Manufactures - Planning for N scale: Some thoughts

[Anonymous]

know some of you at Atlas and other manufactures must tire of hearing that N scale will over come HO and be a dominant scale. Well my hunch is that won't happen - or if it does - it won't be for a long time to come. But I do believe it is going to grow much larger in representation. Here's why.

As you are well aware, HO is probably THE scale to be in for the diesel/steam transition era. The scale is a good one to show of the detail of steam and bring in early diesels. Trains in those days were shorter and the average length of trains in HO reflect the average larger layouts in basements and garages around North America.

I would say that S scale is probably the best scale for narrow gauge. The narrow gauge engine in S approaches HO in appearance and size, so details can dominate. Even though S in a larger scale, with shorter narrow gauge trains, the lengths of trains (in feet) again approximates HO.

But what of today's modern era; the era with SD60's, 70's, 90's, and ACW's, etc. And how about modern era freight car, intermodal, automax's, centre beam cars lengths. A modern centre beam car in N is almost the same length as a 40 foot box car in HO.

And we N scalers want longer trains to reflect the longer prototypical trains. So in 8 feet, I can have an SD90 pulling 24 or so 50 foot ore cars. A larger (in terms of N scale) layout can handle the contemporary engines and cars much better than in HO. I always like to say how funny many basement HO layouts would look with a double header of SD90's pulling AutoMax cars; heck a 12 foot length train in HO would only have two engines and about 10 cars - it would look out of place.

So I maintain that N will be the dominate scale in contemporary equipment. Heck I'm always telling HO guys who make the switch to N to model contemporary; this will stop the shock of the toy like appearance of some of the smaller rolling stock from the transition era in N.

Now I don't expect this dominance of N in contemporary modelling to happen over night, but I can definitely see that 10 years from now a much steeper participation in N scale modelling.

So why am I babbling on now about this? Well, 10 years is really only 3 generations of engine planning to production. So manufacturer's are trying to look down the road and decide where they should put some of their marbles.

This means from:
Engine manufactures - more contemporary engines and rolling stock. I think Athearn made a very wise choice in their first release. The F59PHI will be still selling 20 years from now, along with the Bombardier coaches.

From structures manufactures - more contemporary buildings, forget the two story and three story red brick stuff, its been done to death, instead more buildings that look like they belong in the down town areas today like in Seattle, LA, Chicago, Vancouver and Toronto. This means higher structures and more modern buildings, like Walther's has begun to do in HO (for example the car dealership). Another excellent example, stop putting out "cutesy" passenger stations, instead how about more contemporary looking train stations (Walther's puts out a good one - we need more and larger ones).

Back drop companies - this seems to be a strong point, believe it or not, but a costly one if you use Backdrop Warehouse items. But Realistic backdrops has some very good urban settings. We need more like that at a reasonable price, like Realistic backdrop is offering.

Tracks and accessories - Atlas is on the right track with its code 55. We need N contemporary signalling. Heck I love the hot box idea one of the members is selling. We need a simplified signalling system that can be incorporated easily into DCC. Peco needs to come out with North American code 55 appearance track and turnouts.

Sound - I'm not sure where to go with this one, but most of use would love quality sound, something I'm not so sure can be done inside an N diesel. More sound, more backdrop noises, more theme sounds (like passenger station announcements) available in N that follows the engine around, or can be isolated to one location.

Computers - easier intuitive computer interfacing with DCC and the layout. Computer dispatching so that it can be done from a distance. No reason a guy in Texas can't dispatch my trains in North Vancouver (BC). The hobby is heading in the right direction with computer running, but no one product dominates, like Digitrax in DCC (in North America) and so I don't know what horse to bet on yet.

So you might be asking what does signalling, DCC and computer running have to do with a growing N scale. Well, guys like my son who is 16 now going on 17 will be re-entering the hobby. He will most likely have a smaller home than we do now. He is computer literate and lives in a computer world; he can't imagine a life pre-computers. Heck he had to ask me how to work the rotary phone at his grandmother's house - he had no idea. So for him layouts and computers is a natural and he won't understand why others are resistant to it. Computers, layouts, and contemporary N scale rail roading will be all one package.