[Carman]

What attracts you to HO scale?

Kyle

 

[stationmaster]

WOW!!! What a question!

I was raised with HO. Probably the availability of so many engines and cars, price, and the fact that I can still get a lot of track down in a small space, like an extra bedroom or a confiscated garage or basement.

i do have a G-Scale layout in the yard, and I just purchased a lot that contained a bunch of O-gauge cars, track, and engines. But HO will always be the mainstay of the collection.

Bob

 

[MacDaddy55]

The Time,Space Continuim excelerated!

WOW!!! What a question!

I was raised with HO. Probably the availability of so many engines and cars, price, and the fact that I can still get a lot of track down in a small space, like an extra bedroom or a confiscated garage or basement.

i do have a G-Scale layout in the yard, and I just purchased a lot that contained a bunch of O-gauge cars, track, and engines. But HO will always be the mainstay of the collection.

Bob

I believe that "The Master" Has heet a hooomerun like de Babes Rooth!!! Carman do you have kids....like small cuddly ones who just love playing with things like ....trains!? HO is the perfect size for kids, easy to put on track, tough enough to take a hit, and priced just right if that "hit "is a haymaker! I have nothing against any other scale.....I'm just a TRAIN HO!!!:laugh::laugh:

 

[Lester Perry]

Originally the availability of stuff. Even though the road I model had very little available it was no better in other scales. I had to paint my power for the most part. I also had to paint caboose's. That was good in hind sight. I can now get almost anything I desire commercially. I am considering going back to painting again. Now as I am getting older 0 scale looks interesting, but I am too deep in HO to change now. I am hoping to add to my layout this summer, Time will tell.
Les

 

[stationmaster]

Yeh, Les, I'm modeling 6 different roads on my layout, including your beloved C&O. All passed within a few miles of my home back in the day. If you think C&o is tough, try Monon or Wabash!! NKP is not much easier.

Bob

 

[Lester Perry]

Stationmaster how long have you been modeling those roads. I don't know about the others but C&O until about 15 years ago was not available. I was told that CSX would not release the rights to the name or logo, That went for Chessie and CSX also. I wanted a long coal drag but until what I call recently I couldn't do it. I now have around 150 C&O coal cars. A 35 car coal train is normal for my layout, but don't be surprised to see 50 or more. I have pulled 101 coal cars plus a caboose. Just so I can say I can do it. When I have open house I usually have 75 car coal and about 40 - 50 freight running.
Les

 

[stationmaster]

Although Ido have quite a bit o C&O, much pre-1970. I've found that rolling stock is not that bad to find. Engines, on the other hand, can be an adventure. Even teh Chessie System tagged products seemed to be ll B&O.

I think that Monon and Wabash are much harder to find. With the restoration of a couple of Berkshires, the NKP has come to be a bit easier find. For a LONG time, I was buying undecorated stock and applying decals. the difficulties I was having was one of the biggest reasons I purchased a decal program for my computer and started making my own decals.

I do find the whole scenario a bit hard to understand since C&O was a big coal drag road and many like to model "coal roads". But, you may be correct in stating the deal with CSX. But, Conrail owned some of the C&O rights along with CSX. Clinchfield was another hard one and still is.

One thing I have noticed while traveling and visiting various hobby shops in other regions is that roads found in those alien regions are more apt to carry the "fallen flags" of those areas. I visited a shop in St. Louis a few months ago and found nothing but western roads. No NW, NYC, or Pennsylvania, ACL at all. But if you wanted Santa Fe, Southern Pacific, or BNSF, you were definitely in the right place there.

Bob

 

[Lester Perry]

Bob I have had no problem finding power for last 10 years as Proto made GP7&9 in C&O. They also made a couple of steam. Bachman makes a few steam now and Hornsby makes the H8. I am sure there are more, I just can't think of them off hand. I believe it is Atlas makes GP35.
Les

 

[stationmaster]

Back in the day, AHM made the BL2. Intermountain made the F-units with the bow wave. Walthers(Blue Box) had a couple of GP7's. Steam has usually been pretty easy. Rivarossi came out with the Allegheny 2-6-6-2 a few years back. IHC had 2-8-0's and 2-6-0's for some time now. Stewart made some RS's and Varney had a 2-6-0 and a 2-8-0 wearing the C&O badge.

You need to invest in the decal program. I think it ran about $40 from Walthers. Paper isn't cheap though, but not out of reach. The packets come in 4-packs, I believe. And if you buy undecorated cars, many times they are cheaper than the decorated ones. The savings on the cars, usually a buck or two, offsets the cost of the paper and program if you have a number of cars. The big deal si getting the car info and tagging info correct.

Bob

 

[Lester Perry]

OK Bob I am interested in the program. You seem pleased with yours, how about some guidance here in this. I have 2 of the Alleghenies. Also have done some painting and decaling but not needed of lately. Here are a few of my paint jobs

I have painted more but that is all of the pics I have of them. Last but not least .This is a Mantua Mikado that I modified to make it look more like a C&O I cut off the headlight a put a new one on the pilot. Added the flying pumps, feed water heater, number boards and bell to the front.

Added the compressor to the side. Painted and decaled it and that number is legitimate. Also gave it a Vanderbilt tender.

I have done 2 of these but they no longer see any running as I have gone DCC and these don't have decoders yet.

 

[stationmaster]

Nice job on the Mikes. The added detail of the flying pumps and compressor is a nice touch. You do fine work. I don't think that you need too much of my help. My forte is module building.

I save my "pages" and just print out sheets. I have them saved by era>roads>car style. I just go into the "sheet" and change the road number/car ID number.

I tried a program that I would actually "draw" the stuff up full size and scale it down. Didn't work all that well. It was self conceived and had a couple of glitches. I suppose that I could fix them, if I ever got ambitious.

I will admit, some colors are hard to duplicate. Dulux gold is a bear!!! That is the color of my NKP engine logos and numbers.

Bob

 

[B.C.RAIL]

HO scale is so common and easy to model and doesn't take up too much space.
It's just what I started with..and continued with. I wouldn't want to go smaller or bigger.

And fallen flags are hard to find and more expensive. Like bcrail. it's so hard to find any bcrail anywhere near my budget. And PGE.

 

[B.C.RAIL]

And more more thing...If I wanted to buy a engine..It would only be avaiable in DCC..which is very frustrating because they wont have it in just DC. grr.

 

[msantti]

I had HO years ago. My dad, my brother, and myself used to run on a 4x8 table and had alot of fun.

Started in N scale about 10 years ago as I did not have much space. Its a great scale but always yearned to go back to HO.

Finally am somewhere with more space and have a 12x8 table so I am going back to HO.

Bought some Atlas True Track and am going to get up and going this weekend hopefully.

I had Kato N scale and I am selling a bunch of it right now. Considered Kato HO but went with True Track so I hope I made the right choice. The price is good. Had Atlas track years back and it worked well.

I like HO because the size is nice. Not too big, not too small. Lionel is nice but not particularly cheap and you really need space. At least 12x8 which I have but more is really needed for something interesting. Tee Fast Track is not cheap.

Like some have said, the availability of stuff is quite good.

 

[chessie14]

Perhaps its because I'm from Baltimore, but all the roads that you have mentioned have been on a layout in either my fathers basement or mine since the early eightys. I guess being local to a road name it's much easyer to model that particular road. But I think that was already verbalized here... oh well I second that...

 

[cidjackaries]

I'll jump in. My grandfather had a HO layout, and when I was young I got my first three Ho models (one Amtrak Engine, One budd car, one Dome car) which I kept with me waiting for the day I could build a layout, which I did a few years back. Now those same cars will run on my new layout with my huge lot of Amtrak cars. Sadly though, that Amtrak Engine I got on my 5th B-day is now a Dummy Engine.

 

[KogentaByakko]

I was told the HO scale is a good starter more than other scale size, so hell, I start to use HO scale layout for a year.

 

[Lester Perry]

And more more thing...If I wanted to buy a engine..It would only be avaiable in DCC..which is very frustrating because they wont have it in just DC. grr.

If you are dead set on DC just remove the decoder,But another option is to get an inexpensive DCC set up. Just wire it in as a second power pack. You might like it once you have used it. I would venture to say you will, especially if the engine has sound.

 

[stationmaster]

If you are dead set on DC just remove the decoder,But another option is to get an inexpensive DCC set up. Just wire it in as a second power pack. You might like it once you have used it. I would venture to say you will, especially if the engine has sound.

Another option is to get the DCC ready engines. When I was arguing with myself over whether or not to change from DC to DCC in the early stages of my layout's construction. I went ahead and installed a plug type "harness only" on many of my engines.

When I finally took the plunge, the conversion was then too easy, "plug and play". Even the old "amp hog", belt drive Athearns seem to run better with DCC. The layout is DCC but has power districts if I ever sell it to someone that is a non-DCC operator.

I will be first in line to testify that DCC is the only way to go. And I mean that. So much easier than looking to see if a section of track is powered or unpowered. It doesn't matter. The control cab takes care of the engine at hand and any possible cornfield meets. And the "Master Off/On" switch kills the whole track if there is a runaway.

I believe someone makes a DCC system for under a $100 now. Far more inexpensive than my Digitrax.

Bob

 

[B.C.RAIL]

I have pondered about DCC. I bought a few Athearn 'Quick Plug Equipped' engines.