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1K views 9 replies 7 participants last post by  holava 
#1 ·
My name is Tim I am 39 from Maywood NJ. I had a small set that was bought at a garage sale a few years ago, I would take it out and Christmas but this past year I lost it to a flood . I want to finally purchase a nice set went down to the train store today for the first time with plans to go HO but after looking around I am really considering O. Would love to hear thoughts on this and looking forward to learning on here.
 
#3 ·
Welcome aboard!





TimD;

Welcome to the forum! If your new train will be used as a temporary Christmas setup, then O-gage three-rail, like Lionel, would be a good choice. It's quite rugged and can handle running on the floor. However, I strongly recommend spreading an old bed sheet under the tree and the train track. This will help keep carpet fibres and dust out of the mechanism of the locomotive. If you want to go a step further, you could use plywood, or extruded foam insulation board to make a more detailed layout to put under the tree, complete with scenery.
The next step up would be a permanent layout supported by wood benchwork, and useable year-round. It just depends on what you want to do. If you use either of the latter options, you could use O-scale, HO-scale, N-scale, or whatever scale you like.

again welcome;

Traction Fan :smilie_daumenpos:
 
#8 · (Edited)
Permanent Layout





TimD;

Since you want a permanent layout, and have part of a basement to build it in, that opens up your choices considerably. You indicated that you were considering HO-scale, but then were leaning toward O-scale. There are really two different types of O-scale trains, three-rail, and two rail. Three-rail is probably the more familiar. Lionel, and other toy train manufacturers, use three rail track, and AC power.
Two-rail is electrically identical to, (though of course physically much bigger, than) the popular HO & N scale trains, and, like them, runs on DC power.
The three-rail fans like to refer to their favorite size of model trains as "O-gage." The "track gage" or distance between the two outer running rails is a common element that slightly different sizes of trains, from different manufacturers, can all run on. The folks on our "O-scale" and "Tinplate" sections can give you better information than I can. I'm an N-scale guy.
Many train sets, at least in HO and N scales, are not a particularly good buys. They tend to be made up of low quality components, in order to keep the cost of the set down. Particularly this close to Christmas, the commercial toy market tends to have lots of outright junk being foisted off on unsuspecting consumers who don't know much about trains, so be careful. This may be less true of O-scale trains, but I recommend you check any prospective purchase out with our O-scale experts.

The files below are some that I wrote for new modelers planning to build their first layout. Browse through them if you want. They may have some info in them that you might find helpful.

Good luck, have fun;

Traction Fan :smilie_daumenpos:

View attachment WHERE DO I START rev 4.pdf

View attachment 1 How to build a better first layout.pdf

View attachment 2 How to build a better first layout.pdf

View attachment 3 & 4 How to build a better first layout.pdf

View attachment 5 How to build a better first layout.pdf

View attachment 6 How to build a better first layout.pdf

View attachment All AboutTurnouts rev 4.pdf

View attachment MODEL RAILROADING ON A BUDGET.pdf

View attachment Model Railroad Terminology 3.pdf
 
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