To be short, I have found out, that in Central/Eastern Europe there is no such thing as N-gauge.

Or barely, at most. I've been traveling a bit here and decided to visit as many as possible model railroad stores in Hungary. Been to one non-model railroad modeling shop to get some information, but I already know that the store in Bratislava (that'd be the capital of Slovakia) has about three freightcars and one building available (ok, maybe ten cars and three buildings) in N-gauge while there is a pretty good selection of H0 and TT (TT is hugely popular around here). Having looked through websites of shops here there is only H0 and TT available (which almost is bringing me to the point of picking up some models in scales that I don't model...yet..as the models, that is, Hungarian Railways ones, which won't win a beauty contest, are pretty affordable (less than 100 dollars for an engine, 15ish for a passenger coach, from the top of my head)..fairly exotic too..). Will at least pick up a kit of a Budapest tram if I can find one... Oh, and train shops around here aren't very big at all if one compares them to, say, ones in Germany (or the US, I guess, never having been there)

The lack of N is a bit strange as people don't live in huge houses around here and space might be better used for N-gauge, but on the other hand TT has a strong historical presence here and maybe there is no room here for two smaller scales (Eastern Europe being one of the two traditional havens for TT modellers)

Oh, on a sidenote, I'll post some nice train pictures in another thread when I'm home.

And for anyone happening to end up in Luxembourg some time, there is a nice rideable garden railroad in the valley next to the old town. (didn't ride it although it was free and everything, regretting it immensely)

So much for now

I wonder what the distribution is in the US.

If you do get some TT, I'd suggest getting a branchline locomotive. I made the mistake, while in Austria, of picking an HO 2-10-2 over an HOe 0-6-2t. I'll never have a complete train for the 2-10-2. When in England, I picked up an 0-6-0 with 5 freight cars...perfect!

I've often felt that a difference of 50% (give or take) is needed for a new scale to take off. S was too close to O to be different and the same with HO and TT. I don't know why in Slovakia TT would be popular unless there was a good manufacturer there that supported it.

I think historically the model train manufacturers in Eastern Europe produced tt scale, but never converted to n. It may have to do with the fact that consumer goods just never received any r&d behind the iron curtain once they went into production.

I think Russ is correct, TT was probably even bigger than HO earlier in this area and thus, being right between HO and N, got rid of the need to have those sizes. As model railroads often tend to be projects spanning many years, there probably was way too much inertia in the form of people modeling TT around the beginning of the nineties to convert to other scales. HO entered the market probably just because of it's sheer size. (in terms of people modeling it, that is)

There's actually some TT scale here. I remember it was "semi-popular" in the late fifties, and early sixties. I'd have to go and research it to remember exactly what the scale ratio was, but it was between HO and N. I almost went there.
Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but I recall "TT" was supposed to mean Table Top, in as much as HO means Half O.

American TT was 1/10" to the foot or 1:120. Th track gauge was .471".
British TT-3 (sic) was 3mm to the foot or about 1:100 on a track gauge of 12mm (scale 48"). (same gauge as American TT, actually)
In 1959 I went down to the Canadian importer of HP Products and he managed to discourage me from changing to TT.

What did he say to do that?

Quote:What did he say to do that?

I can only imagine!

My "imaginings" would be instantly banned here!

In reality..... probably cost, availability, and limited variety.