If you could start over...

I would have made the overhead lighting more accessable for changing burnt out bulbs.  I'm not so far along that this can't be corrected, but it will be a PITA to do so at this point.

Tom B

My earliest memories are of my grandfather and I enjoying his huge Std Gauge trains. That was in 1947. The only thing I would do is pay more attention to the finer details of the early days of toy trains.

I can't, so I don't think about it.

 

A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams. - John Barrymore

What, me worry?

I would only collect traditional sized items. I only run conventional so collecting only Williams, proto one MTH, MPC and Kline would be a fine idea. The Largest curves in Gargraves possible for my space. Modifying used trains  that are ten years past trendy is a fun and interesting hobby in and of itself.

I started over on a new layout about eight months ago. I'm really trying not to make the same mistakes I made on the other layouts. My wiring is not going to look like a spaghetti dish, I can reach everywhere the trains run, all switch machines will be under the table, minimum radius will be 072 and I will try to keep the mess at a minimum. Don

Am seriously thinking about getting started in Large Scale which will necessitate a scaling back of our O collection. With no personal layout in the near future, our local club layout is my only option for 3 rail. There is a regional Garden RR Club but nothing really close...

Don,

Sounds like you have all of the world's problems solved.

I'm a bit surprised with the number of folks who said they would go to HO, lack of enough room and costs must be a contributing factor.  I wonder if this question were posted on the HO forum if those folks would go to O gauge?

 

It would be tough for me to start over, the only thing I would do differently is to go with Gargraves track and do a minimum of  054 radius.

O takes up too much space to store stuff especially if you like to buy. And O buildings are huge space absorbers, even the track takes a lot more room than HO even with HO's 22" radius. HO is much more finicky but its something you have to keep trying to minimize.

 I would have liked to live near and joined a large O gauge club where I could have run some trains first and gotten tips from guys who know. I made one visit to the NJHR and learned a bunch of valuable lessons just being around them. Each guy gave tips and from all directions. Tuff to learn that as you go.

 I wasted to much time and effort switching scales and equipment. Now I've got boxes piling up for my next O gauge build. Maybe I have learned enough to get going finally??

 Would have loved to lived next store to Joe G, rest in peace, when he was building that layout. Great thing about the internet, there's a lot of guys to learn from.

I would not START over.  I started about 1947 when family members pooled resouces

and presented me with the (begged for) Marx #999 set with track fastened to a large

piece of plywood under the tree.  I still remember that scene although we moved from

that town and old house, which later burned, but I can still remember that view into

the parlor and the board under the tree.  I later went into HO...hindsight is great, but

for years I collected HO rolling stock for Colorado railroads, because variety was available, and little was in other gauges.   I would now not go at all into HO.  Someone on here said it is "finicky".  That is how I found the tarnishing brass HO track then, and why I am unhappy with any O track brands today.  I had a little success (not a lot) advertising for trains in farm magazines when I did get back into O gauge, then too late, in the mid 1980's.  All that time I was walking through trains shows buying HO, I should have been picking up Marx.  This before even hearing about TCA, and I should have been advertising in those farm magazines and any other venue of the time for Marx.

HO still has far and away the variety and selection, and that annoys me considerably.

I have HO, O-gauge 3rail , On30 (uses HO TRACK) . I had N scale off & on.

I want G Gauge when the dog goes to heaven. She is a digger ! she would tear apart the train .

I use LIONEL FAST TRACK, KATO HO TRACK & KATO N scale track !

THE MORAL FOR ME IS NO PERMANENT LAYOUTS !   I change my layouts as much as I want !

I have no regrets !

For my O gauge trains I buy MTH Rail KING size trains.  I love NYC & CHRISTMAS Trains ! PENNSY trains are in the works!  I buy mostly new stuff ! 

I've just done a reboot. Almost finished selling-off the FasTrack. Later this month I'll be ordering my Gargraves straights/curves and Ross Switches. When I first read about guys using this combination, I didn't get it. After using Atlas w/ Ross switches I understand now. I especially like the stainless steel rails. For some reason, they don't get as dirty, as quickly as the Atlas.

 

As for the FasTrack, I was ready to start laying track and I had to be honest with myself. It is noisy, real noisy. I did experiment with one 30" section gluing HO foam roadbed pieces on the bottom. It did make a significant improvement. BUT when I did the math, it really didn't make sense to spend the money to try to quiet-down the FasTrack.

 

Gilly

I agree with your cmoments Jon, just go to one of the HO forums their lame in my opinion. OGR is the best train forum bar none.  l enjoy all scales , HO has its merits so does N scale, and there space savings. ON30 is neat with its small size.

 

I do have some S scale but when it comes to selection and price S scale is still and always will be pricey regardless of MTH entrance into the market place. The biggest overriding factor to people "complaining or rethinking"  O scale 2 or 3 rail is the size/ space factor, In my humbe opinion.

I have always been in O gauge when I was in model railroading. But I was all over the map when it came to purchasing items. If I could start over I would be in O with late 50's early 60's time frame (first generation diesel) with all scale equipment. I would limit my purchases to one Passenger consist and one Freight consist with one diesel engine for each consist. I would have my layout with as big as possible curves and utilize as much available space available to build a layout. Keeping it simple would probably be my main concern. I've spent too many frustrating hours because of wiring snafu's. Running the trains is what it should be all about!

I'm very happy where I'm at now...3 small layouts: 5x8 "O", 4x6 "S", and 2x4 "N", plus a "O" Christmas layout 3 1/2x6. I'm glad FasTrack was available in 2005 (plus "S-Helper" and "Kato N"), or I may still be in a Christmas-only mode.

I prefer "O" because of the scenics..."quality" 1:43 cars, Animations, big enough to see detailed room interiors, big enough to appreciate nice figures. Train-wise, any scale is fine with me. I admit, MTH "HO" is very tempting.

I would stay pretty much the same as I am now.

Getting here was a learning journey, You need that trip.

I like BIG steam, so Scale isn't going to work in the space available, and my space exceeds that of many on here.

Hang in there guys & Gals, And look at the bright side, We have so much available today!!!

I will stick with Imperial Railking engines, and matching size rolling stock.

I WILL Repaint most of them into Rio Grande.

Lionel isn't selling anything I want right now, but I'm sure they will eventually.

I am changing the layout to Around the walls on Scaletrax. Realtrax is noisy and I like the Flex sections of ScaleTrax, it really opens up laying track more realistically.

 

Biggest change I am making? Proper benchwork instead of using stuff already in the basement.

And Yes,the first new engine I bought sees very little run time, I'll end up giving it & the caboose it came with to a child that loves it.

It is the wrong RR name and the wrong style for my layout. But it wasn't expensive and I did enjoy it for a while, so I'm still glad I got it.

With all this talk if HO, I might as well relate my story. A few months back, I decided for some reason that I wanted to get back into HO. I tore up all my O gauge track, and stripped my 6x10 platform back down to a 4x8 with a 16"x4' yard extension, and set about building an HO layout. I had all the track laid and about half painted and ballasted. It turned out, however, that I wasn't getting much enjoyment out of it. The trains seemed "too small", painting and ballasting the track was tedious, and I've never been interested in doing realistic scenery. In addition, I'd done some switching/operating to test my track plan and in so doing found that "realistic operation" no longer interests me. So, up it all came (luckily I'd used mostly stuff I had left from my previous HO layout) and I'm now back to O gauge, just on a 4x8.

HO ain't no bargain, either. In O I collect 1970's through 1990's Lionel and can get diesels well under $100, new in the box. The stuff l like in HO (1990's diesels, mainly Conrail) is now well over the $100 mark, sometimes close to double that.

I got back into "0" gauge about 35 years ago.  At that time there really was no option but to be in 3 rail, conventional control "0".  American Flyer was really a forgotten figment of the past.  So, I took a couple of different options, getting into collecting older trains for a while, then building a sort-of Hi Rail layout using Lionel's most scale looking trains, until the '90's when the first of command control became available.  The went into that pretty deeply.

 

But, if I could still start over, say the house burned down with everything in it, I would seriously consider "S" gauge for an operating layout.  It would seen that in "S" gauge you could get about twice the layout that you can place in a given space in "0" gauge.  And, I do admit that I wouldn't mind dumping that 3rd rail.  Furthermore, your curves can be much more gradual and realistic, simply because you'd probably use the same curve radii or diameter that you now use for "0" simply because you're regulated by the amount of space available.  And now, the "S" gaugers have similar command control available to them that we have in "0".

 

But I agree with the above comment:  HO is too small.  I once was into HO until I simply couldn't see the stuff any more.

 

Paul Fischer

I am going to start over.

 

On3

• bought a few dozen GI Joe's when i was 10 and left them NIB.
• bought (more) MSFT in 1988.
• gotten out of the market completely in 1999.
• learned to fly well before i was already 48 years old.
• wished my master toolmaker/ grandfather had lived another decade.
• gotten into live steam 10 years earlier.

Liquidated everything I had and left the hobby.

If I were going to reinvent the wheel, S gauge would be my choice for the main layout. I would convert the clockwork layout to three rail to run my vintage tinplate in addition to the clockworks.

Bruce

For the layout-building aspect, I've tried something new on each one I've built, but I guess the only thing I would do differently would be to try some sound abatement tactics.

 

As for collecting, I would get deeper into Standard Gauge sooner.

Great thread.

 

I am real pleased with most of my decisions over 9 years in this hobby.  FasTrack has served my particular needs very well, and I am firmly committed to O gauge.  But within that, I see the advantages of both scale and traditional size more clearly than I did 9 years ago, when I would always buy scale.

 

One good decision I made was to stop buying new engines two years ago.  Right now, I don't have the money, and while the new engines have truly amazing details and features, the quality control must improve for me to justify the expense. (Not a rant, just mentioning a choice I have made.)

 

The best decision - to go with command control - a no brainer, and something that has really kept me engaged in the hobby.

Hi,  I moved from HO to O (3-rail) and G gauge about 10 years ago.  I am also a member a HO club and I regularly operate on a friend's HO layout.

 

Modern HO with DCC and sound is just as reliable as modern O gauge.  It operates extremely well if the track is carefully laid and the electrical is carefully done.  The sound from new HO locomotives is extremely good.  A major advantage of HO is that it takes much less space to store equipment.  No one saves HO car boxes except for engine and some high end passenger car boxes.

 

The advantage of O 3-rail is that it the wiring is much easier especially if you are doing reverse loops, crossing, etc.  It is also easier to lay the larger track.  3-rail trains are much more likely to stay on the track.  The Lionel and MTH command systems are also easier to set up and wire than a DCC system.  

 

The cost of both systems is about the same because nearly everyone in HO buys twice as much stuff to fill the same amount of space as an O 3-rail layout.  HO takes almost as much space as O gauge to operate a scale layout because you need large curves and switches.  Forty inch radius (O-80) curves and number six switches are common on scale HO layouts.  This makes O-72 seem small by comparison.

 

The biggest problem with O 3-rail is the lack of local hobby shops and technical support.  This forum has been very helpful to overcome this problem.  

 

I am very happy with O 3-rail.  I just wish that there were more people in my area (SF Bay Area) who were interested in the Hi-rail aspect of the hobby.