Brand Of N Scale Track

[Anonymous]

Hi, I'm new to the hobby as well as my son. For his birthday he wanted a train set, so I puchased a Bachman set. If you had to do it all over again, what manufacturer of N scale track would you use on a perminent layout? Bachman, Kato, and Atlas are available in our local hobby shop. I didn't realize how pricey this hobby could get, especially if you want to get into modeling. I'd just like a few opinions before we got deeper into it. The whole household seems to enjoy it as well as the prospect of creating scenery.

Thanks

[Big_Boy_4005]

[#welcome] to the forums. N scale is not the specialty of this particular forum. You will get more responses by posting it over in the Model Railroader General forum.

Out of curiosity how old is your son?

N scale is generally recommended for 12 and up, HO 8 and up, and 3 rail O (which is what this forum usually deals with) 4 and up.

As for the track recommendation, Atlas is perhaps most popular, though serious N scalers don't usually buy their switches. There is a brand called Peco that seems to be the favorite.

[thor CNJ]

For your purposes, go with Atlas. It is affordable, and is well-supported. I use the Atlas track library when designing N scale layouts. Yo ucan find them on my website, listed in my signature.

[Anonymous]

Kato Unitrack is the way to go. Unlike Atlas, you can snap it together blindfolded. It's the N/HO version of FasTrack. Now, if you ask this question on the MR site, most will poo-poo it and tell you flex-track with your own ballest is the only way to go.

[cnw1995]

Well, now that you have your Bachmann set, why not expand with their track? It can be pricey in relative terms - but you can find some bargains in magazine ads...A switch and some more straight tracks to lengthen the oval would make it fun.

[Dr. John]

If you are looking for good performance from your track at a reasonable price, go with Atlas. If you want excellent performance, ease of assembly and wiring, I'd recommend the Kato Unitrak, but it will cost more.

[Anonymous]

I am currently using Kato track on a temporary layout. It looks good and the trains operate well on it.
I plan to incorporate my 'N' scale into a future multi scale layout. Here I plan to use Atlas flex track with Peco switches for the permanent track plan. It's far more versitile than the fixed lenghts and curves of the Kato line.

[Anonymous]

I'd like to thank everybody for their suggestions. I think what we might do is setup 2 isolated tracks in our layout. One with the Bachman that we already have, and then the other with either Kato or Atlas. By appearance, the Kato looks to be of much better quality than Bachman, and I see you can adapt Kato and Atlas. Atlas might be a bit too much for a 12 year old we'll have to experiment a little.