Think small

[PostModN66]

Has anyone (manufacturer or tinkerer) ever tried adding pickups to an 0-4-0?  I'm thinking, like the "skates" that are (used to be?) fitted to LGB G scale locos.  They would be pretty discrete in N Gauge I would think.

Cheers Jon 

[NeMo]

Why, oh why, are there no 0-4-0 locos in n-gauge? Since mini shunting layouts seem to be among the most popular formats in our hobby

To be fair, shunting layouts are not N gauge's strongest area. You can certainly build them and the Dapol's Easishunt couplers make hands-off operation a lot easier. But I think that N Gauge's strength is its ability to portray a railway in the landscape in a modest space.

Couldn't agree more. While modern Bo-Bo and Co-Co diesels are a lot better now at reliable slow running than they were in the past, I'm not so convinced 0-6-0 shunters of either steam or diesel varieties are as rock-solid as I'd like. It doesn't take much to break the current to these light, short-wheelbase locos -- and when that happens, the big old hand in the sky is needed!

Of course, if you could wire up a shunter's truck to one of these locos, you would probably get much better reliability, and it goes without saying that if you lay your track completely flat, avoid Insulfrogs, and keep the rails and wheels spotlessly clean, you should be fine.

If I wanted to build a layout for pure low-speed Inglenook operation, I think one of the larger scales would be easier, particularly 0, which really lends itself to slow running.

As Karhedron says, N's great strength is in building a realistic scene in relatively small space.

Cheers, NeMo