New to the Hobby

[Anonymous]

Hello Everyone,

Me and my step dad figured we'd start a new hobby and put together a model railroad. We have a whole room we are going to dedicate for the project. I'm thinking we are going to go HO gauge. I've read through the "New Hobbiest" Sticky at the top of the forums. But figured I'd post here to pick all your brains for a bit. I was just wondering what are the better manufacturer's of the trains and accessories, and just any overall information you can either give me, or point me towards. I've been searching the internet for a little while, but like anything new, it's kind of daunting. So any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

Jason

[lionelsoni]

Jason, you would be better off to post to the Model Railroader forum, where they do HO. We are almost entirely into O and S here.

[Anonymous]

Jason:

I would tend to agree with Bob. If it's HO that you and your dad are interested in, I would recommend making a post on the "Model Railroader" forum--a sister forum to this one.

You'll likely find lots of folks on this CTT forum--the one you're on now--trying to talk you out of HO and into O gauge. That's all well and good, but it's entirely possible that HO, which is the most popular scale in model railroading and has the widest variety of available products, may be more in line with what you and your dad are looking for given the amount of space you have available, your hobby budget, and several other considerations.

Check around a bit and then decide--together--what scale appears to offer most of what you're looking for. Don't overlook Large Scale, as well. "Garden Railroading" magazine also has a sister site here.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the help guys, I didn't realize that this forum delt in a different scale. From looking at the different scales.... Physically, it seems like the amount of space we have to use, HO is the better scale for us. O is just a little too big. Thanks for atleast pointing me in the right direction. Maybe someday, if we get the garage.... then we'll try O scale :)

[lionelsoni]

If you're still there, Jason, I'll take a stab at changing your mind:

If you look at the sharpest curves used in the various scales, you will notice that they are all about the same, from N right up to O, around 1 foot radius. Of course they are all too sharp to be realistic; and O is the worst at that. But this means that you can build pretty much the same layout in any scale, if you want. Furthermore, there is a tradition in O-gauge toy trains of reducing the size of some models, particularly in the length dimension, to make the sharp curves practical. So, even though HO scale is 45 percent smaller than O, a typical O train might be not much longer than an HO train with the same number of cars and would fit almost as well in the same layout design.

[4kitties]

Lionelsoni, you've made a very persuasive argument. Funny thing, when I sold all my HO 5 years ago and switched back to O, I found that the things that had bothered me enough to switch to HO when I was 11 no longer mattered. I bring this up because the overly sharp curves were one of them. There's just something about the size and heft of O gauge models - traditional or scale - that can't be beat. I always loved heavy things as a kid. I should've known O gauge would pull me back. I like my engines weighing as much as 1 or 2 flatirons!

Joel

[csxt30]

4kitties; that's about like my thinking. I had 3rail as a child & got into HO later, & all the time buying HO, I was always checking out the 3rail stuff, then had a boy & that did it!! Got right into Ogauge! Thanks, John