Possible Convert to G - Starting From Scratch

[Tom The Brat]

Welcome to the outdoors! What kind of space do you have?

(Actually, I have a lot of room to talk. I don't have an outside[:-,])

[vsmith]

Welcome to the forum Scott

1st question: How big an area do you have to work with? My bad I just re-read your post ....Large Scale eats up a tremendous amount of space just to do something simple, so keep that in mind.

I have an indoor large scale layout thats 8' x 20' and its what I consider a simple plan. I'll post a link so you can see some of the variation I went thru planning it. Your area is a big more generous, thats a big plus!

http://www.trains.com/community/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=16963

[brochhau]

Hey all,

I recently turned 30, and bought my first house about a year ago. When I was a kid, I modeled HO scale in our basement, most of which I still have, although it is mostly old Tyco "toy" stuff that I was not planning on using anyway. I have about a 25'x20' area to work with in my basement, and immediately thought of starting from scratch in HO.

Then... Trainfest, where I saw the G scale trains of the G-Whiz Gang (http://members.aol.com/gwhizgang/) and loved what I saw. The huge pistons on the Shay, the "large" people, and the "large" buildings...

Up to now I had not invested too much in my new HO layout, less than $200, mostly turnouts and flextrack. But now I am considering a switch to an indoor G scale layout. One thing that made me consider the switch is the price difference between high quality HO locos and high quality G locos -- there really isn't any. So for close to the same price, or maybe a few bucks more, I can get a loco that is 4x bigger? Tempting...

Downsides - The only G scale equipment I own is a Bachmann Big Hauler set that I got in the early 90s, so I would essentially be starting from scratch. I have never built a G scale layout, nor do I know anyone that has one.

I don't really have a question. But now I'm on the fence of either continuing with the little I have done in HO, or starting over in G. I'm just looking for help in pushing me to one side of the fence or the other. Pros / cons?

Thanks for any advice!
Scott