gauge change after thoughts

I am very happy in O now having spent the first 30 years of my hobby in HO.  I still like HO and also enjoy N as I have off and on had a 2'x4' N layout that was fun to operate on. 

In general I'd say HO and N these days have far surpassed O on the entry level to mid-priced range models.  There is simply more demand for those scales and the larger market keeps itself competitive.

I'm slow to totally depart the HO/N infatuation eras.  I still have most of it...in boxes...'neath the O3R empire...don't ask 'Why?'...(incoherency of thought and expression is a double-edged sword at my age ).

I'm not at all regretful about the final chapter being in O3R, however.  It's where I started 76 years ago and it's definitely the comfort-zone for the remaining dexterities and sensory perceptions.   

I'm not one for a lot of switching maneuvers...card orders, dispatching, methodical sequencing of cars into a train, etc..  I like to see and hear them run...mostly one at a time...passenger or freight, steam or diesel, favorite flags all.  Conventional running...one hand on the throttle, the other with stemware or stein, lost in thoughts and memories...always with a sigh and a smile.

OK, but I have a confession...  Every so often I come across a non-O scale item that sends me 'Tootling' off the rails and into the daisy patch.  FI, a few months ago I was beneath the layout checking on some wiring, and had to move a cart full of unbuilt HO structure kits.  Right on top was a HO Laser-Art kit of the ATSF station at Rivera, CA.  What a gorgeous temptation and test of patience/skills at this age!  Too bad it was sitting on top...I immediately moved it to the vacant (how convenient!) work bench.  Why?  Dunno.  It was whimpering, I guess.  The next two weeks at the bench were very refreshing, but I have no idea what to do with it now.  It's sitting, finished, on a shelf.

More recently I was searching for some O scale detail parts in an old cigar box...I was sure I had them.  Oops!...I opened an unmarked cigar box long devoid of stogies...to find an unfinished old model of an HO MDC ATSF Atlantic 4-4-2, die cast boiler/chassis/tender, open frame motor, brass-rimmed drivers/wheels...parts in an old medicine bottle (all there).  I only vaguely remember the model....it was that long ago...maybe 1960's?  I had removed most of the cast-in boiler details...running boards, piping, etc....and had a bunch of Kemtron and Cal-Scale packets of genuine brass parts all collected to make a well-detailed model.  I had even copied/included an engineering drawing of the engine from some center-fold in a periodical...with none of the pages marked for identity of the same!  No matter...I later in life acquired the brass version of the same engine.  (I can use it for 'reference'!)  It was so sad...lying there in the stogie box in pieces, parts, paper...good intentions put on hold.  Whimpering...in the imagination, I hope.

It's my current workbench project.  ()  Why?  Don't ask.  We're having fun, though.   It'll probably sit on the shelf when its done...next to that station.  Something else to dust.

One more.  A few years ago, while working at the LHS in my retirement years, I saw the announcement by Broadway Limited of their release of the EMC E1 (ATSF) and EA (B&O) in HO.  Now, mind you, I was by then DEEPLY invested in O3R, the 'elephant' in the basement.  But that iconic engine, those two favorite flags, and the probability that I'd never live long enough to enjoy that same model accurately done...affordably...by the O3R manufacturers...led me to make a purchase of each.  For the shelf.  Why?  Don't ask...she already did!

Of course, Scott Mann has since come to the rescue!  I bathe in pickle juice regularly to keep myself 'preserved' for crossing that one off the bucket list...hopefully soon enough!

One more compelling reason for leaving HO behind was to escape the pickers of nit...they're everywhere in HO...or so it seems.  I dabble.  They babble.  (No offense, pHOlks!  It may just be in this neck of the woods...or so it seems.)

No regrets.  Just fun.  Steady as she goes.

KD

KD

I enjoyed reading that; it certainly rings true with me...and I bet a lot of others as well. 🙂

Mark in Oregon

I swapped around in scales and always looked back. The HO was too small for my eyes and hands. Otherwise, I'd still have it running. I could have been content with all RTR stuff I bet. I struggle with wires inside of O scale stuff.

The grandkids found HO scale boxes stored under the O scale and pushed for me to bring it back. I have given each a small set-up to play with at home. The older one's stuff is all broke now. The younger one's is still going.

I started out in S and then moved to O.

O had a lot more stuff available and the big thing was operation. There are clubs with O gauge layouts where one could operate at a show or at the mall.

I certainly hope that operating in public opens up again and soon.

I confess I've had those feelings at times over the years.  The amount and variety of steel mill structures available in HO (thanks Walthers ) is particularly aggravating.  And then hard reality kicks in:

• I've watched too many HO modelers (and have operated with some of them) walk around the layout with a controller in one hand and a Britebar in the other.  As the OP says, HO locomotives and cars are a finicky lot and often derail or trip on switches.
• Right now, I'm building a few HO scale houses for forced perspective.  They are very small, too small for me.

So, I'll pass.  Hard pass.  Besides, I like the heft, look, smoke, sound, operating and visual impact of O gauge trains.

George

Started with Lionel at birth, but got sucked into H0 in my teens - "Lionels are toys, you should get H0: it's SCALE". Smartened-up in my 20's after years of aggravation. Fortunately, I had never gotten rid of my Lionels. They're still running, and so am I.

Current HO is so far removed from decades old memories it's not like the same scale.

My current layout uses code 70 nickle silver track (flex and RTR switches), and all of my equipment has metal wheels. (Which goes a LONG way in reducing dirt collecting on the wheels/rail.)

My momentum programmed DCC/sound equipped HO diesels w/trains can run for weeks/months without the need to clean the wheels or rail. AND, we won't talk about the incredible detail levels found in HO.

Brass rail, plastic wheels, brass wheels on engines: That is way in the past for HO.

Andre

OK, maybe it's just me but, I always though the the width of railroad tracks was the "gage", while measuring pressures was accomplished with a pressure "gauge".

https://writingexplained.org/gage-vs-gauge-difference

As a kid, I had a Marx Allstate set and pretty much wore it out.  When I decided as an adult  that I would like to get involved with trains 46 years ago, I purchased several hobby magazines and after several months, I liked the idea of the empire I could build using N scale.  So I purchase track for a modest layout as well as engine and rolling stock.  However, once I started to lay track and run a train, it occurred to me that photos in a magazine can make the trains look any size but in real life, there was NO way for me to actually enjoy seeing those trains run.  After a month or two of consternation about giving up and moving on,  I purchase a Lionel set and using my Marx track, stared an O gauge layout.  After 46 years, I have NO REGRETS!

To this day, I am amazed at the quality, features and variety that is available to us today.  

WHAT A GREAT TIME TO BE IN THE O GAUGE/SCALE HOBBY!

Happy railroading,

Don

@laming posted:

Current HO is so far removed from decades old memories it's not like the same scale.

Brass rail, plastic wheels, brass wheels on engines: That is way in the past for HO.

Andre

I'm going to agree with you Andre, in spite of now "playing" in larger scales...and isn't code 70 lovely to look at? I suspect you're using Micro Engineering flex(?) Enjoy...

Mark in Oregon

@rrman posted:

As you run trains on your empire, have you idly entertained the thought "gee wish I had done this layout in HO or N given this room size"?  By this I mean to gain longer run times, bigger sidings, more switching possibilities (if switching is your forte), larger pro-typical radius curves for Big Boys, maybe more cars and engines in your favorite road, more structures, etc.

Nope, nope, no and no. No regrets at all staying O. Yes, it takes up a lot more room than HO but my eyes have been getting worse. I still have a little bit of HO and I would like to make a diorama but that’s it. I went to HO as teenager because I didn’t like the look of Lionel track. Two rail O gives me everything I like. O scale size with realistic looking track. Sometimes less really is more.

I never got into HO because I thought it was too small, this was when I was a kid! 15 years old. N scale didn't even enter the picture, I told people that was way too small for me. So imagine my surprise when one of my best friends gave me an N scale train set for my birthday when I was around 30 years old. I said Wow! Thanks! and thought to myself I will never use this. I was already into O scale, but only post war Lionel, no new stuff or MTH at that point. So one night when I was bored I said lets see what this is all about and I opened the set and set it up. Well imagine my surprise when I actually liked the set and liked running those teeny tiny little trains! I went out and bought Kato expansion sets with switches, a few more cars and motive power, I was really getting into it. Then came reality, I told myself it's either this or O scale,  but not both and sadly I gave up the N scale. I had a lot invested in O scale and even then I knew I wasn't going to be a millionaire selling my Lionel collection so that is what stayed. I really couldn't see having two scales, with me it's either one or the other and the other was O scale which I really liked and still do to this day. I know I could have a way bigger layout with HO because it has changed so much, but starting over is not for me. Plus when I look at my collection of those big steam & diesel electric locomotives and watch them run on my COLD HARD (LOL) garage floor layout I don't regret it at all, but I gotta admit N scale was way more fun than I thought it was going to be.

Nope, never.  I got my first train set - a Lionel Scout when I was 4. When I was 6 years old there was an older kid in the neighborhood (probably around 12 or so) who had a nice Lionel set up.  One day I was over visiting and I noticed his whole layout was gone and in its place was the beginnings of what I now know was an HO empire.  I asked about the missing Lionel setup and he responded those trains were just for kids and if I stayed interested in trains THIS (meaning HO) was the way I would go.   I remember thinking I would never go for something like that...and I never did.

My decision over the last 20 years has been between S and O. I was like the OP, deciding 50 years ago, that HO was too problematic.  If I could go back 35 years, I should have gave HO a try. However, at my advanced age, I would still be in S or O today.

@Hot Water posted:

OK, maybe it's just me but, I always though the the width of railroad tracks was the "gage", while measuring pressures was accomplished with a pressure "gauge".

It's just you.  For further proof, take a look at the name of the magazine that hosts this forum, although I have to admit I was surprised to find there actually is a word spelled "gage."  It denotes value so, as such, is a form of measure.

I went from HO to O, and I ain’t going back.
I still have a little bit of HO left, mostly things I formed an attachment to. There is a loop of HO track in the Christmas section of my layout. It is meant for a Bachmann On30 set, but occasionally I will run one of my HO sets up there, just to see them move again.

Could I begin again...it would be On3.  Accurate detailed 3 foot gauge models run on "almost HO" track so much much more can be fit in a given space.  And the beauty is O scale buildings and figures.  Our On3 group, Slim Rail, attracts even the most veteran model railroaders who cannot quite figure out "what scale is that???" at shows.  It's an obscure one at times.  On30 is also a gem but not is somewhat of a fantasy gauge..but close enough.  Sn3 being even rarer is to die for.  Great size and wonderfully detailed products.  Finally HON3...HO buildings and scale run on almost N scale track.  Tons of detail and layout in a smaller space but still HO scale.  Love em all.  I have way too much 3 rail to ever dream of switching...but being in a smaller home...would love to.

@dkdkrd posted:   

.......I'm not one for a lot of switching maneuvers...card orders, dispatching, methodical sequencing of cars into a train, etc..  I like to see and hear them run...mostly one at a time...passenger or freight, steam or diesel, favorite flags all.  Conventional running...one hand on the throttle, the other with stemware or stein, lost in thoughts and memories...always with a sigh and a smile..........

No regrets.  Just fun.  Steady as she goes.

KD

This says it all! (Excerpt from dkdkrd’s post above)