Why Did You Choose to Model N Gauge?.

[Newportnobby]

Looks good - can we see and know more about it please?

[crewearpley40]

Just my type of layout,  tend to agree with Mick.. Chris

[dilflat]

Thanks for the approval of my layout. A bit sad at the moment as I have had to mothball it to allow youngest "no longer a child" to have the room. On the plus side, I get the opportunity to plan and build a new project in whatever space I can find.

I will put together a post giving more details and pics of the layout as soon as I get some time, along with my other layout, a small dockside shunting plank.

[Bealman]

Nice work. 

[8A Rail]

Strangely I have not given a reply on this thread although been a member for a while. As for reasons for choosing 'N' gauge I am not 100% sure but certainly as many others have mentioned, 'space' has been a consideration as never been blessed to have that luxury.

I did start out in 'OO' gauge and even had an approx 7' x 4' board layout but it was short lived due to family considerations, they needed the bedroom! Having visited several Model Railway exhibitions, one thing that did impressed me was some modern based 'N' gauge layouts which seem so realistic especially for the size. This laid the seeds for the future.

Eventually moving into a new house in 2001 and my family had grown up, it was time to recommence my model railway interests but limited on 'space' though. It was then, I made the decision to sell all my 'OO' gauge stuff and use the money to purchase 'N' gauge replacements. After that, it is another story but eventually I got there and never regretted it. My only issue is the 'age' thing now, my fingers / hands / eyesight are not as good as they use to be but still can manage though.

[eddief83]

Just stumbled across this thread (thanks to the Farish announcement thread) I was OO gauge for 30 years or so and had 2 exhibition layouts - one a transition era shed and the other a transition era branch line. But I am a sucker for A4 Pacific's and big trains so my enjoyment was waning with OO and N gauge struck me as the answer when I saw a Hornby Magazine article on their N gauge layout.

I have one N gauge layout (2 if you count my Dad's small layout I can borrow sometimes) and 2 more in the planning stages, all feature logner trains than you can get in the same size in OO and I love it

[Le Night ferry]

Because house is smaller than UK, Europe and USA, N gauge dominates model train market.
But for Brass train, HO is more popular.

[Newportnobby]

Looks like I'm one of the few to have never modelled in anything but N!

I don't remember a time I didn't have an N gauge layout, still got the same one I had in the early 80's. It was a "train set" until 1985 when it was fettled and upgraded to more of a junior layout. Foam track bed is a bit past it now and a couple of house moves have knocked a few bits off so it's looking worse for wear. A minor side project is to re-lay it to the original track plan in Peco code 55 and motorise the points etc.

Nah. I don't consider a train set in 00 when I was 8 to be modelling.
Like you I started in N in the early 80s but never finished a layout as I could 'jury rig' electrics to get trains running but really progressed no further. Now, when time is, shall we say, governed by the Gods I am trying to do it properly but electrifying point operation etc with tidy and logic wiring, something I am completely rubbish at

[GeoffA]

Why did I choose to model in N?

Basically the space requirements, I guess.

Back in the mid 70's my parents bought me the classic Hornby OO 0-4-0 freight train set, with an oval of track and a controller that fitted on top of one of those large 9v batteries with the spring terminals.  From that moment aged 10-ish I was smitten with railways - real and model ones.

That setup quickly expanded and my dad built me a 6x4 ft baseboard and frame, which for me was amazing. I extended this around the wall of my bedroom.  More track. More rolling stock. An H&M Duette. Electrified points. Another station. A town with cars, people and lights. Some hills with sheep.  There was no stopping me.  Well, until I discovered girls and alcohol (at 18, I promise, m'lud).

Then Uni, and it all got packed away for many years... only to be resurrected in the late 90's for a short period only.

To cut a boringly long story short, last year my desire for more railway modelling broke out - what could I do with all that OO stuff I have carefully packed away? I know... lets start with an Inglenook - the first non-roundy-roundy I've ever done.  What a blast that was/is, constructed on a spare laminate floorboard of 4ft by 1ft. 

But I needed more, and a roundy-roundy, but had no space for it.  My good friend who models in N let me have a go with his layout, and to be honest I was very impressed with the quality of the models and their running - so much better than I remember from back in the day.

So, I took the plunge. A piece of 4x2 as a board, invested in Kato track and some rolling stock (thanks TrainTrax) and my mate donated me a GM Model D. And its gone from there.  So pleased I made the 'N' decision, and still in construction as I type.  Could be some while I reckon, as the creation is a major part of the enjoyment for me, along with the electrics etc.  So therapeutic.

And I have finally joined a local Model Railway Club. Its only taken me the best part of 50 years to do that lol.
Oh, and also joined the NGS last year.

Cheers

Geoff

[Dorsetmike]

My father left me a Fleischman 7161 4-6-0 and a Farish 0-6-0 plus wagons and coaches and some Fleischman track, in 1974. I left the RAF after 23 years service bought a house and started a layout. I had previously had a Hornby 0 gauge 0.4.0 tank for Xxmas 1939 and the following year electric "Flying Scotsman" that lasted until about 1949.
The 7161 chassis soon found itself under a Langley S15 kit which I still have needed a new motor after about 40 years use.

[Dorsetmike]

OOPs hit post twice!

[crewearpley40]

I was only 4 and had been ill. My late Grandfather brought my first train set. Onwards by 21 and family moves house and area I switched to N Gauge as Grandparents and I had space issues due to family living and being eldest Grandson and his liking for N we had Farish Lima Minitrix items

Never looked back. I liked scenery and industry

So did Gran
Rest is history
Chris

[AdeV]

I guess, like many here, I had a train set (you couldn't call it a model railway or layout...) when I were a young lad, that my Dad built on I assume a 6x4 baseboard. Initially it lived "on the floor" wherever there was space to play with it; when I got my own bedroom at age 11, it gained a wall-mounted fiddle yard, a removable bridge to the "layout", which was hinged so it could fold up out of the way. I loved that train set, but we could never afford much rolling stock: I had a Hornby HST (with lighted carriage, that was cool), a GWR tank with a sloping boiler (can't recall the type), and a Lima diesel shunter, a few trucks, and that was it. The best bit was a working iron ore hopper set, where one loaded the trucks with fake coal (you try finding fake iron ore in the 1980s!), drove them up the hill onto the unloader, and they self-opened & dumped their load below. Happy days! Then, I went to university, and it all got packed away, and eventually sold off, as I never had room for it.

FF to today... my son is now 4 1/2, and mad keen on railways, so I started scouring eBay for "stuff". Then I got the bug myself, but decided to do it "properly" with a real-life inspired location: Chose Bangor in North Wales, eventually realised it'd need a 6x4m long space just to model the scenic bits, let alone have a go-around-loop into a fiddle yard... so switched to "N" gauge to reduce the space requirements... and here I am. I've since decided that Bangor is a bit much for someone who hasn't done model railways since the 1980s... plus I bought the Coronation Scot kit off Ross, which would never be seen in Bangor unfortunately. However, they did use the coaches on the North Wales line (as far as Llandudno I believe) at weekends.... so now I've switched my attention to Mostyn station - which has a much simpler track layout compared to Bangor, although ultimately it'll be a similar length (3m or so). It also has a dock & some industry which also had a load of railway around it, so I can start with the station & the sidings, and move onto the dock/industry area later. And Mostyn is between London and Llandudno, so I can run my Coronation Scot coaches

However, in the meantime, I still need to build my lad his first train set (probably, like mine, an OO gauge twin loop with one of those iron ore things, on a 6x4 baseboard.

[Newportnobby]

Bangor station does lend itself to a layout as trains emerge from one tunnel, pass through the station and then exit via another tunnel (or at least did in the 60s)

[AdeV]

Bangor station does lend itself to a layout as trains emerge from one tunnel, pass through the station and then exit via another tunnel (or at least did in the 60s)

That's exactly why I chose it 

As it is today, it would be a relatively straightforward model in rail terms - lots of scenery, not a lot of track... but my plan was to model it as it was in the late 1930s, which is a much bigger & more interesting station, with loads of sidings, 6 (or 7?) platforms including a bay platform, a large loco shed, turntable, etc.  Of course, that makes it an order of magnitude more complex... and some of the trackwork would need to be hand-made in order to make it fit...