I had a hard time deciding 1:32 or 1:29…
I came from Lionel, then HO, then N… so at first 1:29 seemed an abomination, and 1:32 perfect.
Then I looked at the prices… wow! Mostly museum quality locos that really did not run very well, though there was the promise of MTH in the future.
Then I looked at what Aristo and USAT offered… lots of stuff and much less than $1,000 for an AB set in 1:32.
Boy was I torn… finally, I had decided the layout would be on the ground, so got some of each and put them on the ground…
That clinched it… goofy sideframes and track too narrow for the scale, it still won hands down… the 1:32 stuff on the ground looked like O scale.
If I could have a layout up in the air, then 1:32 would have been great, more limited because of cost and number of models offered…
So, the wow factor was real, at least to me.
Still, the “scale fidelity” of 1:32 sometimes haunts me… but since I have been able to amass 2 to 3 times what I could do in 1:32, and I love running multiple locos on the same train, I believe I made the right choice.
MTH has done a great job with their sounds, speakers, and the capability of their control system, but since G scale is so small, it really depends on the “wake” of development from HO… and HO is DCC…
With many manufacturers making DCC equipment, the electronics is getting cheaper and cheaper, more capable and smaller all the time… A single company like MTH making a proprietary control system is very difficult in a tough economy.
But MTH now will be DCC compatible in large scale.
Were I to make the decision today, I would have an even tougher time of deciding, but there’s still much more 1:29 out there, and now Bachmann seems poised to enter too.
Greg