People with some space available to build relatively bit train scale layouts prefer the HO scale trains, but N scale trains are also very popular because they give the collectors the chance of having amazing scale trains tracks but without dedicating that much space for this purpose. In fact N scale trains are almost 50% smaller than HO scale trains, which is a big advantage is space is one of your major concerns. But don’t get fool by the fact that the N scale trains are smaller, there are yet smaller scale trains such as Z scale models that are 1:220 scale and there is another scale that´s even smaller, the miniature T scale trains, with a scale ratio of 1:450. But what makes N scale trains more popular than the smaller trains is that, even though they help you saving some of your living space, they still will give you freedom to work easily on them. Besides, they are compatible with the 1:144 scale, which is mostly used for smaller war gaming.
N scale trains have been around for a long time, since 1927, but they were not available commercially until 1962, when a German company called Arnold started their mass production. Some other gauges and scales have been popular for some periods of time; they were never standardized in the market. I just the manufacturers around two years after the N scale trains release to start measuring the voltage, height, gauge and some other aspects based N scale trains.
There is only one scale that beats the N scale in popularity, that´s is the HO scale. The N scale models are extremely popular in Japan, where the living spaces are considerably much more reduced. But this doesn´t mean that n scale trains are designed just for small houses, many collectors prefer this scale because it allows them to build more complex scale trains layouts without sacrificing too much space. Something great about this type of trains is that they´re almost fully compatible between manufacturers, although tracks and wheels may vary, but very slightly. N scale train tracks are built based on standard 9 mm rails, but exist two different standards for N scale, there is MOROP (for Europe) and NMRA (for North America). Because of these most of the elements for the scale are standard, such as power supplies, track gauge, scale ratio and couplings, but they won´t 100% compatible though.
In Europe and the United States the N scale trains are built on standard 1:160 scale. In both regions the model trains are designed to work on N gauge train tracks, but in some other countries exist some variants of these standards, for instance, in the UK a different scale for N scale trains commercially produced is used, 1:148, these trains will run on regular 9 mm train tracks, but their on tracks are slightly narrower. The same applies for Japan; they use a different scale, 1:150. Again these trains run in regular 9 mm train tracks but have narrower train tracks.
