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.
I think O gauge would be a good choice if you just set up trains during the holidays. Any type of O gauge track you get with a set is going to be easy to set up and take down. The engines and cars are easier that smaller scales to put on the track.
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.
Welcome to the forum. I'd add that for a carpet layout, something like Lionel Fastrack is a good choice as it already has the roadbed to keep the carpet clean and the fibers out of the gears.
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.
Welcome, I would still recommend HO scale because of the vast product selection, price, and space requirements. How big will you go ?
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Model Train Forum
883.8K posts
32.2K members
Since 2006
A forum community dedicated to model train owners and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about brands, various scales, repairs, storage, displays, reviews, accessories, classifieds, and more!