No.
No way.
When I first got into trains several years ago, I bought some HO stuff. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to go O or HO. I later got an N-scale set for the office. While HO and N are fun and have certain advantages (less space, more realism, a wide variety of locomotives and rolling stock), they just aren't as fun. O-gauge has the following advantages, which makes it the winner for me:
1. More interesting to watch (due to larger size).
2. Easier to work on and more robust (due to larger size). Perhaps modern complicated electronics are limiting this advantage, but traditional O-gauge stuff could last a lifetime.
3. More history (been around longer than the other scales)
4. Availability of both "toy" locomotives and rolling stock and very realistic ones.
5. OPERATING ACCESSORIES (Yes I know there are some of these in HO, like the old Tyco ones, but much more limited).
No! I do not car what limited space I have. It is O and standard!
Joe
No! I do not care what limited space I have. It is O and standard!
Joe
OP-This subject seems odd to me.You are on a forum dedicated to O scale and you ask would you rather switch to HO??We love O scale thats why were here.Nick
rockstars1989 posted:OP-This subject seems odd to me.You are on a forum dedicated to O scale and you ask would you rather switch to HO??We love O scale thats why were here.Nick
Seems like a fair question to me.
With the exception of several "trophy" models, I've been slowly disposing my O stuff as the mood suits to concentrate my efforts on my scale S railroad.
Rusty
I though about it once but then thought "meh no thanks". I'll never get that 9 seconds of life back again.
Never!
I would rather have a O or even G scale engine + 3 or 4 car display on a track than a room full of HO. I don't want to have to squint to admire trains.
HO looks neat in photos...
But trains, I want to run big stuff, I want the volume of sound, I want kids to go WOW, and I want my toys...
So its O for me. It only took having N, and HO, to realize that.
I have O , HO,and ON30 trains !
WRGMILW posted:I have O , HO,and ON30 trains !
I have N, HO, HOn3, S, O 3r, On30, Standard gauge, and all G scales. Now I only have a few in some scales...I have 3 S scale cars that came in a lot of O.......but I can't pass up a good deal in any scale.
If I was starting all over I might consider h.o. because of the operating benefits of more in a small space. However, I have too much time and money invested in my 16x35 foot layout to even think about changing. I do love O Scale because of the size. The only thing about O Scale is the issues with quality and the production/delivery issues with Atlas. I run TMCC and favor Atlas and Lionel products in that order.
Absolutely, and this is exactly what I have done. My main line from west staging to east staging is appx. 12 scale miles. Unfortunately, about six of that is in a Helix. When I run operating sessions, I keep 10 plus folks busy for three hours (9 fast clock hours). The layout runs by TT&TO, and when fully staffed utilizes a dispatcher and station operator (a "super operator" that does the functions of multiple station operators).
So far, I have sold all of my three rail O scale modules, my 20 ft. cargo trailer, and about 70% of my three rail roster so that I can concentrate exclusively on the basement HO railroad, and the motive power and equipment associated with it.
Here are some photos from the Railgroup Invitational 2017, during which I hosted a Friday evening and Sunday afternoon session for out of town guests (we run alternate years with Prairie Rail in the greater KC area). As you can see, we are not letting absence of scenery keep us from actually operating the railroad. Foam Core cutouts stand in for stations, and red and green craft paper stand in for train order signals.
This layout, and the motive power and equipment, are going to keep me VERY active in the hobby in retirement. 
Worley yard at the start of the Friday session. This is my secondary yard.
Worley yard at the end of the Friday session. The "Bessemer Turn" came back with several loads, and the local industries got switched. This yard keeps two guys busy for three hours.
Regards,
Jerry
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I decided, after much deliberation, to go with a farm setting for my O gauge layout. So in a post-Thanksgiving dinner haze I ordered a Plasticville Barn ... in HO scale. Yeah, hate it when eBay "recommends" something based on my searches. My fault for not paying close enough attention (until completing the order) ... but now I have an HO barn. So I guess I'll have to switch to HO scale now. 
O gauge trains with a mix of On30 trains, gives the best of both worlds.
No, thanks. I like the size & detail of O, and we are moving in 12 months and my dear wife knows the new home has to have a basement, so that HAS to be a larger space than the 7' x 13-1/2' space that I now have.
Lehigh Junction - where the only maintenance is "Defered Maintenance" !
gnnpnut posted:Absolutely, and this is exactly what I have done....
This layout, and the motive power and equipment, are going to keep me VERY active in the hobby in retirement.
And, what a beautiful layout it is! Always been a fan of your work, can't wait to see more.
Many moons ago I started out with O gauge... mostly postwar Lionel. Switched to my first HO layout in the mid 1980s. It was okay, but I really missed the O gauge operating accessories. So I ended up going back to O a few years later. Took a break from trains after that to run RC pan cars for a while. After that, about ten years ago, I took up N gauge on a whim and was pleasantly surprised by it. I had Kato equipment and it seemed to track better and not derail like my old HO stuff did. About four years ago I packed up the N stuff (still have it) and went back to O. There is no turning back now... I have way too many dollars invested in O now to switch to HO or any other gauge or hobby. Plus there is that postwar O gauge ozone smell that is just too addicting! You don’t get that with HO or N! Lol!
I may have responded no already.
No change in status.
No, been there, done that. O gauge has the size and "presence" that is more fun than small trains. More sound, more smoke, more impact as a the train goes by. I am interested in On-30 Bachmann, which if added to O adds another dimension and fun/interest. If I were to go smaller, I would go back to N with Kato trains and track, and Micro-trains. No plans to do so, the HO, N, and G are all stored away, with a small Z loop in a desk drawer. -Ken
Would you consider going HO to build and operate a longer layout?
I am going attempt to do both. Already belong to a club that has a LARGE 3-rail layout. I am in the second stage of having an HO layout professionally built. This layout will the option to be 100% hands-free operational under TrainController software and a cheap Windows based computer.
Even though my HO layout will not be large, I will be able to run 5 trains at once, on two main lines incorporating stations stops (for the Super Chief and El Capitan trains) at the passenger station, without touching any controls. Sit back with a pot of coffee or a few beers (depending on the season) and rail fan. When friends stop, over some or all of the computer controlled functions can be turned off and they can run trains via hand-held controls.
I will post more on this subject when the project gets going.
NOPE! TOO small and I love my LGB and standard gauge.
Were I interested in building a scale detailed layout, it would be in HO or N gauge. Not "O".
I am not a scale model railroader. I play with toy trains.
Well said C.W. 
Tom
This is an older thread so I may have responded earlier.
I mess around with O scale and On30, HO, and N scale. I’d love to switch to S scale, as it seems like an ideal size, but product availability is very frustrating in that scale.
I will never probably have much indoor room for a layout, so HO or On30 will remain my prime focus, but I do have ideas about starting an outdoor layout in O scale, or large scale (or maybe both!) as I have plenty of outdoor space.
The idea that the smaller scales are unreliable is simply false. There is no truth to the notion that HO scale or N scale layouts need more track cleaning to be reliable. The bottom line is that the cure for track cleaning is to run your trains as often as possible, and the problem doesn’t exist.
I also think that overall quality control is much better in the smaller scales. The only negative to some of the small scale stuff (and it seems to be a bigger problem in HO when compared to N scale) is that the details such as handrails, steps and grab irons are often delicate, and I consider this when buying something in HO.
Jeff C
Nope. I take pleasure in learning to bring neglected O's back to life. Can't do that with HO.
Size matters.
I really liked a lot about HO scale. Lots of equipment available. Solid products that ran well, etc. I just had a tough time handling the finer details on certain equipment. When I built a hopper that I needed magnifying glass to see and tweezers to apply the details, only to have them repeatedly fall off, I quit. My hands aren't steady and my eyes aren't what they need to be. I had many engines that I put lower end decoders inside that failed anyways. While taking those engines apart repeatedly, things broke off. I liked many Atlas HO offerings especially their Gold level engines with sound, yet I still was not happy with the older stuff I had. I bought a couple of the Broadway LTD products with sound and liked them too. I just had a tuff time seeing the detailing clearly as my eyes started getting worse.
I went to G scale after that scale. Not much of anything was available in modern and was very slow out to come after that. So I started trying ( maybe just planning?) to build stuff and found out it was tougher to get things decently made to look the part. The older G scale DCC stuff I had didn't run all that well either.
I got an O scale MTH CP Rail SD80MAC dummy in my hands at Aurora Hobbies, and I never put it back. It seemed like the perfect compromise in size and heft. Had Lionel released their S scale Flyer stuff with scale wheels and MTH starting in S, just a little earlier, things might have went differently.
So the main problem now is that I never gave up on G scale while diving deeply into O scale 2 rail. I also dabble in 3 rail. I still have some HO stuff too. I didn't wish to add S scale to that. MTH had released some G scale modern stuff and that just left me running 2 scales at the same time using their control system. Had they released more modern engines, I probably would have stuck with G scale only.
Now when I run I leave my glasses on. When I work on stuff, they have to come off. I tried bifocals and that didn't work at all.
So I blame my eyesight for my many scales of trains!
The part about track cleaning in HO is mainly from the wrong old rail material used and/or the use of those cheap plastic wheels!
No!
NO, my eyes are so bad now I have trouble see O scale
I contemplated for about 1/148th of a second what could be achieved in "N" scale on my current 14x39 layout. Then I came to the stark reality that what N really means is Nnnnnnnnnnnottt big enough.
I kinda thought about HO before jumping into O gauge, but based upon my experience as a kid with Lionel's (failing) rubber band drive New Haven locos (BTW,still have that set in box!), plus forever cleaning brass track, and clunky Atlas switches that derailed trains for no reason, I decided nah. Given there is now nickle-silver rails and more track vendors, and standards are more uniform etc I might have considered HO to get twice the run and yards than I have now. But given my age and not so good eyesight and hands, I will stay with Lionel stuff where I can see lettering and easily re-rail the occasional miscreant car truck(s).
And as I have posted several times, I got back into O gauge when, on a whim, I bought an MTH engine at auction (cheep,cheep) to put on a shelf, set it up on a circle of track, and was amazed when it emitted startup/run noises and announcements! 
The rest was history as they say.
Engineer-Joe posted:The part about track cleaning in HO is mainly from the wrong old rail material used and/or the use of those cheap plastic wheels!
Also, from the Athearn blue box loco days when they were using the sintered iron engine wheels.
Jeff C
When my son and I were doing HO we had an Athearn Blue Box SW-2. It worked very nicely.
The Budd cars with rubber band drive were a different story.
Chris Lonero posted:dk122trains posted:No,never,nada! Its O gauge or no gauge!
Well put Don
ditto for me
I always find these kinds of questions a little out of place on a forum that predominantly is focused on O gauge and O scale trains. Talk about a skewed perspective!
I've modeled HO, N, and O and enjoy them all for different reasons. With my current space arrangement, I'm probably going to break out the N scale again and build a massive 2'x4' layout. My 2 rail O layout is on hold pending new space.
Run what you enjoy and don't worry what others think. My 16x24 HO layout I had as a kind was still the most fun one. I had four mainlines, 100 car freight trains, 20 car passenger trains, two yards at 6 tracks and 10 tracks with the 10 track yard being about 18' long. Yes, that was fun.
No. Wouldn't save much money on equipment. The space saving is a positive, but I like the creative process of designing O scale for small spaces. Also, hearing "That's AWESOME!" vs. "That's cute" when they see Big Trains with BIG SOUND is really rewarding.
Like my dad said, with HO trains you can't even see em! Why would I want those?
leikec posted:Engineer-Joe posted:The part about track cleaning in HO is mainly from the wrong old rail material used and/or the use of those cheap plastic wheels!
Also, from the Athearn blue box loco days when they were using the sintered iron engine wheels.
Jeff C
AGHRMatt posted:No. Wouldn't save much money on equipment. The space saving is a positive, but I like the creative process of designing O scale for small spaces. Also, hearing "That's AWESOME!" vs. "That's cute" when they see Big Trains with BIG SOUND is really rewarding.
Jeff, I wondered why my old stuff ran worse!
Matt, I also did not like paying well almost 2 hundred dollars for a tiny engine when for about the same price, I could buy an O scale. & Look at them now!
I'm still mad that the G scale (steam) engines are plastic and cost as much or more than a metal or diecast O scale. One bad move and the plastic engines need fixing.
