What I love about N Scale

[PiperguyUMD]

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.

I understand where you’re coming from and that feeling is why I really enjoy modular railroading. I don’t feel the pressure to finish the big one. But if I wanted to, I only have to worry about it a few feet at a time.

I think Grant’s point is that it’s easier to create the illusion of being immersed in railroading with small scales in large spaces. Keep in mind his railroad is quite simple. He’s more interested in over-the-road operations as opposed to local or heavy industrial switching. If your goal is heavy duty operations, it might not be the best approach. If you want to create that sensation of being engulfed by the railroad in a small space, try a simple switching layout in a large scale. It’s about illusion and perception. It’s an interesting line of thinking for sure.

[btrain]

I’ve got a few of those cars from an earlier run circling around my doughnut (Hiles Tower) layout. The center of the car only shows the railhead when navigating the Atlas curved turnouts. The layout was created without these cars in mind, but they do look at home sweeping along the 28” radius around the perimeter.

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[Dave V]

I do sometimes look at the 12 x 14 foot space the HOn3 Rio Grande Southern First District occupies and imagine the PRR Middle Division in N scale with all 4 tracks occupying that same space.

I could also have done one hell of a Colorado Midland in N scale in that space too.

[JoeD]

You didn't mention me   

[Dave V]

FWIW, I actually did get a lot of railroad into a roughly 3 x 6 foot space:

[lock4244]

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.

I have a lot of space, and I did briefly consider switching to HO. Not so much account the space, more the fact that I can get pretty much everything I want equipment-wise in HO (C630M, M630, M636, M420, RS-18, GP9RM (and Slugs), GP40-2L, GP40-2W, GP38-2W, GMD SD40's, SW1200RS, tank hoppers aka cement tubes, slab sides, Canadian pig flats... basically everything that Rapido offers that was around in and in Ontario circa 1987-89). What stopped me? We'll, I wasn't overly serious about switching, and the thought of selling all that N scale equipment at a loss and having spend more $$$ and time to rebuild my fleet in HO was enough.

In mocking up some track to display my newly acquired NSC barrel ore car train, it was kind of difficult to imagine being anywhere as impressed with it in HO. Even though these are short cars, five N scale GP40-2W's and 50 or so ore hoppers and a van looked pretty impressive on the S curve... a train length approximating what was actually ran. And this fit in a space less that 12' in depth, although linearly it was closer to 14-15'. My peninsula is 6' wide at the loop end, so there's a lot of space to have broad curse on both the CN a nd CP mains, a real bonus considering the number of 86' and 89' cars that will be passing over them. The ability to have long cars not look silly on mainline curves is a big draw, and the bigger the space, the broader the curves get.

The ability to fit the following along a 33' long wall in N scale:
CN main yard consisting of four arrival / departure / setout/lift tracks (17' long), 10 classification tracks (10-12' long)
CN secondary yard for local traffic non-automotive consisting of four tracks (~4' long)
CP yard consisting of seven tracks (7-8' long - CP was always able to do more with much less.
The Assembly plant including plant trackage for parts and the five track rack loading terminal.
An industrial area with an electric arc steel mill, plastic pellet distribution facility, carton manufacturer, furniture plant, tire manufacturer, distribution warehouse. Probably something else I've forgotten.

Maybe I've been in N scale so long that nothing else seems normal, but while visiting Caboose Stop in Cedar Falls last Friday, I spent a little time checking out the HO models, and they sure look comically big to me.

[ednadolski]

Maybe I've been in N scale so long that nothing else seems normal, but while visiting Caboose Stop in Cedar Falls last Friday, I spent a little time checking out the HO models, and they sure look comically big to me.

It's a matter of what you get used to looking at.  I've been dabbling in Z for a little while now, and when I look back at my N scale stuff, it seems quite large.

I guess if Z ever starts to look small to me, I'll have to try out some T gauge

Ed

[Ed Kapuscinski]

In case anyone is wondering if these cars can run on a door layout. This is, essentially, half one.



It ain't pretty, but it works.

[lock4244]

In case anyone is wondering if these cars can run on a door layout. This is, essentially, half one.



It ain't pretty, but it works.

Do you notice an excessive amount of drag on the 86'ers w/metal wheels through those curves? I'm using a similarly tight curve on my 6'x3' setup, and find the drag very noticeably affecting the speed, not to mention with the 0-5-0 switcher. Metal wheels seem worse in this regard than the plastic wheels these used to come with. I swapped out most of my plastic wheel equipped cars long ago with FVM wheels, but they're affected every bit as much as the Bluford equipped metal wheels.

I get it, not designed for those types of curves and drag should be expected, but I'd have guessed the metal wheels would've been lower friction than the plastic.

[lock4244]

It's a matter of what you get used to looking at.  I've been dabbling in Z for a little while now, and when I look back at my N scale stuff, it seems quite large.

I guess if Z ever starts to look small to me, I'll have to try out some T gauge

Ed

Getting to be I can't seen the N scale stuff too well anymore

[learmoia]

In case anyone is wondering if these cars can run on a door layout. This is, essentially, half one.



It ain't pretty, but it works.

Long Car - Short Car.. thats a big no no..

[mu26aeh]

Long Car - Short Car.. thats a big no no..

Conrail is an NS predecessor.  Just foretelling of things to come.... 

[robert3985]

I love a lot about N-scale.  I love the reality of having to either kitbash or scratchbuild structures, equipment and hand-laid turnouts and some track. 

I love the way a 24" minimum mainline radius makes my UP and SP trains look, as opposed to the same radius in HO scale...with even larger spiral-eased, superelevated curves looking even better.

I never intended to build small layouts since I got started in the late 1970's, so I can't comment on how much trackage I can stuff into a tiny layout since it's something I doubt I'll ever do.

The scale is small enough to run semi-prototypical length trains if operating, or full length trains for the cosmetic effect, but, it's large enough to see the details with Optivisors or a decent camera.  Not too big, and not too small...almost perfect.

Most of all, I love the scenery-to-track-ratio of 1:160th scale...HO being much too large, and Z being too small.  N-scale just "fits" my eyes' perception of a model railroad that looks more "real" than any other scale in my experience...and my cameras agree with me. I'm a firm believer in running little trains in large spaces.

With the advancement and increased affordability of LASER cutting tools, high resolution 3D printers and etched products, most of the detriments that N-scale had 30 years ago don't exist today for an ambitious modeler...and I love it.

Of course, there's always room for improvement, but, it IS the "Golden Age" of N-scale nowadays, and for my chosen era, road and location, it just keeps getting more golden.

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[CRL]

I love the way you can allow the scenery to dominate the train models. If you wanted, you could actually model this scene. [ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Long Car - Short Car.. thats a big no no..

Lol. Believe it or not, I had more trouble with the 60'er behind them than the shorty in front. It was because the truck mounted coupler on the boxcar is a long one, so there was a long lever pulling it off. It was ok, but dicey.