Why N Scale?
In my childhood years I was always interested in trains. Growing up near some tracks, I would hear the trains blow their horns often. Naturally that led to an interest in model railroading. When I was 12 I worked on a large 8x12 layout in my basement, which never really got past the stage of laying a ring of track. It was all HO Scale, and I had about 20 items of rolling stock and locomotives for it. We ended up moving, and the layout was dismantled, and everything was boxed up. I believe it still exists in boxes at my moms house. I know that one nice CP SD 38 made its way to my friend Tavis' HO Scale layout which is quite impressive. Many years passed, and many hobbies flew past. But now that I am settling down in my own house shortly, I am seriously considering building a layout again. Yes any regular reader will realize that from previous posts. (Do I have any regular readers???) But why the switch from HO Scale to N Scale? Well I mainly have Sal to thank for that. He is a co-worker who was an avid N Scale collector. See there is an interesting term; 'collector'. Unlike HO Scale, N Scale is NOT marketed to children. N Scale models are far too small and fragile for children to be playing with. Therefore N Scale is more of a hobby for adult collectors who are serious about their collections. And what a collection! N Scale has been around in popularity since the early 80's. While many older items are not quite as detailed as rolling stock of today, there are several gems which are highly sought after. This hobby is a kin to collecting baseball cards. Only small runs of 1000 or so are usually made of each item, and collectors like to snatch these items up and hold onto them. Therefore the value of N Scale items generally does not depreciate over time. In fact sometimes the value will increase. Plus N Scale allows you to fit more layout into a smaller space. More layout = more rolling stock = more of a challenge to operate. I am looking forward to the day when I can operate 4 trains and have a yardmaster on my layout. Until then I must keep dreaming and collecting.