street (at Dearborn St) to Roosevelt road is 11 feet. No 'selective compression'- a 500' freighthouse can be 500 scale feet long, no need for a 6 car Super Chief pulled by an AB because you need to save space.  Now, all I have to do is actually build the damn thing.

[ednadolski]

You can have those in Horribly Oversized scale too....just need twice the space to pull it off....

... or 72% of the space for Z scale ....  

Ed

[learmoia]

Agree 100%!

With an assembly plant on the layout as the focal point of operations, I have more than a few of the 86' boxes and 89' racks. Fortunately the yards and plant trackage are spread out along a 33' wall, which in N scale can is more than enough to represent this type of operation, and the long cars that serve them, justice.

A 33' wall would be a 1 mile wall in N scale..

[basementcalling]

You can actually have and use a fleet of 86' boxcars.

(Attachment Link)

Thank you @Bluford Craig

Wait, 1 and 1/2 cars is a fleet, Champ?

[lock4244]

A 33' wall would be a 1 mile wall in N scale..

Yup... the space I have isn't optimum in some respects, but that wall makes up for the shortcomings. All this rain has revealed a leak in the foundation, so for a while that wall shall only have about half of the necessary benchwork along it until repairs are made

[brokemoto]

And here, all this time, I thought N scale was so I could have a fleet of 85' passenger cars. 

This is what I had thought, as well.  Almost any  freight car over fity feet is out of my era.  As for locomotives, I do not run anything larger than a Pacific or mikado or E-unit/PA.

[Jesse6669]

... or 72% of the space for Z scale ....

Ed

... or 35% of the space for T scale 

[garethashenden]

Is anyone doing small steam in T though? I'd think the valve gear would be difficult.

[MetroRedLine]

As a convert from HO, I've always had a stray eye to N whenever I'd visit a hobby shop. I'd briefly imagine a much bigger layout in the same space, running longer trains and with more scenery...but the toy-like quality of N scale back then (early-1980s-mid 1990s) was a massive turn-off.

When I made the switch in 2006 I noticed the quality was catching up and the things I disliked about N - the unrealistically tall ride height, rapido couplers, pizza-cutter wheels and skimpy or too-thick details - were being phased out and newer design/manufacturing technology was making better N scale possible. These days, N is basically a smaller version of HO scale, and that's what I've always wanted.

Now, HO scale looks and feels like O scale to my eyes.

[learmoia]

Is anyone doing small steam in T though? I'd think the valve gear would be difficult.

Funny you mention that..

Lets not forget small switchers..

[eric220]

A 33' wall would be a 1 mile wall in N scale..

The run on my last layout was almost exactly 100 feet. I always found it gratifying to run a prototype Broadway Limited around the layout at prototypical speed and have it take six minutes to make a full lap.

[PiperguyUMD]

I’m really starting to agree with Grant Emerson of Southern Alberta Rail fame. The more space you have, the smaller the scale you should use.

[dem34]

I’m really starting to agree with Grant Emerson of Southern Alberta Rail fame. The more space you have, the smaller the scale you should use.

My nuance is that it depends. I love giant N scale layouts. But my own maintenance woes on occasion. (Partially faulted by the fact that my layout can go a month or two with no use as I want to do other things but) Combined with experience with larger scales through my job. It can be a weird balance sometimes. Think a lot of people shoot themselves in the foot going way too big without much of a plan for how they intend to keep it running and I think N scale sort of exacerbates those sorts of issues.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

My nuance is that it depends. I love giant N scale layouts. But my own maintenance woes on occasion. (Partially faulted by the fact that my layout can go a month or two with no use as I want to do other things but) Combined with experience with larger scales through my job. It can be a weird balance sometimes. Think a lot of people shoot themselves in the foot going way too big without much of a plan for how they intend to keep it running and I think N scale sort of exacerbates those sorts of issues.

Amen to this!

It's one of the things that many people don't think about, and the reason why I'm almost glad that I'm space constrained. I know I'd fall into the trap myself.

[C855B]

My nuance is that it depends. I love giant N scale layouts. But my own maintenance woes on occasion. ...

My only maintenance concern in the 5? years I've had the layout running has been track cleaning. To that end I've been building a cleaner train in bits and pieces. It's comprised of two motorized German track grinders - one with polisher wheels, the other with felt buffer wheels - and a Roco/Atlas cleaner configured for vacuuming. I went "automated" early because I was snapping off arms on the one telephone pole I located for test purpose - some test! - and was cringing at what was destined to happen once I populated with things like signals.

It has been mostly effective, but like you I haven't been operating enough to not have to run the cleaner train for several laps prior to anything else, and even then some sections require hand touch-up. Considering a single lap with the cleaner takes about 20 minutes, my available JFRTM time is mostly eaten by cleaning.

One of these days I'll be far enough along on the cleaner train to document it. Currently it's in a usable-but-not-pretty state of "temporary" wiring.