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Price? Space? More variety in other scales? Waiting for a product that has been catalogued 2 years ago and still has not hit the market?  When I look at what is available in HO it makes me wonder if I should go that route.  More manufacturers to choose from.  Also seems like the Engines with DCC have really improved.  Unlimited choices for rolling stock in HO also.  Anyone else ever been pushed to the edge?  Thoughts?  Opinions? 

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No....  I would never give up the size.  I previously had HO and have several friends with HO and they have wonderful layouts.  But for me it is a dexterity and visualization issue.  Too difficult to tinker with the small scale when running and particularly when modeling the HO pieces.  The visualization issue is the believability of O scale.  Stand eye level and the equipment can be very realistic. 

 

Get a good collection of tweezers and have fun...

All I have to do is pick up a HO boxcar in my left hand and an O boxcar in my right and the answer is clear, I made the right choice.  (That's why I've kept my HO stuff, just to remind myself)

 

I've realized when I went to O scale that I didn't need a lot of stuff to keep me happy, that was one of the main reasons I switched to O scale.  I have more than any one person can use at one time anyway (10 engines and 50 pieces of rolling stock to me is a lot).

I can't even tell you what scale I'm in at the moment. In my garage right now my LGB trolley is on the workbench, a Corgi Pcc is opened up while I figure out which drive I want to install. 

 

I've got two sections of bench work completed, and I have a HO test track next to a N scale test track--and my On30 4-6-0 is on the HO track.

 

I have issues....

 

Jeff C

I gave some thought to it recently......I saw an online article on Z scale. There was video of a HUGE modular layout with a Big Boy pulling a string of reefers. I REALLY liked the wide open space that was easy to replicate in Z scale. A 3 foot wide layout in Z looks like it would be 12 feet in O.  So the space factor and what is being made today.....and the fact I could mold and cast my own reefers for next to nothing. Tempting....but then I remembered my N scale days and the tiny spot that would stop the train dead.....and how it never happens in 3R O.......that and the Big Boy was like $2000......

When I was about 10, I had HO as a way to hold me over between Christmas layouts. It never ran right for me. Now, the only HO I have is either on an O gauge flatcar, or in it's boxes.

 

The only other gauge I have is some S gauge, which was given to me. I put it on the layout, and I can't get that to run right either. Next step is to replace the wheels on their tenders (AF 290, two of them).

I'll stick with O gauge. I can get them to work fairly well.

I just got back in the hobby a couple years ago. Tried to convince myself HO was the way to go because of the things you mentioned, mostly price and space. Just could not do it, it is just not the same as O. For me something was lacking.

 

Contrary to what others here may think, I think there is a lot available in O today, it's really a great time to be in O. I have managed to find more than I could afford in each MTH catalog in at least the last 2 years. Ran out of funds before getting to Lionel. Only managed to get 1 Legacy diesel so far. I prefer DCS and Legacy to DCC.  Sounds and feel of O is much better.  I like the ease of having a 3rd rail for power and having very few problems with the track. An O train looks more like a train to me. I can't see well enough to get HO on the tracks. I don't mind waiting for product at all, waiting make it all the more enjoyable when you get it. Like waiting for Christmas! I'm sure there is more...

I was "sort of in HO" for years, never got anything accomplished because of always worrying about Prototypical correctness--what year was a box car made? rivet counting and etc. Accumulated kits and protype data but little got done.

Recently decided to have some fun with my railroad interest. I've acquired several pieces of LIRR over the years in 3 rail--K-line Greenport Scoot, MTH Bud cars, RMT etc. Started to build a layout with tubular track, traditional size equipment, conventional control and I was thrilled the other day when I could run my LIRR RMT diesel around in a complete loop.

At a couple of feet who can count rivits? I'm having a ball with my "impressionistic" railroad.

Scotie

(but don't think that I don't still admire the fantastic scale work done by others, just not for me)

Considering G due to comparable cost, larger size, radio control, battery power etc. A 4X8 layout plan converted to G is on the drawing board along with additional track and roadbed being bought. I will keep it simple as an experiment. Already have a garden layout..and having one scale for inside and out is appealing. This summer Ill see just how much I like or dislike this idea. Regardless, I will not sell off any O until I am satisfied this alternative is better. Age is a consideration in the future..if I am going to change sooner than later is not a bad idea.

Space yes. Price never. Unless you really enjoy the low end stuff, it is my opinion that HO is not much cheaper than O. When I look at a HO steam engine and then look at the price I think to myself "They want that much money for that teenie tiny engine?" Which is like 1/4 the volume of an O gauge engine of equivalent size. Nah, I don't believe that HO is the cheap alternative it used to be. Trains are expensive period.

When I was about 12, I decided to leave O and move to HO gauge and built a layout by myself on an old ping pong table.  My family was very proud because I did all the work myself including the scenery. 

 

I'm sure it looked like it was built by someone who was 12.  My uncle gave me extra cork, flex track, and some grass paper to get started.  I saved my money and bought mostly tyco, atlas, ahearn and an "expensive" HO powerpack with momentum running on atlas track.

 

At the time, my money could go further in HO and there were cheap cars and locomotives to build a large fleet.

 

My father was kind of upset that I had abandoned O gauge, but he predicted I would return to O gauge down the road.  By 15 or 16, the HO got packed away and it's still packed up to this day.

 

I didn't sell any of my O gauge stuff off to buy HO equipment like some of my friends did.  They remained packed it up in newspaper for several years until my kids were small.  Now they are like treasures from my boyhood and we enjoy them periodically and at Christmas time.

 

I doubt I would leave O gauge again.  I may take breaks to do other things or travel, but its just right for me in so many ways.

 

 

 

Been there, done that.  I left 3-rail O behind once I went off to college, then got married.  I was heavily into HO and even N for a while, and I still have the equipment.

 

But O lured me back.  After about three years, my interests turned back to 3-rail O once more, and that's where they've been ever since.  I still dabble in 2-rail scale O, though.

 

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