Saw T-Scale Trains For The First Time

Stopped in at T.F. Train & Hobby in Denville, NJ today just to check them out and was treated to my first contact with T-scale trains. He has a small double-track oval layout with scenery and some buildings. There were no trains running while I was there but he did have some rolling stock on display on one of the counters and to say it's small is an understatement. There is a YouTube video of a T-scale layout in operation, just a simple oval, but the train runs well and the layout is nicely detailed. I could never see myself getting involved with T-scale but it is great to see that it is possible to build well-running and well-detailed models in such a small scale.

I also saw Z-scale for the first time up close and personal. Seeing Z in person, especially alongside N-scale rolling stock, makes my N-scale equipment look like O-scale or tinplate! I left HO for N and have never regretted making the switch to N. However, seeing Z-scale today has me wondering what I could do if I made the switch to Z. Time to maybe start armchair dreaming and planning a Z-scale layout.........

For T-scale you should also supply a microscope!

But you could probably get a lot more tracks in a small area if the wife starts complaining.
Anyway, I'm not much of a modeler, and have 3 sizes but prefer HO. At least having moved to our new place I can have an oval on the coffee table.
Here's one video, posted in the Philly forums, but I'm trying to find a really excellent one featuring San Fran LRV cars
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THC-X8XVu8w

I think that any topic regarding "T-scale" should really first address the question, "Why?", or to what purpose does this new scale honestly serve in the hobby?

T-scale (and even HT-scale, Half T, or 1:900 scale) is really nothing new. This scale was illustrated in Model Railroader 30, or 40, years ago and totally scoffed at for any number of reasons. The advance of technology hasn't made T-scale any more practical today, as it still fails to operated even anywhere near the minimal standards of cheap Lionel O-gauge train from the 1950's! View the video link posted below to watch some T-scale trains operating at absolute minimum speed. They are still travelling, somewhat haltingly at that, at what to me appears as in excess of 100mph. Even the slightest further reduction in voltage brings them to an instantaneous halt. Just try replicated a realistic station stop, or doing industrial switching, under such limitations! This inability to function anything like the prototype clearly marks T-scale as a toy, not a scale model in the normal sense of the term. If space is truly a limiting factor for the hobbyist, forcing him toward T-scale, some O27 Lionels will take up very little more room and certainly prove much better operationally. Honestly, watching T-scale trains whiz around a loop of track, travelling at TGV-like speed, reminds me of a cat watching a mechanical mouse racing in random circles on the kitchen floor!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RR1JxyO ... re=related

I see T-scale as simply a novelty toy whose only market are those folks who must have something unique, or at least that very few others might have. It exhibits no advantages over existing scale model trains and in some respects is really a step backwards. In an already slowly shrinking hobby divided into upwards of a dozen different scales already, I have to regard the introduction of T-scale at this time as utter folly.

CNJ999

CNJ, wasn't the same thing said about Z, N, TT, HO? Three of those four are still doing OK despite being sniffed at as "toys" upon their introduction. Certainly even today there are HO people who still ask me when I, a nearly 41 year N Scaler, will start working with "real trains." And with not a or to be found.

I don't see myself ever using T Scale, but it's OK with me if anyone wants to give it a try. The enemy is "out there"-- let's see if we can't make this tent reasonably inclusive.

umtrr-author wrote:CNJ, wasn't the same thing said about Z, N, TT, HO? Three of those four are still doing OK despite being sniffed at as "toys" upon their introduction. Certainly even today there are HO people who still ask me when I, a nearly 41 year N Scaler, will start working with "real trains." And with not a or to be found.

I don't see myself ever using T Scale, but it's OK with me if anyone wants to give it a try. The enemy is "out there"-- let's see if we can't make this tent reasonably inclusive.

No, not in the cases of HO and TT. Their equipment was always considered legitimate craftsman scale models as they could be made to operate at realistic speeds with a little careful tinkering right from day one. If you consult period issues of Model Railroader magazine you'll find that HO scale, although called, "the watchmaker's gauge" by the O-scalers of the day, was never regarded as a toy here in the United States. In the case of TT, since it came along well after both HO and OO were firmly established, it never really saw any problems of acceptance as a serious modeling scale.

However, both N gauge and much more recently Z gauge, were indeed considered as being essentially toys, or novelties, in their early days and justifiably so. In fact, N gauge models were introduced in the USA as unpowered push toys! To its credit, N has definitely improved greatly from an operational standpoint over the years, such that it today operates nearly as well as HO, but it has taken several decades to reach the point of really being operationally acceptable. Z really hasn't made that leap so far. It still is not able to realistically execute prototype operations at scale speeds and along with T-scale, may well not reach that point for many years to come...if ever. The reality of the situation is that true scale model trains do not operate like the Marx Honeymoon Express!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9jDoUX5ayQ

CNJ999