ADVENTURES IN 1/120 SCALE
November 21st 2015 - This blog is about my new model train layout in TT Scale (1/120th scale) or 1/10th scale, one inch = one foot. I've always held a soft spot for TT Scale even back to the 1970's but was unable to try it then. Now after 40 years in HO, HOn3, N and Sn3 1/2 I have come to a place where I'm ready to try again . Back then, (early 70's) I was modeling N scale and growing up in Southern California where I lived near Knott's Berry Farm with its Colorado Narrow Gauge RR trains. I was quite taken and wanted to do NG. This was hard as I was in my preteens and had a limited income. I tried modeling NG using N Scale track (9mm) and had a lot of fun. I looked into the actual scale and read that it was 1/100 scale and remembered TT trains from the 60's. That seemed doable and seeing an ad in Model Railroader from Gandy Dancer kits I wrote a letter of inquiry, but received no reply. I guess they were out of business (72 or 73?) Any way I went into N Scale 1920'S modeling and left it at that. In the late 70's I started railfaning the Santa Fe mainline in Fullerton CA and I went back into HO in 1980 having had my first train set (1967) in that scale. It was fun to buy what I saw at trackside. I was out of N Scale before it "took off" and stayed happily in HO for 25 years. I still liked Narrow Gauge and did some Sn 3 1/2 by the millenium and liked it well enough, but it took up too much room (You can model Sn3 in the space of HO but you should use "broad curves") 20 inch radius was too tight and I switched to HOn3. That worked better. Well, after a big move I had to downsize and I got rid of my HO and Sn3 1/2 stuff, keeping only my HOn3 trains. I joined an HO club with HOn3 and am building an HOn3 layout, but I still wanted to model mainline standard gauge trains. The hobby had certainly changed! It's very expensive and everything is pre-made for the most part. So looking at the cost of starting again in HO and running on the club or just building a module. I was daunted. And for some reason TT Scale had been on my mind for about a year or so. I thought of building a TT/TTn42 layout, using N Scale track for the narrow gauge, but that was a lot of work and my Hon3 stuff was so nice and the cost and time of starting two new gauges from square one was considerable. Then I thought I don't have to build them on the same layout. I mean, I could build a TT shelf scene and keep my HOn3 seperate. The narrow gauge was set in 1947 anyway and I wanted to model the late 70's in mainline , so it might just work. So That's how I got started in TT (again) for the first time... Next; Getting started or "What's Out There."
