I'm an HO guy myself. I had HO as a teen, and kept them for 40 years until I had the time and space to start again. But, if I hadn't already started with a large collection of rolling stock, I'd have given N-scale a serious look. Even then, I was tempted by the amount of layout you can put into your available space.
Of course, I love my HO trains, too. I like sound engines, and that's something that's not there yet in N. And, they don't make subway trains in N, but that's just one of my own personal passions.
By the way, my personal "reach limit" for layout width is 30 inches. My layout is 60 inches wide, so the center line is just 30 inches from either edge. I can work there, add scenery, ballast track and re-rail the occasional car, but it is not easy. So, heed the warnings of layout width.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.
wm3798Here we go! Be prepared to be warned about manual dexterity, failing eyesight, terrible performance and bulky details... N scale, afterall was spawned by Satan himself...
You had to open that can with that opener didn't you?--LOL!!
But I can see that happening---Me? I have bifocals, floaters in the eyeballs, shakey hands and what all else--and I'm still in N scale---why? Because I love the detail work--I love the space saving and the fact that one can build up a large layout in a smaller area. There are many reasons I'd go for this scale----
Now, if you had those problems such that it becomes an issue---you could always go "O" scale---
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
N scale provides more space to implemt whatever you dream of IF you can do it.
It depends on your capabilities. How good are your eyes, how good can your fingers handel small parts? Only you can know the answer.
I had to give up and go to H0 due to my limited capabilities.
My suggestion is to buy a low cost N scale boxcar and give is a real boost in quality. Add grab irons etc. Than buy a simple N scale building kit and assemble and paint it. Add all details you want to. How about the door knob?
You know if N scale is your scale after that small test. Good luck!
Reinhard
Here we go! Be prepared to be warned about manual dexterity, failing eyesight, terrible performance and bulky details... N scale, afterall was spawned by Satan himself...
Of course I jest. Lately these discussions have been very helpful and even civil! I just thought I'd get that out of the way!
Anyway, what would really be helpful would be a sketch of the area you're working in, not just the size of the table top. It sounds like what you have is an L shaped space that's roughly 12' x 8'?
The main advantage you'll find with N scale is that you don't need your table to be a full 4' wide. That makes it very difficult to reach the back, and in the corner of your L, you won't be able to reach that at all, unless you pull it away from the wall to be able to walk behind it.
N-Scale will give you more possibilities in your given space, as you can reduce the table width to 36", and still have a reasonable main line run, and plenty of room for scenery and structures. To give you an idea, the area in the photo below occupies about the space that you describe...
Never mind the debris!
Now there are lines that extend around the room to support things like a yard and some staging, but the basic layout can stand alone, if need be. Here's the track plan:
To dip your toes into N scale, I recommend you invest a little into an Atlas Trainman train set, which includes a very good quality locomotive, a basic power pack and some track to get you started.
Rather than begin by planning out the whole space, start with a small, simple plan that uses the set track, and maybe go buy a couple of turnouts and some flex track to experiment with.
Then build out your small "test bed" layout with some scenery, structures, vehicles and trees, and see how you like working in N scale. You'll end up spending about $200, so if it turns out you prefer HO, you're not out a whole lot. Package the set back up, and you can probably sell it on ebay and get most of your money back to start over in HO.
If you like the way N scale looks and handles, then you have a good start underway, and you can start thinking about upgrading to a more scale looking track, adding to your fleet of rolling stock, and maybe picking up a few more locomotives.
At that point, we can go more in depth about planning your full layout. There are some very thoughtful folks here on the forum (and elsewhere) who can help you through that process once the scale issue is settled.
Lee
Route of the Alpha Jets www.wmrywesternlines.net
In either scale, you aren't going to want the layout to be wider than 24" except for "blobs" at either end to allow trains to turn around, if you choose to go for continous running vs. a switching layout.
In HO you'd be limited to 22" R curves if you have a max width of 4', fine for smaller engines and 40'-50' cars but too sharp for large steam or passenger cars...at least, to small for large equipment to look good, though you might get it to work. If you go to an HO switching layout, you could do a fair amount in that small space.
In N you could do more of course, and still have a continous run. Most N stuff will do an 11"R curve or sharper, but for passenger trains and big engines you'd want to do at least 15"R. You could do that by having the main part of the layout be 16"-24" wide, with two end "blobs" of around 36" to allow for the 15"curves, or around 42" if you go with 18"R curves. N scale will give you more space for scenery and structures.
I'd say if you're primarily interested in switching cars around, go HO; if you're primarily interested in setting up one or two trains (esp. passenger trains) and letting them run on the mainline, you'd want to do N.
I have a small area for an "L" shaped layout; 4x8x4x7 in the corner of my room. I would like to model a shortline and have 2 towns along with a hidden staging yard. I would like to do it in HO but I don't think it will fit very well in this relative small area. Now I am considering building the layout in N scale. I have never done N scale but it looks like I can do a lot more in this small space. Any thoughts?