What got you started in "N" scale?

[sixpakpop]

Growing up near NY City I spent an awful lot of time railfanning the subways and Penn Station. I would sneak down to the platforms and admire those HUGE GG-1s. Once, I even laid my hand on the side of one!! I could feel the muted humming of the electrics....
Pop bought some N stuff and set up a small layout. Then I saw the model of the GG-1 put out by Rapido. Done, hooked and fried... Got ALL the 'G's they put out and now the *new* and vastly improved Kato's. Still have no catenary <sigh>

[R.Groff]

Tried to do an n scale mid 70's growing sons and hockey took over.Packed the litle I had in a box and put it on a shelf.2007 I retired wanted to try my hand at n-scale again.Jeff akstorm was willing and able to help in any way he could.Started small at first .Built a 3x4 it turned into a 3x5 that turned into a 4x6. I was hooked, join a model train club.Run trains at home and at the club.
Rick Groff

[primavw]

My grandfather and dad gave me some n scale atlas stuff when I was about 10 one fine Christmas. My dad and I built a small layout, which was packed up after we moved. I went through my teens and early 20's building cars and chasing girls, but  when my wife and I had our first baby I re-kindled the hobby after stumbling upon Spookshow's website. 6 years and counting....

Why I stayed with N? I enjoy the "big layout in a small space" concept. I enjoy large-spanning scenic areas for the trains to rumble through, and N scale seems to be slightly cheaper thank HO. I think N scale is getting closer to catching up with HO in terms of availability, especially after 3D printing has gained some traction.

[ristooch]

I used to have a picture of me, on Christmas morning 1965, crouched over my Lionel 9or maybe it was Marx) 3-rail layout, putting the track together. Since we lived in an apartment in Woodhaven, NY, there was never going to be much room for any kind of layout. So eventually the 3-rail stuff disappears or was given away. But I guess the hook was set!

Along about 1970-1971, Mom and Dad gave me an Atlas train set consisting of the ubiquitous 0-6-0 tank loco (had to be a European prototype on which Atlas slapped ATSF), a Monon gondola, Texaco 3-dome tank car, and a yellow caboose. Lacking any power tools, my dear father hauled a 4'x8' sheet of particle board home and built me a loop of track nailed to the 4x8. He installed some metal tube folding legs, so we could put the layout away behind the sofa in the living room when I tired of running it. Dad bought the classic Atlas layout book "Nine N-Scale Layouts" edited by Thad Stepek and John Armstrong, and the photos and text fueled my imagination for the future, even though at the time I doubted I'd ever accomplish what I saw in those photos.

I still have the Atlas transformer and the cars, and "Nine N Scale Layouts," that I mentioned, 40+ years later. I was rummaging through some train related paperwork and found the original instruction sheet, with Dad's handwritten notes on it.

Mom and Dad, the 0-6-0 (and some of my subsequent locomotives like the Atlas GP-40 Santa Fe 1347) are gone. But here I am, 40 years later, still playing with trains in the basement. I consider myself very fortunate that my parents started me in this hobby.

[strummer]

Great story...

Mark in Oregon

[Kentuckian]

The model train show on Thanksgiving weekend in Huntington, WV in the late '70's.  Seeing the long trains and high trestles hooked me.  I already had the HO 4'x8' but N scale just looked more real.  A model railroad, instead of railroad models.

[Rich_S]

Great stories everyone. Yes it seems like the majority of us got our start in another scale, then ended up in N scale because of either space constrains or being able to have a greater scenery to trains ratio than whats possible with the larger scales.

@Puddington Yes I remember my father telling my sister and I that we need to watch this, as we are watching history in the making. First Apollo 8, then Apollo 11 "One small step for man, One giant Leap for mankind" Then everyone holding their breath with Apollo 13.

[Wardie]

I wasn't even a year old and my grandfather was running an HO 0-6-0 on the dining room table at his house while I sat in a high chair. When I was 4 my dad set up an HO 4x8 for me which was up and down for various periods through high school. Then in November of 1996 a new Barnes and Noble opened up in town and I discovered Model Railroader. I spent the next 7 months checking out the various Hobby shops in Maine that stocked multiple scales(all gone now). Then bought an Atlas/Kato Maine Central RS-11, Model Power Bangor and Aroostook State of Maine boxcar, undecorated Con-Cor wood caboose, Polly scale MEC gold and green, and a set of MicroScale MEC caboose decals. A month later at my first train show I got the second number RS-11 and a half dozen Atlas and MicroTrains freight cars.

It was never about how much less room N takes up, but about how much more of the scene the train is in can be modeled. I have built a couple 2x4 and 3x5 layouts since the beginning, but The overall appearance of N has always been the most appealing.

[djconway]

In the fall of 1973 I went off to college.  Having been in HO since 1965 I figured I would build a small (1'x5') book shelf RR.  Well you can't do very much in such a a small  space basically John Allen's time saver just didn't cut it after a while.  So I figured I'd conduct an experiment and pick up a N scale train set and see what it could do.
I wasn't too happy with the AHM and Model Power, power that I had picked up and was about to junk it all and go back to HO when I picked up a Con-Cor SW-1500.  It at least stayed on the track and could pull more than its shadow.  One more Con-Cor SW and a 1'x5' switching layout (code 40 hand spiked on 1/16x1/16 basswood ties) and I was in N scale.  I knew enough from my HO days that I wasn't going to put up with the Rapido couplers so KayDee trucks and couplers were a must, all rolling stock was converted on purchase.  Buy a box car - buy a pair of trucks - kind of spread the expense over a longer time.  In 1975 I discovered KayDee rolling stock -- WAY Better than what was available from AHM-Atlas-Minitrix-Model Power-Bachmann.  So a small fleet of 2 locos and 15 or so cars got me through the college years. I was still thinking of going back to HO but a real job and a SMALL apartment kept me in N scale. 

41 years later the N scale experiment is still going, I do miss not having PRR steam available in N scale but I think I'll get over it.
 

[up1950s]

After being in HO for decades I decided I would settle for the less detailed , but improving looks in 1997 . Just too many after-market details in HO , too much cost , too much time to add all I wanted . Figured by going to N I couldn't get the details I wanted so I would have to settle for less , but have more money and time . The plan failed miserably , I have much more trains , spending has climbed like Spiderman , and I have enough projects to keep me busy for second , third , and fourth resurrection should someone have a sense of humor .

[dualgauge]

I was going to get HO but only had the money for an N scale Bachmann set with GP40 with 3 freight cars and caboose. Have stayed with N scale. Did buy some HO when belonged to an HO club. Then Nscale club started and HO been in boxes.

[Bob Bufkin]

Has American Flying stuff before I went into the navy.  I look at N when it first came out and decided that just a little equipment would be fine to more around my duty stations.  Took enough track, a couple locos and some cars and it went with me on shore duty and on ship.  I actually ran into a couple other N scalers on one ship and we would pool our equipment and find a place to run it.  I think we might have actually got a few others interested in model railroading.

[Dave Schneider]

Here is my list:

1) No basement, and no prospects of a basement in the near future made N scale an attractive option.
2) Lack of ability to work within the constraints of "selective compression".
3) The Kingsbury Branch and Mini Modutrak work that showed what could be done in N scale.
4) Huge influx of N scale products, first by Atlas and then by other manufacturers in the late 1990s and early 2000s that really raised the bar on scale fidelity, reliability, and variety. 
5) eBay and internet retailers, which allowed me to find and purchase the things I need (and didn't need) while living thousands of miles away from a dedicated railroad hobby shop.
6) Forums like Atlas (at first) and The Railwire (later on), which gave me access to the inspiration and advice of the bigger community.

Best wishes, Dave

[GimpLizard]

I recall my older brothers getting a pre-fab layout (twice around, up & over) for Christmas in the early 60's. I think it was Tyco. Anybody remember those?

In the early 70's I got an Athern HO MDT switcher, a couple of fright cars, an oval of track w/one turnout, and an MRC power pack for Christmas. Built a 4x4ft layout that lasted me through high school. Sold it a few years later, after I had moved out on my own.

Then my sister bought me an Aurora Red Ball Express (more as a joke than anything else) for Christmas around 1979 or '80. It was such a POC, I wound up replacing all of it, piece-by-piece. That dang thing was my "entry drug" into N-Scale. It was a slow process, but now I'm addicted. At least when it comes to aquiring power & rolling stock. I've yet to find a successful 12 step program. (Not that I've looked very hard.)

[Jamesn320]

It's my Dads fault! 

He has always been a US N Scale modeler.  I started with British 00 but when I go married and moved into a shoe box it just wouldn't fit so US N scale it was for and I haven't looked back!

-James