COTrainFan Hi, I am looking at trying to build a C&O model set with an Allegheny 2-6-6-6 locomotive. What are the pros and cons of going with O scale vs HO scale. Thanks
Hi,
I am looking at trying to build a C&O model set with an Allegheny 2-6-6-6 locomotive. What are the pros and cons of going with O scale vs HO scale.
Thanks
It depends on what you are trying to do.
Is this to be a mantle display, Christmas tree layout, the beginning of a model railroad hobby?
Do you like to build models?
Do you want to just watch trains run around or recreate operations of the C&O?
O scale models are 6 times the size of HO (remember models are 3 dimensional). They have a really nice heft and appearance when running by. But for a layout they require broader curves and more space for the same amount of railroad as HO - layouts are restricted by width and length , but not height so an O scale layout is 3.25 times as big as the same layout in HO.
O scale models are more expensive than HO, so if money is tight or you want a lot of locomotives (and other stuff) HO may be better. If you want only a few really detailed pieces than O is probably better.
Good luck
Paul
I have both HO and O, (O is waiting to be put around the ceiling) and I would take HO 10/10 times. You can find about anything in any road name. It is MUCH cheaper than today's new O scale equipment, and it looks alot more realistic. If you want a C&O 2-6-6-6 Allegheny then Rivarossi makes them, look on Ebay I have seen a few lately in the $200 range. All said go with HO!
How old are you, how good are your hands and how wealthy are you?
O is FAR FAR FAR easier to handle vs HO, thats an important factor as we get older, same for eyesight, O is alot easier to work on and easier to fiddle around with your hands to repair or build things. i am working on an HO micro and dam near everything has to be applied by tweezers, it gets old quickly.
Now the biggy, how well healed are you, O is IMHO the better choice for older modelers but O is also the King Daddy of Trust Fund hobbies, it can be frighteningly expensive stuff. HO has far more cost effective options.
Personally I went into G for the same reasons I like O, easier to work and model on, but when I started costwise it was a wash with HO so I went that route, today G is more like O is that regards, costs are crazy high. I'm glad I not really looking for anything anymore.
Have fun with your trains
A C&O modeler, in HO who wanted the big Allegheny 2-6-6-6 (and presumably other and smaller C&O locomotives as well) would probably be well advised to be looking at 30" to 36" minimum radius. That means in O you'd be looking perhaps 60" to 75" minimum radius. Big curves!
Either way, there is no sense running an engine of that size on a small layout pulling short trains -- you are talking major space, lots of cars, big yards. And while HO is VERY roughly "half" of O when it comes to general heft and bulk of the trains, remember that humans are the same size, and have the same general 24" limit on their reach into a layout. So you cannot simply double the size of an HO track plan and assume it'll work fine in O because the tracks would be too far to reach in O. Note Ulrich's comments above about size of layout footprint for comparable track plan.
And on balance I suspect O scale equipment is, car for car and locomotive for locomotive, likely to be more than twice HO in terms of cost. Many guys in O prefer to model more modest railroads, with just one or two locomotives -- a Geep pulling a dozen cars looks impressive in O, not so much in HO -- and assuming a normal size for a layout, the overall cost might be about the same between O with two engines and 24 cars and HO layouts with eight locomotives and 100 cars, assuming the same footprint for the layout: same cost because the size and scope of the railroading is often very different.
Hornby makes a Allegheny in HO. In O you are either going to be looking for a rare and somewhat old imported brass engine (meaning you may have to be skilled just to keep it running), or you need to be a talented scratchbuilder (and that also means knowing how to adjust scale drawings to the fact that O gauge track is not scale width and the scratchbuilder has to know how to adjust for that). Also, I do not know if a commercial turnout is made in O that can deal with a 2-6-6-6 so you are looking at handlaid track, at least to some extent. In HO you could buy such turnouts off the shelf.
Do you have a copy of Kalmbach's Great Model Railroads 2014? It has a fine article on Dr James EuDaly's incredible O scale C&O layout that includes all the big C&O steam including the 2-6-6-6s. But note this: EuDaly built a separate 35' x 50' metal building to house his layout because his house would not acommodate an O scale layout. Why so big? Because he saw no sense in runnning big steam without long trains, 40 feet long -- and that is just 38 O scale hopper cars plus caboose and engine (compared to the real C&O that is not a long train at all). Now Dr. EuDaly is an extraordinary modeler who scratchbuilt several of his models, and was in O scale back when there were plenty of imported brass steam engines for him to buy. And his profession gave him the economic means to buy them, as well as the sophisticated electronics needed to run his big layout, buy and build that separate building for the layout and all the rest.
More importantly, that is not how he started in the hobby. It is how he is ending in the hobby after many decades of modeling. He didn't even go into O until after a decade in HO. He then spent several decades just building rolling stock and locomotives and researching the C&O before he even started to plan that layout. And then he spent decades building it.
As another poster has said, if you are a beginner you do NOT start out with a layout of the size and scope to do justice to a 2-6-6-6. You work up to it. As a practical matter thanks to Atlas and others quite a bit can now be done in O scale without having to build everything and handlay every bit of track. It is a great time to be in O and to get into O and I would not discourage you from giving it a go. But whether HO or O (or N for that matter which you did not ask about but should strongly consider if really big trains and locomotives are your eventual goal), the first goal should be to have a reasonably complete and operating layout soon to get your hands dirty and start learning the skills you'll need to go big later.
Dave Nelson
What's the difference? About $800-$900 more for O-scale vs. HO...and that's just for one 2-6-6-6. It's cheaper, of course, if you get O-scale toy train stuff (then the difference is more like $200), but if you want actual scale models then O-scale is gonna cost you way more than HO in just about every detail.
OTOH, some O-scalers (2-rail guys) say that because their trains are bigger they don't need to buy as many to fill up a layout. But while that's true, if you are a collector and you don't really care about filling a layout (you just want one of everything your favorite railroad had), then your wallet will take much bigger hits in O-scale.
HO is the No. 1 scale in popularity. There are more HO scalers than all other scales combined (I believe it's 55% of the total market). Because of that, there are more things made for HO than any other scale. So if you want some rare unit, then you're probably going to find it in HO and not in O.
Paul A. Cutler III
Don´t underestimate the space buildings take up in O scale! The footprint of a O scale structure is roughly 4 times the HO footprint! I did not consider this when planing my On30 layout - with a sad result!
Something that needs to be taken into account is, how many different manufacturers are there selling each scale --
Off hand, the only O scale manufacturers I can think of are Atlas, Lionel, Williams, and MTH. Practically all of them are just importers of products made in China.
In HO scale, there are Atlas, Bachmann, Broadway Limited, Accurail, Exact Rail, Bowser, Athearn, and maybe as many as 20 or 30 others from which to choose. Many HO scale products are also imported from China, but a few are made in the USA.
More competition keeps prices reasonable.
For your question about the 2-6-6-6 I believe Broadway Limited Imports had one in HO scale -- MTH may be the only company that had one in O scale.
It's definitely about what works best for you and tickles your fancy. HO is what I love. O is popular for those who like the larger trains or trains around the Christmas tree now that the season is fast approaching. O is also for those who grew up on Lionel or other 3-rail manufactures. O requires a significant amount of space and usually those who model it has a huge basement or entire garage dedicated to it. The equipment is quite expensive but in my honest opinion looks almost kind of gaudy and flashy. I think of kid toy trains when I see O layouts especially at model train shows but to each his own. To be honest some HO equipment these days are starting to approcah O prices but that's what happens when you want extreme detail on your new engine.
Do what your heart desires and most of all have fun whatever you decide!!!
HO is the most popular gauge/scale right now. That means more and different models are in production, For instance, your 2-6-6-6 triplex is probably in production in HO. It may not be in production in O.
In round numbers, HO is half the size of O. For instance HO trains (well perhaps not a 2-6-6-6) can make it around 18 inch radius curves. O guage needs 30 inches. Which means the benchwork to support a 180 degree turn (complete loop) has to be 36 inches wide in HO, it must be 60 inches wide for O. HO locomotives and rolling stock are less expensive than O gauge.
If you have lots of space, and like the bulk and heft of the larger O models, go for it. If you have space and money constraints like most of us, HO is very appealing. HO is big enough for scratch building and kit bashing even for those of us with aging eyesight.
From your question, I would assume you are just coming into the hobby. Have you found Model Railroader magazine ? For that matter ordinary public libraries often have decent books on model railroading.
David Starr www.newsnorthwoods.blogspot.com