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What do you want to do?  Switching?  Mainline runs?  Big scenery that dwarfs trains?  Era?  What is your dexterity/eyesight like?  Is sound important to you?  The answers to these questions (and more) will help people help you more effectively.

I did both then setlled on....

I cam back to the hobby after 30 plus years and started in N Scale due to a lack of space. My first layout was a twisted loop with a few sidings. I then moved to a bigger design in a 4' x 8' space but never really started it because...

Our club was HO DCC and I have some stock I used up there and actually liked it more than the N SCale (Which was giving me vision issues anyway)

So I sold the N Scale, bought HO and have not looked back. I have a Point To Point layout, 8' by 12' L Shaped with a width of 2' for most of it. It supports two operators switching for up to two hours.

THUS, the question. Do you want to watch long trains run in a limited space - Go with the N Scale. Do you want small trains and lots of switching - then HO may be better. Se what you like and don' tbe afraid to change. Ditching the N Scale was the best move I made.

Go to the local hobby shop

and pick up both HO and N scale and check out the level of detail that YOU can see.  Now try to place both on track - how easy is it for you?

Now, is it conceivable for you to build anything in N scale?  In HO scale? (I.e. is either or both scales large enough for your hands to manipulate?  Can you handle track re-railing etc easily?)

In the scales you are looking at - how easy is it to get engines and rolling stock for the railroad you chose as your flag?  How much are you forced to build yourself?

When you answer questions like these (and other similar questions) you will have almost come up with your own answer.

You might look at On30

Again it is all your preferences and capability.  You need to look at some of each scale.  Then make a list of what you want.  Until you make a list you can't really make an informed decision.  The list is going to help you in the long run to save money because you narrow down what it is you really want to do.

Do you have a favorite railroad?

Do you prefer a certain time period/era?

Do you want to model a prototype or do you want to freelance?  Or something in between?

Do you want mountains, city, seaport or desert, etc.?

Do you want steam engines, diesels or both?

There are a lot of questions to be answered first.  You are going to have to interview yourself about your needs and wants.  You also need to include a list of things you kinda would like to have, but can live without.

Once you can post your list here, the members can help you tweak your list and help you design a plan.

Den

If you want to model modern

If you want to model modern era with large engines and modern rolling stock, then N is actually a better scale than HO if you don't own a gymnasium. Rolling stock and engines are much larger and actually more suited to N as you can have two SD90's lashed together with 10 feet of rolling stock and it looks not to bad, in HO two SD90's lashed together with 10 feet of rolling stock wouldn't look so prototypical.

But the best scale for transition era is HO, no contest.  What I usually tell folks if you have the room and want to model the transition era, go for HO, if you have less room and want to model the modern era, N is your choice. An SD90 is as long but not as wide or high as an HO f unit, and Auto Max's in N are almost like HO passenger cars in appearance, relating to size.

DCC in N scale

You can get (or convert) pretty much any locomotives in N scale to DCC.  The biggest disadvantage is getting sound into the locomotives.  Modern N scale locos perform as well as HO scale.

Basically  I would say that the small size of N scale is not any sort of impediment to running/operations.  If you are more interested in building rolling stock, you may experience frustration - or that may just be me  

Toni

Sound versus Scenic VIsta

Hi Alfa,

If you're into sound and special effects, go with HO.  The DCC command control, speakers, ditch lights, etc. are beautiful. 

If you're into sweeping scenic vistas or have modest layout space available, go with N.  An 18" radius curve in N scale looks good and works with all equipment.

There's no reason you can't have some HO equipment to run on the club layout and have an N scale layout at home.  Your tools, paints, scenic materials and glues don't depend on scale.

Scale Labelling Explained

Some may say that HO stands for half of O, and that N gauge comes from the Nine mm; the track width but I think this is what those letter stand for:

G = Great Big - get that thing into the Garden

O = OMG that's a pretty big engine you got there. 

S = Special - we are special people with special trains

HO = How Ordinary - everyone has one, or has had one. 

N = Now that is a Nice Little Train, but how do you get that decoder to fit.  

Z = Zee's things or so tiny I needZ my magnifying glasses to Zeee em. 

BTW - I have G scale - out in the garden, volunteer at a museum where we maintain an O scale vintage Lionel 3 rail 1950's layout, have a box full of Marklin HO (3 rail Europeon), my main layout is N scale, and my wife has bought a estate sale set of Z she wants me to put into a coffee table layout for her someday.  So have had fun with almost all of these except S - and have not played with any of the narrow gauge stuff either. 

Actually N scale sound has

Actually N scale sound has made some considerable progress.  Loksound has produced excellent sound with their micro decoder line and the switch to cell phone speakers has dramatically improved the sound quality.  As good as the larger scales? Probably not but pretty darn good. This gentlemen installed a loksound decoder and knowledge fox speaker in this Fox Valley Models ES44 with minimal frame milling.  I think it sounds spectacular

And those results aren't limited to big modern six axle power either.  Here's a RS-11

youtube.com/watch?v=PvTZPzdpOwo

I agree with a previous poster that if you're into modern class 1 type railroading, N scale is a excellent choice.  Also one point to consider is that we are limited in practical reach in distance.  In N scale you get almost twice the space in scale feet for that distance.  This can translate into more prototypical track arrangements (ie less compression).

Space

 "If you have an HO 4x8 it

An HO scale Harlem Transfer layout could be built to prototype dimensions on a 4 by 8 foot board. Radius was 90 feet or about 12.41" in HO.  Cars were mostly 40 feet but my test loop showed that 50 foot cars pulled by a Bachman 44 tonner had no problems getting around the loop....DaveB

Daveb

"a REAL F7 minimum radius is

   Yep, Shows that the best scale is dependent on the prototype desired and the space available. If one wants to run an F-7 on a 4 by 8 then better pick N scale. An HO scale 44 tonner  would work fine on 4 by 8 though.....DaveB 

Here is a point to consider.

Here is a point to consider. Your club is HO. If all the rest of the things they do appeal to you stay with HO. You can build a small switching layout or a heart of Georgia type layout in the spare room. and use it for your modeling room as well. With the addition of some transport boxes there are several makes out there you can easily transport 80 to 120 freight cars and engines from your house to your club layout to operate there. You can do more than that if you wish 3 boxes is where I draw the line past easily. If you like to build things HO is easier than N as far as I am concerned. This web site has excellent examples of building in N scale though.

If you shop train shows and such there is generally much more used stuff or purchased and never built stuff in HO than other scales. For me the choice was easy I have never been anything other than HO scale and the era has never varied more than from 1954 to 1968. Generally if there is a particular piece of equipment you like it is more likely to be in HO than any other.

Since you put up a question about your point to point being boring here is an alternative. Although there have been some nice point to point switching layouts over the years I doubt that their owners would call them boring. Also two of the layouts in the 2015 great model railroads publication are the property of regular posters on here and you might want to view them when the issue hits the stands. There are also links to them on this web site. You might also look at the track plan database on here to see some of the layouts members have or are building, that might help you see more of your choices.

Scale suggestion

One suggestion is to build a small diorama in each scale and see which you prefer.

I've modeled in N, HO, and O scales and they all have their benefits and tradeoffs.  Sometimes too the choice of scale is just a gut-level feeling.

Regards,

Ed

The problem with gut level

The problem with gut level feeling is that though accurate on how you feel, it may not reflect what you can eventually do in a situation that turned you off completely.  When I got into N scale, I bought one of those train sets to see how I would like N scale.  I set it up on plywood on the inside of my son's 4 by 8 plywood central RR, and I looked at the small engines and cars and thought - "I can't do this, the scale is just too small."

However my son and I use to do a lot of railfanning at the Cisco bridges in British Columbia (  https://www.google.ca/search?q=cisco+bridges+images&espv=2&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=0pBOVIujNsHioATNloG4CA&ved=0CBwQsAQ&biw=1024&bih=679#tbm=isch&q=%22cisco+bridges%22+images  )

and I became interested in modern rolling stock and motive power.  When I moved to the larger sizes that modern equipment embraces, I was very happy with N scale.  If I had gone the initial gut feeling route, I would never have ended up in N scale with a layout in a smaller room that has provided me with my RR empire I have always wanted.  Also seeing an N scale layout about 14 years ago in Lynden Washinghton at their show helped me to understand that modern visually in N is okay; I think it was the Puget Sound layout.

For me, but not for most, scale is also a tool in layout planning.  All to often I see guys trying to put a square peg in a round hole, which of course can be done given enough force, but the results won't be pretty. Somewhere on the net are some "layouts" on toilet seats.

Toilet seat layout:  http://aberaeronbograilway.webs.com/photos.htm

 For me, the only reasonable scale for a toilet seat layout is Z but I guarantee you some guy has tried to figure out how to do HO on the toilet seat, diorama maybe but "layout"....lol..... no!