Why Did You Choose to Model N Gauge?.

[Chris in Prague]

That really was a bargain. The Fleischmann motorized turntables alone were worth far more and are excellent.

[Bob G]

For me it was the Peco jubilee in 1971, with two minitrix BR(S) green coaches and six wagons by Peco and Grafar. I knew then what was quality N gauge and when I found a track plan in the RM in 1971 for a dumbbell layout which I combined with a track plan by Cyril J Freezer called In Disguise in the Peco Track Plans book from 1970 I was away. 9'6" x 2' in N and I still like track EVERYWHERE. Urban is my preference and I now have a pastiche of Ramsgate, Fratton, Eastleigh, and Southampton plus other SR/WR snippets.
But only now do I feel confident to sell inappropriate locos to be loyal to my region. And I have only kept the jubilee from my early acquisitions.
I was good and never did Lima apart from the CCT and Siphon G. Oh and BGs for my minitrix rakes.

Bob

[Dave3054]

What a good question. I agree with all the reasons posted so far.
Having built a garden railway in 00 and in SM32, I needed a winter project to build indoors. Having got permission from domestic management and a 4' x 2' size allowed. That was last November and I am still building. I love N gauge both in the detail of the rolling stock and the detail the modeller can put into the landscape.
Totally hooked.

[stevewalker]

I had OO as a child, finally selling it all off to raise money to replace my ZX Spectrum with a QL in my teens. Once I had my own house I was tempted to have another layout, but time, money and space delayed things. In my 30s, I started buying odds and ends, second-hand and partly because of being able to fit more in, partly because I had memories of seeing and being interested in N-gauge in the '70s, it was N-gauge that I bought. Now in my 50s, it is only in recent years that I have had the space - when my M-I-L died, we needed somewhere to store things until my wife was ready to sort through them and a shed was cheaper than self-storage. Planning ahead with the shed gained me a 12'x 10' space. Time and money are still in short supply and holding thing up!

[chrispearce]

My first proper train set was a Hornby OO gauge Flying Scotsman set with 3 Thompson coaches. I continued with OO gauge but bought a Grafar Austerity Tank set in my early 20s. I did what most would do and realised that so much more could be achieved in N Gauge. However, I was put off by a lot of the Grafar models. I always thought that, although the diesels looked pretty good the steamers were let down by those tiny pony-truck wheels with large shiny flanges which spoiled otherwise good models. Seems things have improved greatly since Bachmann has taken over.

I always admired the Continental and American N gauge models and have collected a few of each plus some 1970s era UK blue diesels which I hope to incorporate into a layout based on a fictitious private railway. This is currently being planned and I hope to start a construction thread when I actually get something concrete (which does make for exceptionally heavy baseboards) into reality. Cornwall will be the location and I am surveying Google Earth for possible places where I could site such a railway. This should be fun!

[Ted]

My first proper train set was a Hornby OO gauge Flying Scotsman set with 3 Thompson coaches.

Snap!

My father mounted it on the back of an old door for Christmas, I was very, very pleased.

0-300mph in the flick of a dial. Don't judge, I was 5 years old. A very fortunate 5 years old I might say!

However, a few years later I visited a friend of my father's friend, who had a N in his loft. The amount of stuff and things going on (thanks to the scale) blew my mind.

This was late 80's.

I think I was perhaps 7 years of age at the time. Anyway, I still remember it.

I went home. I planned my layout and buildings, and everything... until my parents told me, no. It's far too expensive.

Roll on 25 or so years and I can now afford it and I'm addicted to buying 80-90's diesels... and throwing sound chips at them. 

*whilst working on my second layout after the first didn't go too well

[chrispearce]

Go for it Ted!

[AdrianC]

We started on OO when my Dad built a large layout in the loft, but although it ran it never got beyond track and platforms (and a huge amount of kit buildings) but no scenery. I got in to N because I liked the idea of the smaller scale, started with a Lima 31 and 4 coaches and it grew from there. When Farish started bringing out diesels that sealed it for me.

I never managed a complete layout, but then work, family, life in general got in the way and I only started looking at it again when I took my eldest to a local exhibition on a bit of a whim when he was about 3 years old. He's now 10 and has a small collection of his own.

Since my Dad passed away, I've sold all the OO stock (the last went a few weeks ago) which has helped fund the recent return to the hobby but I really need to crack on and build a proper layout.....

[chrispearce]

We started on OO when my Dad built a large layout in the loft, but although it ran it never got beyond track and platforms (and a huge amount of kit buildings) but no scenery. I got in to N because I liked the idea of the smaller scale, started with a Lima 31 and 4 coaches and it grew from there. When Farish started bringing out diesels that sealed it for me.

I never managed a complete layout, but then work, family, life in general got in the way and I only started looking at it again when I took my eldest to a local exhibition on a bit of a whim when he was about 3 years old. He's now 10 and has a small collection of his own.

Since my Dad passed away, I've sold all the OO stock (the last went a few weeks ago) which has helped fund the recent return to the hobby but I really need to crack on and build a proper layout.....

And, if you do, please share your progress with us here!

[guest8097]

[railsquid]

Umm, hi and welcome to the forum, could you tell us more about the photo? At a guess I'd say there's some N gauge running around the shelf above door height, but it's not really clear.

[Bealman]

I can see what looks to be an 08 in NSE livery in the top left......

[Swindon69]

I went to a few shows and saw some cracking n gauge layouts which opened my mind to what I could possibly do - so I'm just starting one in the spare room. There's more scope to what you can do in limited space with n gauge.

[PGN]

Growing up in the 1970s I had friends who had OO train sets ... but it always struck me that the trains they had to run were artificially short. I didn't like that at all ... I wanted realistic trains running through realistic countryside. And my father always used to say that you wanted to go to the smallest scale you possibly could so that you could have a really complicated track layout and fit so much more into the space (although I think even HE would have balked at T ... although if there had ever been viable British-outline Z, I am sure he would have tried to steer me in that direction.

So it was always going to be N ... and when I got my first model railway equipment for my 12th birthday in 1979, N it was!

And although all of that equipment was sold in the 1980s to fund my home computer, I returned to N gauge modelling in the 1990s. And I've been modelling ever since. I collected pretty much at random for 20 years or so ... whatever took my fancy, although it had to be steam ... and then I had a revelation and realised that it was the pre-grouping period which REALLY excited me. So I sold all the post-1923 stuff and turned my focus exclusively to pre-grouping modelling in N.

I have made many layout starts over the years, but none of them every came anywhere near completion (my models just getting their running on club layouts and test tracks). Then a few years back I decided it was time to get serious about this. I build a little diorama ("Loading the Lorry") which I entered for the NGS annual modelmaking competition just to satisfy myself that I COULD do scenic stuff, then set to work on my current layout, Neraland 2. Trains have been running on it for some time now (with a serious reduction in rate-of-construction) but it is gradually morphing from test track into scenic layout, and I hope to have it on the exhibition circuit in the next 2 - 5 years.

[Newportnobby]

Trains have been running on it for some time now (with a serious reduction in rate-of-construction)

I know that feeling only too well as, if I'm going to fit point motors (and it's my intention) then pretty much everything has to come up, and with decrepitude catching up with me I'm not so sure it will ever go back together again