goutal@decvax.UUCP (Kenneth G. "Kenn" Goutal) (02/07/84)
I've recently taken it into my head that I'd like to take up model railroading. I used to do this as a Christmas-season thing; I had S guage while my brother had O guage. Both are gone now. Anyway, though I have a house, I'm rather tight for space. I just happen to have a workbench, unused as such from the day we moved in, that is 2'x8'. All things considered, this looks like my best bet at the moment. However, it doesn't look like I could do much in any guage larger than N. I considered Z, but, well, ... I seem to have settled on N for the moment. However, an aquaintance of mine says I should forget about N, go with HO, and settle for decent-sized switchyard. He gives as reasons that workable N-guage engines cost as much as or more than equivalent HO equipment, and at the same time parts to repair them are [almost] nonexistent. Can anybody verify if this is true? Is it a serious consideration? My acquantance has both HO and N equipment of his own, so I suppose he should know, but I wonder if that might have been more true in the past as less true today. Anyway, in general, will N-scale equip- ment work reliably? Or will I spend most of my time mickey-mousing? Also, what variety of stock is available today? I'm planning on running a modern-day model. Most of the ads I've seen seem to be for steam equipment or early diesel, not so much in the way of current or at least recent stuff. Who makes good engines? Does anybody make so-called "command control" (yukh! what a militaristic phrase!) for N-scale? Any other comments, advice, what have you? -- Kenn (...decvax!goutal)
chaltas@uiuccsb.UUCP (02/16/84)
#R:decvax:-36200:uiuccsb:11100004:000:3306 uiuccsb!chaltas Feb 15 19:35:00 1984 I'm biased, but I think N is dandy. Here's how I see it: k Rolling Stock: the best is made by Kadee. They have a large variety of cars and paint schemes, including modern cars, and their stuff puts most HO (e.g. Athearn et al) to shame. MDC (Roundhouse) has a modest line of modern cars that are quite nice. Atlas has nicely painted cars, but they need a little extra weight, and most are from the 50's in body style Kadee are expensive: 6-10 dollars MDC are $5 Atlas are comparable to HO in price Con-cor makes nice passenger cars, anda fair assortment of rolling stock, although their painting is not so hot, and not for too many usefull roads (lots of private owner stuff). Prices are like HO Bachmann makes an assortment of fair cars. Their painting has recently improved greatly, but few modern cars are available. Model Power has a fair assortment of poorly painted cars. the moldings are good though, if you like to repaint Locos: The Atlas RS3 is superb The Atlas E7 is very good (out of production but available) The Atlas FA-1 is very good if you add the weight kit that comes separately. The Concor PA-1 is superb. The Concor-Rivarossi steam locos are very good, with the possible exceptions of the 0-4-0's. The Concor Dl-109 is superb The Concor c-636 is very good AFTER you do some work on the chassis Rapido locos (hard to find--possibly out of production) run very well, but are not always too accurately scaled (they look ok though, but keep away from the scale ruler) Bachmann locos are fair -- they tend to be a little out of scale, but run pretty well and are cheap Model Power locos are lousy--they don't run well at all (the F40ph is supposed to be better though) but can be had for as little as $10. I convert these to dummy's or repower them. They look good Atlas, Concor, Minitrix, and Rapido all cost more than HO. N-guage brass is cheaper than HO, and some of it runs very well. Concor is supposed to be making an SD40-2, which should be good. Minitrix locos are superb--F7a,F7b,U28,U30cg,PRR K4s Pacific Gloorcraft has some nice kits, including some rolling stock. In summary (I've ommitted products I'm not familiar with), yes, N scale is more expensive than HO. The good stuff runs very well though. If you like to build you own locos (and redetail them) and want a wide variety of detail parts, HO is it. Ditto if you want lots of rolling stock kits, and off-beat models in ready-to-run form, and if you want good stuff for little money (Athearns diesels are a bargain). The advantage in N scale, as I see it, is that you can fit a lot of it in not too much space. If you like modern freights (multiple-unit diesel and enought cars to make the diesels look useful) then N scale is a good bet unless you have a LARGE area for a layout. I've seen 80 car freights on an N-trak club layout with four or five diesels on the point, and it looks great. If want a small switching layout, your better off in HO. N-scale switchers mostly don't run too well (use a roadswitcher like the prototype does sometimes). If you want a small layout that doesn't look too small, try N again. I hope this has been of some help. George Chaltas