3 Rail O gauge Trains

Popi posted:

I was contemplating selling all my O gauge 3 rail trains and going into N scale...………...

THEN I WOKE UP FROM THAT NIGHTMARE IN A COLD SWEAT!!!!! ha!

O Gauge or NO gauge!!!!!!!!!!

That was some bad dream alright! 😫

I can't even get N-scale stuff on the tracks, so that would be a real nightmare for me!   Forget about fixing anything in those, they work or I toss them.

I have ALWAYS LOVED N.  Had it at different points in my life.  Just got some last year, even a Big Boy in N...  how cool!

But nothing beats O scale!...  

You would have to hire ants to do the work on N scale trains, stick with O.

A couple years ago, while on the NMRA Piedmont Pilgrimage here in Atlanta, I visited a very nice N scale layout that was built at about shoulder level.  While leaning in closer to the layout for a better look at the layout owner’s twin unit PRR Broadway Limited diner, I exhaled and accidentally blew the darn train off the track.  😳

Think that would ever happen with O gauge?  Of course not!  As indicated above; it’s O gauge or no gauge for me as well!

Curt

C'mon guys, really? 

I was into N for a long time; found that working on small stuff is not that much different from HO, S or even O. That's where your "Optivisor" is your friend; in fact, now that I'm old, I find I use the Optivisor regardless of scale. I really like seeing things up close.

The last major task I did in N was to go through my entire fleet to check and re-set the wheel gauges to they would function properly on code 55 track. Sure, it's fussy work, but isn't that part of the fun? And these new electronic circuits we're seeing now in O are well beyond my pay grade...

Plus, when properly maintained, N is capable of running beautifully. There's an N group out of Portland who set up a big layout at the shows; their Columbia Gorge modules are really something to see. 

Mark in Oregon 

I assemble Micro-Trains #1015 bulk coupler 10-pair packs for fun and relaxation.  I like to hard-wire N-scale decoders because the drop-in decoders are no challenge.  I've fixed brush holders in N-scale motors.  I do stuff in N-scale that even my fellow N-scalers won't tackle.

My mom always said I should have been a brain surgeon.  But I decided to get into model railroading instead, for the groupies and the huge financial rewards. 

Really Mark.   There's no way I could do the stuff I do in O-gauge in N-gauge.  Don't get me wrong, I marvel when I see an N-gauge consist of 150 cars at local train shows, but I don't want to work on them.  Seeing is only one part of the picture, you have to have a pretty steady hand to work on that little stuff.

gunrunnerjohn posted:

Really Mark.   There's no way I could do the stuff I do in O-gauge in N-gauge.  Don't get me wrong, I marvel when I see an N-gauge consist of 150 cars at local train shows, but I don't want to work on them.  Seeing is only one part of the picture, you have to have a pretty steady hand to work on that little stuff.

I agree. It would be likely Ralphie's old man trying to glue the leg back together if it was me.

I find it difficult to understand how people can model in such a small scale and am amazed that anyone can assemble such tiny motors, wheelsets, etc. But I'm an old guy who doesn't understand lots of things... My latest O-gauge layout is just about finished and I'm contemplating a 4-by-8 in On30 (still 1:48), which is about the smallest size that appeals to me.

MELGAR

Dreamt of a Marklin z Christmas set 

https://youtu.be/Fh28wgoIfls

Had to run my Mth  j1e hudson set a few laps to help me get back to sleep.

What about HO? You do not need as much room and the prouct is less expesive. I have contemplated switching for years but have not pulled the trigger.

I actually did go into HO for a while, but I came back to O. I missed the heft of O. HO and N are just too small.

HO has been my go-to scale since I was a kid, and I'm still in it. HOWEVER...

I've never met a scale I didn't like.  Oft times during my life with model trains, I'd get some wild hair and a different scale (than HO) would speak to me and ask... "want to"?  AND good 'ol me, just like Lady Chatterley would answer her next lover: "Sure! Why not?"  

I've had "affairs" with with G, N, a "serious" relationship in Sn3 as well as a "serious" relationship in the scale side of S standard gauge... even had a fling with 3-rail!

Thus far, I've always returned to HO.

HOWEVER (again)...

I'm definitely a closet 3-rail'er and I really, REALLY like Lionel traditional-sized Postwar. Shucks... I just like pickin' 'em up... smellin' 'em... like the heft... even a piece's history. In FACT... I'm seriously thinking about indulging in 3-rail again under the guise of a "Christmas Train" for 2019. BUT... in the back of my mind... I can definitely see the potential for traditional 3-rail to be my go to if the time ever arrives that HO scale is just too tedious to me and my hands/eyes aren't up to the task.

SO... is it a model train? Well then, be it Z up to U-ride-'m size... it's GOOD!

All fer now.

Andre

Way back in the late '70s I traded most of my "O" gauge trains for "N" gauge.  And that's when I was in my late thirties and could see without even reading glasses !   Big mistake.  "N" gauge offered little to me except frustration.  And I had more patience then than I do now.  

"N" gauge has it's place, it's just not in my house.....LOL

O gauge or no gauge, I’ll never give up my tubular layout and the hum of postwar transformers and smell of the ozone. I do have an n scale Santa Fe F unit though and like to put it next to my bigger f3s 

laming posted:

HO has been my go-to scale since I was a kid, and I'm still in it. HOWEVER...

I've never met a scale I didn't like.  Oft times during my life with model trains, I'd get some wild hair and a different scale (than HO) would speak to me and ask... "want to"?  AND good 'ol me, just like Lady Chatterley would answer her next lover: "Sure! Why not?"  

I've had "affairs" with with G, N, a "serious" relationship in Sn3 as well as a "serious" relationship in the scale side of S standard gauge... even had a fling with 3-rail!

Thus far, I've always returned to HO.

HOWEVER (again)...

I'm definitely a closet 3-rail'er and I really, REALLY like Lionel traditional-sized Postwar. Shucks... I just like pickin' 'em up... smellin' 'em... like the heft... even a piece's history. In FACT... I'm seriously thinking about indulging in 3-rail again under the guise of a "Christmas Train" for 2019. BUT... in the back of my mind... I can definitely see the potential for traditional 3-rail to be my go to if the time ever arrives that HO scale is just too tedious to me and my hands/eyes aren't up to the task.

SO... is it a model train? Well then, be it Z up to U-ride-'m size... it's GOOD!

All fer now.

Andre

I cannot "blame you" for choosing HO. The HO people have it all.  We are both SLSF men, and you can easily model Frisco in HO scale (which importantly includes realistic autoracks), but our choices are very limited in O gauge.  You have seen all the cars and locomotives I have had to "create" myself to have genuine Frisco and QA&P models. 

I started out with a host of HO models when I was in my 20's...sold every shred of it, and did not collect at all until I was in my 50's.  My eyesight and steadiness of hand (or lack of it) dictated that I would collect and run O gauge from these days foreward.

Glad you came to your senses, I thought for a moment we may have to call the guys with the straight jackets for you.

Topics like this come up every once in awhile, with folks saying they prefer O because of their eyesight, or because of the heft of it.

Nothing wrong with that either. But even the N scale market is substantially larger than the very divided 3-rail market. So if there's O scale or no scale, then you also have to accept the limitations of the smaller market.

We often read the foolish justification, "They make it in HO and N scale, so why not O?" Well, there is a real good reason for that. And even the HO and N scale companies think before they produce: They're not going to spend $100,000+ on tooling for a product that you can only hope to sell a few hundred of.

We do have the larger trains, but they have the larger market share. Which makes it possible and profitable for them to have the larger and more varied selection of products.

Hi Rob!

Yup on the Frisco. And yuppers on the variety in HO at present is nearly overwhelming.

Over twenty years ago I had about 2 dozen HO engines that I modified/painted/etc for the Frisco (all of them repowered with Mashima or repowered w/Kato mechanisms)... but circumstances were such that we needed to put ourselves in a home (housing provided via vocation at the time) so we could have enough time to get it paid for by retirement. Sold EVERYTHING "train" that was sell-able. (HO, large 3-rail collection, et al). Just kept my handful of KC&G stuff. Ended up raising $6k in trains alone, and that was the lion's share of the front money the bank wanted. We got the house, it's been paid off for several years now, and I retired this past April. SO, the plan worked wonderfully... but at times I do miss my Frisco models.

As for eyesight and steady hands: So far so good. BUT... as you can see above, I have a Plan B if needed.

Andre

J. Motts posted:

Glad you came to your senses, I thought for a moment we may have to call the guys with the straight jackets for you.

Which one of us? There's many of here that are good candidates for straight jackets!

Andre

I went from Marx to HO, first building a Varney (who?) flat car, because Marx had 21 3/16 freight cars, and HO has had an infinite number.  Then l heard Marx had those 21, most of which l did not have as a kid, so set out to catch up.  From there l bash Lionel-compatible, for it has more than Marx, trying to fill the canyons of omissions that HO has often in duplicates.  Time constrained and frustrating, for those unwilling to accept substitutes or do without.  Everything l want has been made in HO, and even in O two rail brass.  Dunno where we will get converts to greatly enlarge the  O market. Not going back to HO.  When N first appeared, it seemed to be all diesel, so held and holds no interest.

colorado hirailer posted:

"...first building a Varney (who?) flat car..."

I know who Varney was! He played the character "Earnest"!  Didn't know he had an HO model business also!

Seriously:

Yup, I know'd of Varney from waaaay back when. In fact, owing to a recent post by a fellow forumite over in the HONGZ forum, just last week I bought these:

These are from Varney's "metal/tinplate" line. I think they look great. (Even the small lettering is crisp, door runners are small, proportions are spot on, etc.) I intend to clean them up, address any issues, fit them with steel wheels and Kadee couplers, throw a bit of chalk weathering on them... and run them among my cars of more recent manufacture on my upcoming early-mid 1960s era HO layout. I think they're plenty "good 'enuf" for my "Givens 'n Druthers"... AND I like the nostalgia of them.

Neat thing about model trains: Doesn't matter the scale, layout philosophies, whatever... it's all fun stuff.

Andre

justakid posted:

Dreamt of a Marklin z Christmas set 

https://youtu.be/Fh28wgoIfls

Had to run my Mth  j1e hudson set a few laps to help me get back to sleep.

I already have several Marklin Z Christmas sets, but do not have that one. Will need to get in touch with the folks at Trainworld and get that set . I did not realize Trainworld carried Marklin Z (I do get a lot of O and G from them).

I like ALL the model railroading scales, and have modeled, or still do model, in most all of them to some degree: Z, Marklin HO, On30, O, and G these days. The only scale I have never tied is S, and that's kind of strange because I still consider S as something of an "ideal" modeling scale.

And it's still true that HO captures the lion's share of the model railroading market, followed by N scale. I imagine O is in third place these days, followed by G and perhaps S. The others are smaller markets, with Z coming up nicely in recent years.

Strummer posted:

C'mon guys, really? 

I was into N for a long time; found that working on small stuff is not that much different from HO, S or even O. That's where your "Optivisor" is your friend; in fact, now that I'm old, I find I use the Optivisor regardless of scale. I really like seeing things up close.

The last major task I did in N was to go through my entire fleet to check and re-set the wheel gauges to they would function properly on code 55 track. Sure, it's fussy work, but isn't that part of the fun? And these new electronic circuits we're seeing now in O are well beyond my pay grade...

Plus, when properly maintained, N is capable of running beautifully. There's an N group out of Portland who set up a big layout at the shows; their Columbia Gorge modules are really something to see. 

Mark in Oregon 

 

I was never impressed with N until I saw, several years ago, a smooth-running N-scale 4-6-6-4 on a friend's layout. Their articulateds and steam in general are even better now, and still have that "big cockroach" look about them when in action. N flanges are/were horribly big in proportion, but as the scale is so small they don't show up except in photos. Big enough that a 3RO guy would notice...yikes. N also has the "cute" factor that HO lacks.

In O our details are bigger - but so are our mistakes. There is something to be said for the inherent camouflage of tiny things. 

D500 posted:

Strummer posted:

C'mon guys, really? 

I was into N for a long time; found that working on small stuff is not that much different from HO, S or even O. That's where your "Optivisor" is your friend; in fact, now that I'm old, I find I use the Optivisor regardless of scale. I really like seeing things up close.

The last major task I did in N was to go through my entire fleet to check and re-set the wheel gauges to they would function properly on code 55 track. Sure, it's fussy work, but isn't that part of the fun? And these new electronic circuits we're seeing now in O are well beyond my pay grade...

Plus, when properly maintained, N is capable of running beautifully. There's an N group out of Portland who set up a big layout at the shows; their Columbia Gorge modules are really something to see. 

Mark in Oregon 

 

I was never impressed with N until I saw, several years ago, a smooth-running N-scale 4-6-6-4 on a friend's layout. Their articulateds and steam in general are even better now, and still have that "big cockroach" look about them when in action. N flanges are/were horribly big in proportion, but as the scale is so small they don't show up except in photos. Big enough that a 3RO guy would notice...yikes. N also has the "cute" factor that HO lacks.

In O our details are bigger - but so are our mistakes. There is something to be said for the inherent camouflage of tiny things. 

N-scale has advanced considerably in the last decade or two.  One of the advancements has been "low-profile" (lo-pro) wheel sets.  The O-gauge reminiscent "large wheel flanges" have largely disappeared from new train manufacture during this time, to the point where nothing but the cheapest train cars might still have the large flanges.  Nowadays, N-scale truly is N-scale, and NOT N-gauge.

after seeing ho and n scale trains at the kc nmra convention show this last summer. I realized since I havent seen them in action for years just how small they look compared to o scale. I will never go back ever to another scale. I can work on and get parts for my oscale trains. they just say trains to me. plus the size of the speakers in our engines makes them sound more like the real thing than the smaller speakers in n and ho scale trains. 

While still in N, I bought a lot on eBay which turned out to have mostly Z scale items. I had been curious about Z, so I spent some time working on and in that tiny (2:220) scale.

I didn't find it much different from working in N; like anything else, regardless of scale, as long as you take your time and are deliberate, you can make it function quite well. To me the hardest part in working on these smaller scaled models is the lack of weight and mass: some part are so small (and light weight) that you literally can sneeze them into oblivion...    

I do find the mass and heft of S and O to be more satisfying...and I still use the Optivisor!  

Mark in Oregon 

Lionelzwl2012 posted:

after seeing ho and n scale trains at the kc nmra convention show this last summer. I realized since I havent seen the in action for years just how small they look compared to o scale. I will never go back ever to another scale. I can work on and get parts for my oscale trains. they just say trains to me. plus the size of the speakers in our engines makes them sound more like the real thing than the smaller speakers in n and ho scale trains. 

Bingo!  As much as I like N-scale, I really don't care for sound-equipped N-scale engines.  Maybe cool for a minute or two, but then it's just annoying to me.  HO is a little better, but I'm still not too sure about it, either.

O-scale on the other hand, sounds just plain good with sound.  I think in my case, in may have a fair amount to do with the scale factor.  For instance, if I stand 8' away from an N-scale loco, that is the equivalent of almost 1/4 scale mile (8' x 160 = 1,280')!  If I stand 8' away from an O-scale train, that is only 384 scale feet away (8' x 48 = 384').  When it comes to real trains, I'm going to hear one at 384' away a whole lot better than one a quarter of a mile away!

But that's just the scale factor in me.  Your scale factor may vary. 

Liam posted:

O gauge or no gauge, I’ll never give up my tubular layout and the hum of postwar transformers and smell of the ozone. I do have an n scale Santa Fe F unit though and like to put it next to my bigger f3s 

That N Scale "F-Unit" ain't an F-Unit.  It's an old Atlas N Fairbanks-Morse C-Liner...  (A CPA24-5 to be exact.)

Rusty

“ don't buy into the thinking that O scale is more expensive than HO.  O scale equipment is 4 times the size as HO, therefor, you can only get 1/4 the amount of stuff in the same space.  even it it costs 4 times as much as HO, you won't spend any more money when you are done. “

grizlump 

I am one year and 42 days from retiring. With that will come a significant downsize in living quarters. 

So I’ve knocked around the idea of moving to HO or N. I think they look cool but the running  of them I just don’t find to be as exciting as O gauge. 

If my layout size comes way down in space then I’ll make a city layout in O. Run subways and street cars etc.