What's your best piece of advice for beginners in N scale..

[Hobby Dreamer]

What's your best piece of advice for beginners in N scale.. or Japanese N scale ??

 

Mine would be:

 

   Don't expect the item of interest to be available in the future..  snooze, you lose..

[Tecchan]

Don't worry to much on era or area coherence. The aim is to have fun, enjoy models and run (or collect) trains!

[keitaro]

Be happy with what you modell not how well some one else has done

[The_Ghan]

Start small.  A simple loop or two with sidings that can later be used to expand the layout.

 

Cheers

 

The_Ghan

[westfalen]

Be prepared for your jaw to drop when you find out how much more there is to Japanese trains, both real and N scale, than the stereotypical '0' series shinkansen.

[keiman]

Japanese N -watch the wallet/Credit Card especially with tempting pre orders.

Choose your track manufacturer depending on what you want to do.-Kato available worldwide, Tomix from Japan mainly.Other makes down to you.

Do you want to run Suburban, Long Distance,Freight, Trams? The choice is out there

Read this Forum for friendly advice and ideas.

[Martijn Meerts]

Hmm.. "Don't start, it's more addicting than cocaine" :)

 

(erm.. NOT speaking from personal experience btw ;))

[linkey]

Do a bit of research of you want to create something of a sceney eg. shin-osaka, get to know what type of trains you have running there.

 

a bigger example: I am researching on Aizu-Wakamatsu (Fukushima Pref.) and I have got the 455, 485 and 719-0 sereis trains for this layout, I have got a smaller size Tsugaru-jo which will be added to the scene, so what I will be looking at how and what space I would need to create it. Hence why research is good so you know what diamension of your base layout will be.

 

Otherwise just have fun and enjoy it, all of us are.

[KenS]

Although I agree with all of the other advice listed here, mine would be: find a focus.

 

Even if you don't want to model a specific prototype, picking a region or type of railroading (e.g., light rail "trams", 1950's North American freight, Japanese passenger trains) gives you something specific to learn about, and (hopefully) a way to limit impulse purchases of "interesting" trains to ones that fit your focus.  I think it also makes it easier to create a layout since you have something more specific than "everything" for inspiration.

 

You don't need to be too specific: I currently model "contemporary Tokyo trains", but that includes passengers (tram, narrow-gauge and Shinkansen) and freight, and I stretch "contemporary" to mean post-JNR (anything in use since 1987) although I do slant that to mostly post-2000 trains.  On the other hand, it (mostly) keeps me from spending money on neat-looking trains from other places and times. I've bought things that didn't fit that focus, a Pennsylvania GG-1 and a Rapi:t, but only if I really, really wanted them.  I've passed on many other great trains that didn't fit.

 

You don't have to do it this way. There are a number of examples of successful model railroads designed to allow a wide variety of trains to be run (quinntopia is a good example). But if you are just starting, I think "focus" is important.

[westfalen]

You'll probably end up with several 'focuses'. That's why I'll get equally excited whether Kato's next loco is a different version of the new D51 or a Santa Fe zebra striped NW2.

 

But as long as you're having fun.