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View Full Version : N Gauge on a budget


robster
19-05-2010, 12:44 PM
Hello all,

I'm a newbie - and need pointing in the right direction.

My 9 year old son has been besoted with the idea of building a model train layout for some time, and has been saving his pocket money extremley hard to get a set. N Gauge was the preferred option in order to save space.

I've been extremley proud of his tenancity to save every penny he's had to put towards this, and he's doing really well.

Anyway - he got talking about pocket money with one of my neighbours yesterday, and said he was saving for a N Gauge set. Later last night, my neighbour popped round with two beautiful Deltic diesels (obviously model ones, not the real thing), with appropriate rolling stock, manufactured by Trix, that he had gathering dust in his loft, saying he'ld love the lad to have them...lucky boy, and massive thanks to my neighbour.

So, that's pretty much the lions share of the budget saved, and I'm now looking for track and a controller. As I said, I'm a complete newbie to this, and I've been pouring over the interweb today looking at different track and controllers.

With regard to track, I need some helpful advice as to what track manufacturers to go for, and what to avoid.

And with regard to controllers - well, there seems to be a vast array of different units available, all priced differently - what I want is a simple, basic, easy to use, good value controller....any recomendations please, remembering that this is a 9 year olds hard saving, so we're not talking WinkieBlinky2000 units that do everything including going and getting you a cold beer from the fridge!!

Lastly, my neighbour also gave me two decoupling ramps - looks like some kind of solenoid activation, but i've no idea of the apporpriate voltage to activate - I'ld appreciate any advice to how I control these too.

Many thanks for your help....look forward to hearing from you.

Robster.

TWICK9
19-05-2010, 06:41 PM
Hi, And welcome, There are a few makers of track in N gauge, Atlas, Kato,Arnold, and Peco to name but four, all good but I think Peco set track is the most widely available and the probably best value for money, If you are confident enough to lay it you could use flexi track for the straight sections which will bring the price down. As for controllers most makes are alright for N I have used Gaugemaster for the last Twenty odd years and have not had any trouble with them, ( they come with a lifetime guarantee so say) the COMBI seems straightforward and good value , but I know a lot of people use the standard Bachmann controller that comes in the train sets with no problems. The decoupling ramps should work on 12 possibly 16 volts and you will need a press to make switch each to operate them I think you will have to put some weights in the wagons or coaches to allow you to use these though to stop them from being lifted off the track. Hope this helps.