Model Railroad Scale H0 Models

In the realm that is model railroad, scale H0 is the most popular size by far. Of course this is assuming that you are not reading this from across the pond in the UK where larger scale trains are common.

Since this scale of model railroad is the most popular, I wanted to talk about it first on this blog. The H0 model railroad scales have been around since approximately 1950--quite awhile before I was born. One could almost say that this scale model came about rather out of necessity. In the 1950's, the model train hobby was in a pretty significant decline.

As the enthusiasts demanded more realism and more control over this hobby of model trains, the H0 Scale was introduced and immediately won back many of the previous train fans.

The reason for this was due to the fact that all of the model trains previously were regarded as too large or cumbersome. An off shoot problem to these larger trains was the fact that it really limited those that wanted to create realistic details to the surrounding "land" that the train tracks went through.

I guess this was something that the owners of the larger scale model railroads couldn't afford--and it makes sense, the larger your diorama needed to be the more would be spent in the supplies needed to create your small world. The H0 scale model trains have allowed for a much more compact pieces so that things can be built on a more detailed scale.

Being a true enthusiast, you can't just have the train operating on bare tracks with no landscape!!

I was 8 years old when I got my first H0 model railroad; it had a red engine, two cars and a mustard yellow caboose. I was so excited to play with it that I could barely get the snap tracks connected completely. I setup a big oval of tracks and just ran the train round and round and round.... for at least an hour.

Then I realized that I need to improve upon what I had, which was just the train and the tracks. Creating grand schemes of what I was going to build: mountains, valleys, rivers and bridges to cross them, small towns.

All of this design was going to take up some permanent space so the garage was out of the question. The key was to take part of the recreation room and convert it into model train space.

It took about two months to create the entire environment. When it was done there were valleys and peaks and a bridge --granted a pretty rickety looking one -- and a painted blue river that went under the bridge.

Obviously you this was a novice creation and as time has passed I've been able to make much more realistic landscape and this is thanks to the more efficiently sized model railroad scale H0.

Thank you for visiting my Model Railroad; scale H0 post. I hope you've enjoyed reading and let me know what types of trains you've collected in the past or currently have!