I'm thinking to build a model railway, is it best to use OO gauge or N gauge?

Answer 1

I just learned of OO guage thru Yahoo! Answers a week or two ago (It's HO track, but 1:76.2 scale rather than the 1:87 scale of HO). I'm not familiar with the COST of OO, but a model railway IS a table you throw money onto.

I went with N-scale (1:160) because I have a single bedroom apartment, and N gives me almost double the track length and area. I'm modelling the UP / Caltrain / ACE area of Northern California

ONE thing I will suggest STRONGLY is to buy a few of the books available in most hobby shops on starting a model railroad. "Realistic Model Railroad Operation" by Tony Koester is my favorite reference. AND subscribe to "Model Railroading Magazine"... tons of ideas and pictures that will help YOU decide.

READ those books, and then take a few hundred sheets of graph paper, put down the area YOU have to build your RR... and start sketching layout design ideas !! I even cut out little overhead views of scale locomotives and cars in both HO and N scale so I could "SEE" how big a train I could fit along a stretch of wall. Much cheaper to make your mistakes and learn your hobby on PAPER !!

MY Railroad is the work of a YEAR of planning, and I STILL find errors I made... changes I want to make... hidden track I wish I'd designed into the layout to START.

Again, I went with N scale because of the size... the detail and variety of equipment is incredible compared to the 1970's. I can model a near-full freight yard along a 12 foot wall (1,900 ft instead of the 1,000 ft of HO or OO scale), AND have a nice strip of main-line for my passenger line to pass thru without turning. ALSO N-scale "benchwork" and scenery can be built MUCH lighter (and inexpensively).

Just FYI... there are SEVERAL new pieces of SOFTWARE out there... ranging from Altas' FREE layout software throught the $160 "Trainz" and other 3D-cad/ operating programs. You can BUILD your whole layout and RUN it on your computer to help decide on what you like before you start putting saw to wood and holes in your walls !

Answer 2

like others have said to do, think & plan on paper as to what type of layout you realy want, its far easier & cheaper to make mistakes on paper. N gauge has the advantage of more in a lot less space but the disadvantage of being very fiddly to work with. where as OO is not so fiddly, which ever way you chose to golet me know & i will try to guide you thru any pitfalls that you may encounter. i am an experienced model maker in OO gauge & N gauge & willing to advise anyone on this subject. Oh by the way PECO make an sheet of pointwork patterns that you can photocopy & cut out then use as a planing aid in real size for both OO & N

Answer 3

Well, this is going to come down to a few things :-
Preference
Cost
Available space

N is more expensive but much smaller than OO guage so depending on how much money you have, you may want to consider that but if you've got a 6' x 4' space OO would be good.

So really, it comes down to personal taste.

Answer 4

oo definitely