08-15-2011, 02:20 PM
I don't know what i would do with myself if i didn't model in HO. Most of the equipment I could ever want has been made in HO. N scale would be fantastic in terms of me wanting to model the Northeast Corridor, but it doesn't do me much good, as there are few electrics in N, and even fewer odd-ball commuter cars. Its a shame to, N scale is probably the only one that you could operate a real commuter style layout in a rational amount of space. If only the N-scale catenary would be easy!
Not that you can't run a couple RDCs or MUs in a small space, but you have to consider the time between stops, and remember that only the far most branches would have "short" commuter trains. In N scale, you can sorta get away with longer trains and more train stops in the same space of an average HO layout.
Heck, even larger passenger trains are pain in HO. God forbid you want to model certain trains like the Silver Star, or the Auto Train on Amtrak, or perhaps the Broadway limited or Empire builder or whatever. I don't think any one of these trains are shorter than 12 cars (and if you order these Walthers Subscriptions you're DEFINITELY getting at least that many cars). These trains are getting to be 13-15 feet long! many need more than one locomotive to pull them.
How many HO layouts out there do you know where the bench work is at least 25-30 feet in one direction? On the average bedroom-sized HO layout, there is barely any room for such a train to pull the slack out of the couplers before it either has to stop or has reached the point it started at again! And what kind of train station can even handle a train like that? At my club, some of these passenger trains (including my Silver Meteor which is a 13 car train) can BARELY fit. Even if you just want to model the train "passing through", you're stuck with monumental staging tracks. Its even worse if you're one of those "point-to-point" people with staging yards on the far end from each other.
This is why i get the feeling that no matter how good i get at modeling Electrics and catenary, that i'll never really build a layout even CLOSE to what i would like in HO even in the future. I don't think most homes would even have the space i'd need. I could selectively compress some things, but you can only do that so far.
Once again, i'm sad they don't make most of my kind of trains in N-scale in any real detail, otherwise I might consider it.
Not that you can't run a couple RDCs or MUs in a small space, but you have to consider the time between stops, and remember that only the far most branches would have "short" commuter trains. In N scale, you can sorta get away with longer trains and more train stops in the same space of an average HO layout.
Heck, even larger passenger trains are pain in HO. God forbid you want to model certain trains like the Silver Star, or the Auto Train on Amtrak, or perhaps the Broadway limited or Empire builder or whatever. I don't think any one of these trains are shorter than 12 cars (and if you order these Walthers Subscriptions you're DEFINITELY getting at least that many cars). These trains are getting to be 13-15 feet long! many need more than one locomotive to pull them.
How many HO layouts out there do you know where the bench work is at least 25-30 feet in one direction? On the average bedroom-sized HO layout, there is barely any room for such a train to pull the slack out of the couplers before it either has to stop or has reached the point it started at again! And what kind of train station can even handle a train like that? At my club, some of these passenger trains (including my Silver Meteor which is a 13 car train) can BARELY fit. Even if you just want to model the train "passing through", you're stuck with monumental staging tracks. Its even worse if you're one of those "point-to-point" people with staging yards on the far end from each other.
This is why i get the feeling that no matter how good i get at modeling Electrics and catenary, that i'll never really build a layout even CLOSE to what i would like in HO even in the future. I don't think most homes would even have the space i'd need. I could selectively compress some things, but you can only do that so far.
Once again, i'm sad they don't make most of my kind of trains in N-scale in any real detail, otherwise I might consider it.
Modeling New Jersey Under the Wire 1978-1979.
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