Model Railroading 101 All About Scale For Beginners MR101 

S scale (1/64) is the scale to use if you want to incorporate Hot Wheels, Johnny Lightning, or Matchbox cars into your layout as they tend to be 1/64 scale as well.

Warren Buffet prefers 1:1 scale.

You can create the illusion of distance in mountain scenes by placing the z scale to the back of a layout looking across a forest maybe up on a ridge and have a z scale shay set up on a bump switch pulling lumber or coal back and forth off in the distance of a HO scale model layout.

Over the years I've had HO, N and Z scales. When I was in the Canadian Military in Germany in the late 70s and early 80s Z was the way to go. HO was good, but hard to pack up and move, and the movers always destroyed at least one box trains, so N scale was the best for someone who moved every 4 years or so.

....and then there are the Live Steamers with more money than they know what to do with, so they ride on their trains! 😅😂🤣

Way back around 1961/62 my brother and I were given a Lionel model 1611 O gauge train set (the set created in 1959 to celebrate Alaska Statehood ). Mother re-married in 1965 and we immediately set about to taking command of step-fathers ping-pong table to accommodate our Lionel. Great Fun !!! p.s. I still have that train but sadly lost my brother to cancer in 1996. I intend to post a video to my YT channel in the near future of set-up & running that train 👍

Just discovered your 101 series...new to the hobby, and your videos is what i was looking for! Keep up the good work..!!

Class is in session/ The way you two play off of one another is a comfort/ Hence, Just keep doing what you're doing the way y'all are doing it... This channel is very informative / will be compiling questions.

This was very informative. I will now begin binge watching this whole series.

Your website is great and is exactly what I had been hoping to find. I've been away from Modeling for 50+ years so need a lot of info. Look forward to all your videos. Lots of fun as well.

Im glad this video series exists. I have so many questions about model railroading and This series is all the answers

New to the hobby and your 101 series is a playlist saved on my RU-vid thank you for the info and not talking down to beginners that is appreciated thank you guys for your time and information

Greetings from New Zealand, just watched your video above for the first time, very informative. I run HO and OO together very successfully - both have plenty of rolling stock and locos available - Hornby is the OO brand in the UK, while HO is available from Athearn, Bachmann etc here in NZ, from the USA - essentially just the couplers are different, but can changed to suit. I find the rolling stock in HO is more modern in style, and more detailed than the British OO...thats the great thing about model railways, you can run anything you want - as long as you are happy with the end product! Keep up the informative sessions!

I'm glad I found this. Been wanting to get into model railroading, but its pretty intimidating.

I started with Lionel when my grandson was younger. The new stuff is so expensive. So I stick with used post war. I wanted something that could hold up to my grandson. I have always believed if he breaks something so be it. He has only dropped 1 item since he was 4 now 9. If I knew he was going to be so careful I would have started with HO. Our first layout was on the garage floor. I over built it with cabinet grade plywood and 2x4s. We built the layout together. Teaching him how to use screws and paint. He would take his shoes off and walk on it. He loved moving houses, buildings and people around. He still has a lot of hot wheel and matchbox cars and legos on our larger layout now. Its a place for him and I to play together. Please remember if you have kids please let them touch and maybe even break an item or to. They are still toys. Have fun everyone.

Z: ero room for installing a DCC decoder N: othing exciting ever comes out. HO: ly crap, these models are so fragile. O: h my god, they are expensive and made in China. G: reat god, I have no room to run these.

New Model Railroader here - really appreciate this video series!

I love my N scale. My dad put a 4x8 sheet of plywood on the pool table. It had a 3 foot tall mountain with tunnels a town with train station in the middle and foothills with a river on the other end. You could do quite a bit in that area. I always found my friends HO scale too big. I do agree though, it was hard finding new stuff. Less of a problem now with internet sellers, but in the 90’s I was limited to the few shops or the once a year model train show. Back then, there was a toy called “micro machines” which was like hot wheels, but the cars were like an inch long. Pretty close in scale to N it seemed to me.

Wonderful series for those of us who are thinking of entering the hobby. Thank you.

Thank you for THIS vid.....it REALLY helps folks figure out size/scale to how and what their spaces can accommodate !

I model"N"scale and there's always new stuff coming out in this scale.

I started with the European version of HO, then, back in the states had American Flyer S, then HO, then, for many years, and later with my son, back to AF S guage.

What a great a video. Well thought through! We are buying a set for our 6 year old and wasn't sure which direction we wanted to go. Thank you.

I'm just viewing your videos for the first time. I agree with what you say. When I was 12, I got my first train set. I came home from having my tonsils taken out, to see a double layout my father had made. He started in HO scale. I really liked it. I remember going to the train store, and for one dollar, you could get a fully assembled freight car, with actual springs in the trucks. And they ran really good. The layout was on a board, with a larger track with a smaller track inside of that larger one. I still have that and all the engines and rolling stock. But I do not model with that. I left the hobby for many years, and a friend of mine got me started in N scale. The really cheap stuff. It didn't take much time, till I found about Kato engines and Micro-Trains for the cars. I bought most if not all the cars in kit form, which was very easy to assemble. Then most if not all came fully assembled. I also bought the Micro-Trains trucks with the Kadee couplers already attached so I could take the Atlas trucks of their rolling stock, and install the Micro-Trains instead. I like the plastic wheels, as they run smoother and quieter, than the metal wheels. When I first started in the N scale in the late 80's, Kadee was what you bought, then they split up the scales and Micro-Trains was for N and Z scale. Like I said, I am not in the hobby now, but do still have some of my trains. Thank you for your videos...

I had a HO train set when I was a kid. I really enjoy watching trains. I am thinking of getting back into it again.

You both find ways to make stuff interesting. Been modeling (armchair mostly) for years but, this would be good primer for others' starting or need guidance into the hobby [greatest - a bias outlook]. Good luck with your new series.

I would add a little caveat to the O Scale bit, in that you can get a layout into a space as small as 3 feet wide if you use 0-27 profile track. It's still O gauge, but the rails are shorter in height and the curves are as tight as you can make them in O, taking 27 inches in diameter to make a full circle. The downside is that longer locomotives and rolling stock with long wheelbases (six axle bogies instead of four) have trouble taking curves that tight and going through the short switches. That being said, most 3-rail O scale items tend to work just fine with it, and I like it as it lets you have bigger trains while still keeping things in a small space. It's a bit obscure nowadays, but O-27 was really popular back in the day for use in O Scale train sets as it was cheaper to produce. All Marx train sets were 027, and Lionel used it in most of its starter sets and as a way to compete with American Flyer S-Scale trains, only phasing it out when their FastTrack system was introduced.

In the old house in New York my dad had a Lionel train layout that stretch the whole length of the basement he would run five locomotives and 100 cars. He tried to get me interested in Lionel but I was a dyed-in-the-wool ho guy. My brother bought a few remnants of what he had to me and it included a steam locomotive I ran off the train table and broke the pilot off and for 40 years I never own up to it. The train guy mistakenly whooped it up and got it running and it runs great I might put a coupler on the damaged front end so I could double head to steam locomotives. In the 60s you could buy an HO scale freight car for $2 an N scale car was the same or more but a Lionel car with four times the price of an h o car. With everything being made in China nowadays I take pride and running my American trains on American track with American buildings and American people. I love how on every piece of Marx trains even a simple telephone pole on the bottom it has the symbol of the company with made in America as a train. Wouldn't you love to go to work for a train company I would that would be the kind of job you could not wait to go back to work on Monday with two shifts running Lionel could produce 1600 train sets a day imagine that

Thank you fir very thorough and fun videos. I think your videos are the best for explaining the hobby. Good job!

Great stuff. Was looking into train sets and needed to see these differences in the scales to make my mind up.. Looks like ho is the winner!

I really like the HO scale, cause they size up nicely to the Hot Wheels cars.

N scale is so popular in Japan because Japanese people live in matchboxes

The issue I had with N up until the '90s was finding accessories "in scale." Ex: A diecast Model A that was shorter than a child figure. Kind of an encouragement to get serious about scratch building...lol.

Well done TSG! High quality stable camera and of course great tech knowledge. Really appreciate your work.

I run vintage Lionel Standard Gauge "Tin plate" I'm a fan of the toy aspect of vintage pre and post war Lionel equipment. My late dad loved and worked in HO. Standard gauge is close to "G" in size. "S" started out as Gilbert's American Flyer. Lionel bought out Flyer and produces "S". Lionel has gone through several producers through the years. Williams, Fundimentions [General Mills] and MTH have produced some very fine reproductions of original Lionel "O" stock.

Thank you for the details! I have been into modeling most of my life, but have always looked at trains as intimidating. Your explanations were enough detail so I could get an idea where to get started.

Thanks for that info, Always wanted to know the scales of them. Very informative. Jumping to the Gauge scale now. thank.s

I just stumbled onto this video looking for a good break down of the scale sizes. Now I know why there are Ertl toy tractors in 1/87 scale. Pairs up with HO scale nicely. I am looking to possibly get back into model railroading. I had an N scale set years ago and kinda getting the bug again.

My workplace has an O scale train that runs around its Christmas tree. I also recall an O scale train that ran on a shelf around a local ice cream shop.

I've recently seen T (1:450) and TY "Tiny" (1:900) as well. The TY scale does not work the same as larger scales do, but more like "horizontal cog" railways. The motor is outside the train, and is built into the trackage.

Funny thing about the Japanese trains... Japan runs narrow gauge (with the exception of the Shinkansen), but the models run on the same track. Normal N is 1/160. Japanese trains are technically 1/150 ish. Kato and Tomix's Shinkansen sets are standard 1/160, however. Something you'll notice on a Japanese layout is that the Shinkansens seems slightly smaller.

hi Eric...that magazine is awesome,, i did take a pic of that because like you i might build a repair shop... anyhow may other hobby is model rail roading i model i "N" sale(1/160) ..most common "G" scale =1/32... i like all those kits you have... great update... thx 4 sharing.. vinny

I modeled in "F" scale, 1:22.3. Narrow gauge is 3 scale feet. Then there's HOn3, HOn30, On30, etc. :-)

I have ho and n scales, also a Chassie fan in ho. Roll On!

Such a great hobby. Thanks so much for your channel

For me, HO is about as small as I can see comfortably, and with a pair of tweezers, the smallest screwdrivers I own, a magnifying glass, and a good flashlight, the absolute smallest I can work on and repair. If S scale were more popular, or if O scale were cheaper (and if I had a mansion or just a larger space) I'd probably gravitate towards those more.

I model N gauge because I have a passion for Japanese trains and I can run all my limited express and bullet trains with the correct number of carriages on a 2 metre layout! Nothing worse than seeing a high speed train consist with not enough carriages!

Yes...I started in N scale when it started in 1967. My Dad got me a set and I can remember it had to speeds...stop and go like hell. But as I get older it's getting harder to see, but I will keep it and the stuff coming out now a days is great. Great new show Guy's. Bob

My late father, always had Lionel Post War trains around the Christmas tree. He loved model trains especially Lionel " O Gauge and O-27". I collect and run Lionel Post War. I had HO and G scale. But I sold them and got back into collecting and running Lionel Post War Trains. Go for what you like. It all comes down to size and how big of a room you have. What gauge would be perfect for you to run. Consider your budget as well. Happy Railroading!

This was very helpful, thanks.

I loved my O Scale trains when I was younger. Fun fact about O Gauge. The distance between the rails when scaled up is too wide.

N scale started in 1967. I prefer N scale since I live in an apartment and space is limited. I have Kato track, a Kato N scale Amtrak Superliner set that I call the Coast Daylight, 3 Amtrak P42 locomotives, I also have the Southern Pacific Morning Daylight set which is pulled by the Daylight steam locomotive GS-4 number 4449 which is my excursion train. I’m adding freight cars, my diesel locomotives will be Southern Pacific, Santa Fe, BNSF, Burlington Northern, Union Pacific, Western Pacific. My n scale model railroad is the Pacific West Coast. My ultimate goal is to model he entire West Coast from San Diego to Vancouver,BC,Canada.

HO is my favorite, N scale. Thanks for sharing.

I have a rare O gauge NASCAR train set and the diesel engine is a SD 40-2 and it has no front coupler and front hand bar is bent inward a little but the engine still works

The best (in my personal opinion only!) and one of the most underrated (that's a fact) scales of model railroading -- when you're living in a flat with limited space -- is still TT-scale 1/120. It's small enough to still build considerable networks to have fun playing with and it doesn't look as bad as the smaller scales. Also I have a lot of fun modifying models with my limited skills of manipulating small mechanics. If space weren't the issue I'd be building a I scale model railroad. Has the same gauge as the so called "G scale" but it doesn't look so narrow gauge. And the first thing that comes into my mind when thinking of G scale is these overly expensive and childish looking toy trains by LGB.

Learnt the basics. I am in before the starter’s Knowledge. This helped me. Thanks.

I live in Lima, Ohio. Although now a bean town it was once a train Town. The Shay was built here. ANYWAY.......I totally freaked out the other day when I was traveling under the newly reconstructed train underpass. Nothing looked real about it. I felt like I was in a electric train landscape. Although the pine trees looked real....just to perfect. The underpass itself....made from red brick and poured white cement.

Thank you ,very informative . I always wanted to know which scale was what .

I don't have trains but this was helpful to know which was which. I think I'll go with N scale based on space.

Great video! Thanks for sharing! Taking into consideration the number of people living in a cramped apartment who still love the hobby but don't have the room for a big layout may prefer to go with an HO scale or N scale so they can maybe set up a smaller set in a spare room or in a corner of their apartment. I haven't been in the hobby for over 20 years, but I do have a spare bedroom in my apartment that I'm thinking of using. I have past experience with HO so maybe I could do a relatively small layout with some trees and buildings and such. It would be hard to switch from HO to N. I'd feel like something was missing. Now what to do with the bed and dresser is another story. :)

Nice to hear and see the size differents as is hard to keep track lol

Very helpful. I learned some new things though I’m not a beginner. Thanks!

I just discovered this video and your channel 5 years late. This was a great primer on popular railroad scales but it should be mentioned that S (1:64 scale) is popular with farm and diecast car and truck modelers.

TT = TableTop, very popular in central europe, germany. And now also new smallest scale, T 1/450, mostly japan and UK train sets.

I hope you'd talk a bit about On30 and its relationship to HO.

Great enjoyed this very much

Certainly a long video but help a lot cheers fellas

When you look at an N scale layout from a standing position it looks like the view from flying in a helicopter or a plane. I know a guy with an N scale layout he was at table level looking at the train and he sneezed and he blew the train right off the track. Imagine that on the wheel report.

I’m getting ready to run a shelf around two joint rooms about 14 inches from ceiling for a train. Just gotta decide between HO scale and O Scale.

just built my very first lay-out. N scale, it's 11 inches wide by 27 inches long. it lives inside my piano bench. hoping to compress the next one even more.

Very helpful thank you.

Goes “ off track” Anyways…. Haha Thanks for the education, just started and will view all the starter videos!

I think that S scale would be nice if it was more popular but I’m still pretty happy with HO setups, the bachmann DCC sound value ones are amazing deals, and I’m looking at getting the thunder chief instead of just buying a DCC diesel loco for my existing layout since the track and loco alone cost nearly the same

that was a great beginning, so once some one figures out scale, next question would be space and layout design. that one might be hard to do a video for so, after that is power, DC or DCC and which system to get into,

OO is interesting in that it uses 16.5 mm track the exact same as HO ..I do HO and one time I accidentally got sent some OO flatcars by mistake ..Also same thing with a fuel tanker truck as a road vehicle ..The flatcars were usable but the tanker just looked wrong so I gave it away to a friend who does do OO ..Another scale of course is HO N3..Great vid..very cool..

As an H0 Scale user, this video is great and informative!!

Very informative tutorial series. I've binged watched a dozen or so of the 101 series, and have learned more than I ever knew about model trains. I have an O scale Sears Allstate that I got as a kid around 1960ish. My dad had a train set from the 1930s-40s that I have somewhere. I'm going to see if I can locate them. I haven't seen them for 30 something years. I knew advances have been made, but wow. lol. I do remember when Heathkit came out with a pulsed DC transformer kit for small scale back in the 70s.

Love the info. Good production

Scales are the life of track, without scales, model railroading wouldn’t be a thing.

Finally I found what I was after. A guy I met today has a bunch of S scale stuff for sale.

Lionel O27 does tight curves and will fit in fairly small places. 4 feet wide will comfortably work for a basic oval. But you're limited to shorter car length.

The tightest O stuff O-27/31/36 will do a 180 turn on a 4ft wide section given it takes under 36in but it really doesn't feel right, O-48 is the smallest I'd really invest in

Thanks for showing 👍 👍 👍

In the 1960s that got the name N-Scale because the track is 9 mm. I remember Aurora made postage stamp train as they called them back then. There used to be TT scale which was made by HP products good quality engines and cars but very expensive and when the guy died scale ended they were called TT for tabletop train. A lot of it became used for Narrow Gauge ho trains because it was very close to that.

When I heard the intro music to your video, I expected to see a bunch of squiggly lines and clipart fly across the screen and then Zack Morris twirling around in Mr. Belding's chair.

Once upon a time I ran and repaired an amusement park miniature railroad that was about 1/3 scale. At the same time I also had a really large O scale Lionel set up. The former was what I did to earn my keep. The latter was real escape. Lost both to a family breakup caused by alcoholism and a tendency for my step father to slap people around.

I decided to duplicate the train set I had as a kid in England,, over there its a scale called OO, similar to HO. Can find virtually no Hornby-Dublo rolling stock in the US so shipping from the UK is costing me more than the item lol. But am getting there.

My dad and nieghbors always had 4 x 8 sheets of plywood to fit their O scale layouts

A year or so ago I seen F scale on ebay went to check n they're not there now.... I'm a N scaler.. been one since 8th grade [maybe '71].... Seen it in a department store fell in love $29, put it in lay-away (saved own money) { engine, 2 freight cars, caboose, small oval of track n power pack } mini-trix... all I have left is engine chassis, and it quit working long ago

Greetings from deep within the Cotton Belt. Pine Bluff, AR.

thanks for that video very helpful

In Japan because the apartments are so small and scale is the preferred scale for modeling as well as for the club that people belong to. I tell people the worst my eyes get the bigger my trains get hahaha

Great video - This was the very first video I watched on the hobby. But upon further research I think S Scale might be best for me as I have an extensive collection of hot wheels which I would like to include in my setup... Thanks for the info... I will continue to follow you guys!.

Recently got a ho echo valley set from bachmann. For $200 it’s a amazing set, dcc and sound.

Ya left out S scale. Well, ya did mention it. HO means Half of O scale, thus HO.

The original scale of G is 22.5. Ernst Lehman was the man who started G scale back in the 60 ties. The Company was L G B witch stands for Leman gross bahn. Now owned by Marklin

I just ran across your video and got interested in your descriptions of the different scales. I think one important point was overlooked (and thus might lead newbies down the wrong path). "G" scale is short for "Garden" scale - for the reasons you mentioned. BUT! . . . G scale is not 1/32 scale exclusively, although 1/32 is one of a few other "G scale " scales. For instance, the most prolific of these is 1:22.5 scale (all Bachmann large scale products are 1:22.5), another one is 1:29. Lewis Polk told me about 25 years ago that they decided on 1:29 as a buffer between the popular European No.1 gauge (1/32) and LGB's 1:22.5, so his products could be run with the others and not be too noticeably different. and then there's USA trains 1:24 scale. And then, and then, etc.

I'm definitely interested in a multi engine layout ( HO) mainly type transformer, and layout ( industrial) Northern Pacific or Southern preferred. Thanks

You guys are great. Have you guys every did anything on the difference between the modern and past era? I live in Lima Ohio, we have 2 short lines and NS, CSX. I get to see all kinds of freight. The thing is I know some are from 60's and some are a few years old. I know not all cars can transition into the modern era of railroading. I know that the hopper cars can cause my nephew works at our refinery. He comes home and complains every time and old rusty one comes in cause the doors won't open.

This answered my question. S scale (1/64) would match 1/64 die-cast cars.