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From: chaltas@uiuccsb.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.railroad
Subject: Re: N guage okay? - (nf)
Message-ID: <5659@uiucdcs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 15-Feb-84 23:06:30 EST
Article-I.D.: uiucdcs.5659
Posted: Wed Feb 15 23:06:30 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 17-Feb-84 02:40:48 EST
Lines: 71

#R:decvax:-36200:uiuccsb:11100004:000:3306
uiuccsb!chaltas    Feb 15 19:35:00 1984

I'm biased, but I think N is dandy.  Here's how I see it:  
k
  	Rolling Stock:
		the best is made by Kadee.  They have a large variety of
		cars and paint schemes, including modern cars, and their
 		stuff puts most HO (e.g. Athearn et al) to shame.
		MDC (Roundhouse) has a modest line of modern cars that
		are quite nice.
		Atlas has nicely painted cars, but they need a little 
		extra weight, and most are from the 50's in body style
		Kadee are expensive: 6-10 dollars
		MDC are $5
		Atlas are comparable to HO in price
		Con-cor makes nice passenger cars, anda fair
		assortment of rolling stock, although their painting
		is not so hot, and not for too many usefull roads
 		(lots of private owner stuff).  Prices are like HO
		Bachmann makes an assortment of fair cars.  Their painting
		has recently improved greatly, but few modern cars are
		available.
		Model Power has a fair assortment of poorly painted cars.			the moldings are good though, if you like to repaint
	Locos:
		The Atlas RS3 is superb
		The Atlas E7 is very good (out of production but available)
		The Atlas FA-1 is very good if you add the weight kit that
			comes separately.
		The Concor PA-1 is superb.
		The Concor-Rivarossi steam locos are very good, with the
						possible exceptions of the 0-4-0's.
		The Concor Dl-109 is superb
		The Concor c-636 is very good AFTER you do some work on
			the chassis
		Rapido locos (hard to find--possibly out of production)
			run very well, but are not always too accurately
			scaled (they look ok though, but keep away from 
			the scale ruler)
		Bachmann locos are fair -- they tend to be a little out of
			scale, but run pretty well and are cheap
		Model Power locos are lousy--they don't run well at all
			(the F40ph is supposed to be better though)
			but can be had for as little as $10. I convert
			these to dummy's or repower them.  They look good
   	Atlas, Concor, Minitrix, and Rapido all cost more than HO.
	N-guage brass is cheaper than HO, and some of it runs very well.

	Concor is supposed to be making an SD40-2, which should be good.
		Minitrix locos are superb--F7a,F7b,U28,U30cg,PRR K4s Pacific

	Gloorcraft has some nice kits, including some rolling stock.	
 
	In summary (I've ommitted products I'm not familiar with), yes,
	N scale is more expensive than HO.  The good stuff runs very well
	though.  If you like to build you own locos (and redetail them)
	and want a wide variety of detail parts, HO is it.  Ditto if you
	want lots of rolling stock kits, and off-beat models in ready-to-run		form, and if you want good stuff for little money (Athearns diesels
	are a bargain).  
 	The advantage in N scale, as I see it, is that you can fit a lot of
	it in not too much space.  If you like modern freights (multiple-unit
	diesel and enought cars to make the diesels look useful) then N scale
	is a good bet unless you have a LARGE area for a layout.  I've seen
	80 car freights on an N-trak club layout with four or five diesels
	on the point, and it looks great.  If want a small switching layout,
	your better off in HO.  N-scale switchers mostly don't run too well
	(use a roadswitcher like the prototype does sometimes).  If you want
	a small layout that doesn't look too small, try N again.
 
	I hope this has been of some help.
		George Chaltas