Why Did You Choose to Model N Gauge?.

Started by longbridge, November 22, 2011, 10:06:14 PM

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johnsom

Try T Gauge - if your eyes and fingers are capable !!! then you will realise how big N Gauge is !!!

Guy

My first real exposure to a train set was when I was about 7 and that was when my dad bought a Minitrix N gauge set for myself and my brother.

We remained moderately interested into our teens but never had a serious layout due to dad moving around.

I then spent 27 years in the Army and didn't really settle until around 6 years ago and apart from buying my 2 boys a OO set or two didn't really come back to the hobby.

I decided I wanted a main hobby on retirement from the Army and finally came back to my child hood passion for trains. Although I do have the space (in theory) for OO, I decided to go for N (due to my childhood memories) and embarked on a 16 x 3 foot DCC layout (which fills up one wall of the room I have taken over as my hobby room).

The layout has been a huge learning experience spread over around 5 years. I now have quite an extensive collection of locos and rolling stock and happily run them on my (as near as damn it) completed layout. Would I do it all again? Absolutely! and am currently planning a new layout (probably to start in the next 18 months or so) having learned so much from the first. Hopefully, it will be developed far more logically and not cause as many trials and tribulations as the last one...

The number one thing I have taken from this experience is that whilst I do like the satisfaction gained from putting a layout together, it is the running of trains that really "floats my boat".  With all of the moves forward by Dapol and Farish over the last 5 years or so, the over riding priority for me is I want locos and rolling stock that work efficiently, that is far more important to me than how many rivets are missing etc.

Trainfish

Quote from: Guy on August 04, 2013, 03:09:42 PM
.......................the over riding priority for me is I want locos and rolling stock that work efficiently, that is far more important to me than how many rivets are missing etc.

I couldn't have put it better myself. I want to run full length trains and the current, and some older stuff, range certainly does that for me. I even have both Western and Eastern HSTs running together but the numbers are so small that unless you study them you wouldn't know.
:NGaugersRule:
John

To see my layout "Longcroft" which is currently under construction, you'll have to click on the dead fish below

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Sea Mills

It's interesting that there is a lot of debate in the modelling media about the trade off between detail and cost, yet little about Guy's point about working efficiently.   As a newcomer to the hobby I am happy to experiment with scenery, kits, weathering etc. and know that my efforts are not very good.   I will learn and enjoy doing so.   However, I do want locos that work all of the time and not throw a hissy fit every time a butterfly flaps its wings in Cambodia!

David

OwL

Some good points made about reliability. I think the main manufacturers have got the message on this point concerning new models albeit with the odd hiccup nown and again ::)

The appeal to me for N Gauge is running realistic full length trains whilst still being able to include a good level of detail on all models, trains and scenery alike.

Answering the main topic question, my parents bought me a minitrix Flying Scotsman, been hooked ever since!


Proud New Owner of Old Warren Traction Maintenance Depot Layout.

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FeelixTC

I know I'm showing my age here; but for me it was receiving a 'Lone Star 000' set when I was a nipper.

I was so young, I barely remember it running, but I had bits and pieces lying around my toy boxes in amongst the lego and Matchbox Cars.

It was a green loco - can't quite remember, something between classes 24 & 31??
I also had level crossings, a crane, some US-style boxcars, and telegraph poles.

Some years later, when I was 10 or 12, I 'took up' modelling and N gauge just seemed the natural choice.

...........Of course; at that age I never considered failing eyes and fingers, nor the fact that fishplates would get smaller and smaller every year  ;)

I love 'big things made small' and N gauge seems to me to be the smallest it can practically be and, conveniently, you can have so much more in N.

Mitch


EtchedPixels

They did two diesels - a class 23 Baby Deltic and a class 24
"Knowledge has no value or use for the solitary owner: to be enjoyed it must be communicated" -- Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden

FeelixTC

Quote from: EtchedPixels on August 05, 2013, 11:15:53 AM
They did two diesels - a class 23 Baby Deltic and a class 24

24 it was then! Thanks

Cooper

My son always got stuck at the N gauge layouts when I went to shows, despite him having a OO layout. He says he was amazed at how small it was.

When I took him down the Stevenage and District MRC and they were starting on an N gauge layout he started to help them out. One of the members came to me and said 'he's so keen you really have to do something', and donated me some bits to get us going.

So after a childhood doing OO and 20 years in O, (with a dabble in SM32) we built a bare board trial layout on the remains of the OO board.

However, a trip to the Watford Fine-scale Show and being introduced to the Lofthole Oil Terminal http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=14792.msg147178#msg147178  lead me into starting again and now my son has Horseblock Lane to play with.

Helping out with Lofthole convinced me the mechanisms were reliable and worth modelling with and that a level of believable detail was achievable. I still think that Diesel models look more realistic than Steam, something to do with the believable heft of revolving valve gear and coupling rods.

I've also started modelling in the 'post-modern' era due to my switch to N, which means I can model what I see out there now which makes the research a bit easier!  ;)

I've done very little O gauge modelling this last 18 months.....  :uneasy:

Newportnobby

Great to see that "Horseblock Lane" won the Graham Farish award for the Best Portable Layout at the NGS AGM, Neal.
Very well done :claphappy:

troutflier

I was bought the n steam set from dapol for my 60th birthday. Turns out it was N gauge, ho! what fun................
Thanks to the members of this forum I am coping, even enjoying, slowly tackling the learning curve. DCC, Electrics,layouts GREAT FUN!!!!! :laugh3:

steambay

Got lots of T gauge, but not enough detail compared to N gauge

Dorsetmike

My first  train was Hornby 0 gauge clockwork somewhere around 1938/9 Christmas, with an electric (20VAC) Flying Scotsman the following year Typical Hornby tinplate make a few models and do them in as many different liveries as possible, the "Flying Scotsman" model was a 4-4-2, identical for all except livery were the Lord Nelson, King but can't  recall which was the LMS one though think there was also a French one.

That lasted me through the war years and a bit beyond, then I discovered the attractions of the other gender, end of modelling for quite a few years!

Did try and get 2 sons interested in 00 with not much success in the late 50's.

Father died in '74 having not deen long retired, he "left" me  a Fleischmann 7160 and an early Farish tank - the can motored one. Things progressed fairly rapidly from there, I still have the Fleischmann, but it's wearing a Langley S15 body now, the motor started smoking a couple of months ago, it's now got a new one.

I've had layouts from about 6' x 3' up to 25' x 8' + 17' x 12' L shaped, but always SR or BR(S)
Cheers MIKE
[smg id=6583]


How many roads must a man walk down ... ... ... ... ... before he knows he's lost!

steambay


trkilliman

I had dabbled with N  back in the day (late 70s) when it was Farish and very little else in British outline. When Dapol came on the scene I sensed that things would start to change for the better, and got into N again. What would really liven things up is if another substantial manufacturer came onto the N gauge scene for British outline models.                             I am bemused that with newer houses noticeably smaller than say, Victorian houses, N  gauge sales have not increased more than they have done. Sp much more than 00 in a given space has to be it's strongest attribute.               

Steve,
Cornwall.

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