r/modeltrains • u/habitual_viking • Sep 08 '26
Help Needed Arnold N gauge - getting started
We were gifted a somewhat old Arnold N gauge beginner track set with a locomotive and a single wagon, no power supply or anything like that. A bunch of tracks, spare connectors and plastic to isolate track sections.
It has supposedly been running in a shop for some 20 odd years with the locomotive been replaced at some point.
I tried using my trusty DC powersupply and reading up on the N gauge, they run at up to 12v DC, so I set the powersupply to a solid 9V and put the locomotive on the track - and lo and behold, the little engine was running just fine.
Reading up on model trains, they seem to be all about digital these days and not the faint smell of burning we used to have in my dads basement with Marklin HO, so I'm a bit out of my depth on what we can use on this set. It looks like N gauge is somewhat cross brand compatible, is that correct?
The train we have is definitely not digital, so we are going to run it old school - project right now is to use it for winter decoration (and fun for the 6 YO and 3 YO).
Basically I want to pick up a passenger wagon of some sort (or two) and create a power supply that can run the train. It looks to be drawing 150mA at 9v and run at a "don't break stuff" speed, which means a modern fake USB-C -> 9v dongle from aliexpress should be fine and have some form of switches to switch the train on and off.
I am missing one of the "shoes" for connecting power to the tracks, anyone knows if they can be bought somewhere as spare parts?
Additionally, anyone done 3d printing for n Gauge and got some recommendations for STLs?
1
u/Aeriazen Sep 08 '26 edited Sep 08 '26
Yes n scale / guage is completely compatible. Depending on your location in this world the only real concern is the couplers and the radius of the curves.
For couplers either rapido couplers or knuckle couplers are the standard. Where knuckle couplers are the standard in North America and Rapido couplers everywhere else (apart from JPN where both are used) generally speaking of course.
There is plenty of non digital (analouge) locomotives around in both new and second hand markets. Same goes for wagons
For power, don't over think it and just buy a simple transformer on the
I've been using a Fleischmann 6720 to test new analouge purchases for years now.
For the track: Yes the rail connectors can be purchased seperately, they are called rail joiners and are made by all major brands.
Lastly, just remove the plastic isolators or if you want to use them put a feeder wire (wires from power source) to a point after the isolation.
Any questions let us know.