Why Did You Choose The Gauge You Now Model or Run?

[c2c]

To get the ball rolling I chose N Gauge, I wanted to model with Z but my eyesight said NO! Space is my issue and like all modelers I love detail, so N ticks my boxes!

 

Upto now I'm quite contented that my personal compromise has been the right decision, although having said that I can see why people are in to the big O. Surely these guys don't faff about with little air brushes as the majority of us do when weathering etc, but use the full blown Devilbiss JGA!

[sammyboy]

As tradition goes, I started out with OO gauge for a number of years in my childhood and teenage years, building a number of good layouts in the scale. When the time came to suddenly move bedrooms from my spacious attic room to a much smaller room at the back of the house, during a moment at my old job I took the decision to go into N gauge and I have stool with it ever since and it seems that will be my scale of choice for all my future layouts to come, unless I have a midlife crisis and convert to either O or some narrow gauges!

[Danemouth]

Easy:

 

• Wanted standard gauge - not interested in modelling narrow gauge,
• Tried N but a detached retina put an end to that,
• Insufficient space for O and don't have that sort of money,
• EM & P4 are way beyond my abilities

So it's 00 for me!

 

Regards,

 

Dave

[Sasquatch]

Purchased a Lima train set when I was 8 through my grans Brian Mills mail order catalogue. Grandad gave me a H&M controller for Christmas and well things just grew from there on. After 39 years the collection is quite extensive I would like to go P4 but its kind of too late! 

[Black Sheep]

Started out in 00 as a 10 year old with a trainset for his birthday,

 

switched to N gauge as wanted to model a specific location (never managed to) and the only way to do so without owning property and having a huge room was to switch to N.

[Adams442T]

Started out with a Graham Farish trainset when I was 10 years old replacing an ancient Hornby 'O' gauge set.  Not an 'N' gauge one though but a OO Black 5 and a few wagons.  Yes it was that long ago!

 

Moved into EM in 1968 as I couldn't stand Peco pointwork even then and it ain't got any better!  Now considering a new small OO layout as I can't face converting all the Southern goodies I have accumulated recently.

[SHMD]

I didn't choose!

My parents chose for me when I was 6 or 7.

00.

 

Kev.

[BrushType4]

I played around with OO like many do and drifted away from it when cars and girls were more interesting.

 

I had a bit of a moment and it was suggested by the Dr to try and do something to relax. So I thought about scale modelling and chose 7mm to S7 gauge. It can be expensive but that limits the scatter gun approach too so does have its advantages.

[The Stationmaster]

My dad chose it c.1950  (but I did later get rid of the third rail)

[APOLLO]

I started off with Tri-ang TT back in 1959 - still have it all in boxes - but it's all worn out !!

 

Started with OO in 1973 - Heaven !!

 

Nowadays,

 

OO in the loft as I can fit alot of layout up there - 4 track mainline with 12 coach trains and 35 wagon freights on the 2 high level goods lines. I like to run trains not ogle rivets hence run old Triang, Lima etc with the new stuff.

 

O gauge in the garage - American as it was cheap back in the 80's (£15  for a 8 wheel drive loco, box cars £10 etc). O gauge is the king of scales. (layout link below)

 

G gauge round the garden, Why, well its big, heavy and works out there in all weathers.

 

Brit15

[Horsetan]

P4 (which subsequently morphed into S4) because it just seemed right, whilst still allowing plenty of room for endless experiments.

 

There have also been detours into 2mmFS, and more recently S4 / Irish.

[LH&JC]

Started with RTR 00, but when I moved to university the layout was scrapped (no big loss) although I've kept the stock. I wanted to keep modelling, and after several years with plastic RTR I fancied a change in my modelling, and when browsing I came across an entire loco kit for just over £30, and from there things just got out of hand. While I don't have a railway itself, I'm a member of the York Society of Model Engineers and there is a line I can run the raggedy collection on.

[Ozexpatriate]

16.5mm thanks to my first trainset (Lima H0) Ca 1976.

[N15class]

I used to model 4mm oo and EM gauge, but fancied the bulk of 0 gauge. I dont think it is any more expensive than 4mm, you dont need so much stock.

It has a presents when you have a loco with some wagons or coaches in tow, as for space none of us ever has enough, but look at some of the small 0 gauge layouts on here.

[bluebottle]

00 - because it was there!

 

Gordon

[brian777999]

OO for the following reasons :

 

1.  The locos and wagons look somewhat similar to the trains of my childhood whereas American HO does not.

2. The British OO gauge models and kits are much cheaper than the Australian HO models and kits.

3. I like building and painting kits and there are a lot of wagon and loco kits on the market in OO gauge.

 

Shame about the track though !

[oldknotty]

Started with Ho here in the US , went to a railroad show and found a load of British Graham Farish that I picked up for a song . Then i decided to do the Churnet Valley railway in my basement and fell in love with OO and have been with it ever since ,Just the right size for me and my space and loads to choose from and easy for me to see and work on with help from my head visor :-)

Martin

[Gwiwer]

I have had some form of toy train set or model railway items  since age 3 and while the very first were Hornby O-gauge tinplate those since age 5 have been 00 and that is what I became familiar with.

 

I have a generous area available for a layout, slight eyesight deficiency and no great dexterity with small items which factors combined led me to build in 00 because I know it, I have a good idea how to fit things into available space and a mental grasp on what works and what doesn't.  

 

Smaller scales would be lost; O-gauge would fit comfortably but not allow me to run the prototypical trains I can in 00 nor to represent as many different scenes as I do.  The cost of the larger scale items RtR also influenced my decision as did the very much larger selection of suitable 00 items.  I have yet to break into the world of scratch building rolling stock but it may come and in a future time I may find O-gauge to be the only way my eyes and fingers will allow me to go forward.

 

For now I work in 00 and am happy to be able to represent tiny scenes like beehives being tended or an ancient "holy" well alongside trains which can be up to a 16-coach double-headed summer Saturday extra or something like 50 wagons of mixed goods without them looking remotely out of place or tail-chasing.

If I'm lucky enough to retire with funds available and a little skill I wouldn't mind having a bash at something like an O-gauge 4Cor unit either from a kit or possibly scratch-built.  And powered from the juice rail, of course.

[Richard Lee]

I chose 00 because I needed to be able to use ready to run due to limited skills; 00 gave the best choice of models suitable for Southern Railway branch lines, which is what I want to model.

 

If I had the skills, I would consider EM, P4 or even 0 gauge for a pre-grouping layout.  At the moment, it would be pie in the sky for me.

 

If I had wanted to do 1950s or 1960s main line trains then I would have probably gone for N gauge because it needs less space.

[robert17649]

EM out of a desire to be different then,  but now my dexterity and eyesight ,although still  EM  find  me wishing  I,d maybe  stuck to 00 finescale! (Mind you I've just spent a week converting an 0-6-0 to EM). I could have run it straight out of the box with 00 but I have no 00 track and am too parsimonious to spend dosh on replacing all the track and points,

[PatB]

I'm mucking about with O at the moment because, rather than building a layout for which I have neither space nor time at the moment, I'm building kits, treating each one as an individual mini-project.  Given my eyesight and dexterity, 7mm is about the lower limit of fiddliness I can deal with.  Besides, I have a continuing and, so far, unfulfilled ambition to build my own live steamer and O is really the sensible lower limit (for normal mortals) for that too.

[MichaelW]

Well, I started in N-gauge as it was the only option left after my brother got a 00 trainset for his birthday one year (and there was no way I was going to have the same as him!)  Kept it up except for a brief hiatus at university (when Farish went into decline for a few years - they did time it well).  Now have quite a collection (in fact, the postie delivered a bit more as I typed that), but no layout to run the long trains on...

 

When the club I was in at the time started to build a 009 layout, I decided to build some stock for it, and having scrapped my first 009 layout last year am currently building a modular one instead.

 

Then last weekend I got one of the BRM 4MTs, so am starting to look at 4mm a bit.  It may not stay 00 for long though!

[Katier]

Started in 00, dabbled in N-gauge then left the hobby... on coming back I decided I wanted to model NER which is the area of the country my family is from.

 

Couldn't do N or 2mm therefore as there simply is nothing available.

OO was possible although 00 felt a bit odd in terms of space (see below)

O gauge is still something I want to do and the size means that it dictates the layout type quite heavily. OO on the other hand is often 'between' - you either run a BLT of some sort OR a mainline but often with compromised train lengths.. OO just feels a bit too big for many spaces but doesn't take up enough space for a BLT.. probably not making sense but I know what I mean .

3mm and O have something in common - superb range of NER locos of all sizes, coaching stock is a little thin on the ground but goods are well served too.

 

So 3mm it was, I can fit a nice urban terminus into 12ft length with up to 7 coach trains, whereas OO would be 4 probably.

 

I've currently actually got 3 layouts on the go, and the third is an urban n-gauge layout on a single 6ft length layout.

[rodshaw]

I'm currently modelling US HO because I love the chunkiness and smooth running of the locos and stock. You can get second hand RTR HO stuff really cheaply. Buying RTR also means I can concentrate on the buildings, which is what I like doing best. Wish I had room for a bigger HO layout.

 

I also got fed up with the traumas of building 3mm scale loco kits, but I do have a small 3mm layout on the go just to keep my hand in, using the stock I've got - I won't be building any more loco kits in that scale.

[Ravenser]

Like so many people I was given a trainset (well, I asked for one) and of course it was OO and Hornby , and I've sort of stayed in that grrove.

 

But , from my very slight deviations out of it

 

- I once had to deal with an O gauge wagon , and it felt like I needed a 5" brush to get anywhere with it. Added to that the very high prices of anything Gauge O, the space implications for someone who lives in a flat and I'm definitely not going 7mm

 

- While I've ended up with some bits of N , and will probably do something with them one day, it does seem relatively difficult to make things for yourself in such a small size - and I wouldn't be happy just buying RTR. While modern N runs a lot better than older N , it doesn't quite run as well as the best 4mm (and with centre drive diesels and DMUs I'm used to the best 4mm runners) , DCC is a little difficult. So it doesnt really suit - and that's for modern image N , where space is starting to become an issue in 4mm. For steam , the scales tilt overwhelmingly to 4mm

 

- S gauge is a lot of hard work - I'm not really likely to work in a guage where there are no ready made mechanisms or track . Mind you it's a manageable size, and if I ever was so misguided as to model US prototype , then the idea of being different and choosing S not HO might be interesting

 

- 3mm is a nice size , and I'm a member of the 3mm Society, but have too much on my plate in 4mm to do anything . I think if I was going to model in any other scale, this would certainly be it