Japanese 1:150 scale compatibility

Buzzrexx

 My few cents:

 Although I don't use Kato road vehicles on my layout, I do run a pair of Kato C-11 2-6-4T steam locomotives on it, one of which appears in photo 3 of my Gallery section (look under Komata's pictures in the Gallery), and have found that they are compatible with my LL SD-7's in respect of height, and although very very slightly narrower in respect of width, this is not noticeable at the 2-foot 'standard viewing distance' for our scale. 

Having said that, however, I run a mix of US. UK and Japanese-N stock and locomotives so the small differences between theses scales actually work to my advantage and are part of the overall effect I have worked to create. 

On this basis therefore, I would suggest that the differences in size would be so small as to be unnoticeable - especially at a distance.

I would suggest too that you perhaps buy 1-2 of these vehicles and experiment to see if you are happy with the effect they give.  If not, then your monetary loss will be small, if so, buy more.

As I said, my few cents - hope it helps.

Komata

"TVR - serving the Northern Taranaki . . . "

Japanese 'N' is 1:150, but the rails are the same 9mm spacing.

Like Komata suggests, mixing the scales can work to your advantage... put bigger items closer to the front of your layout, and smaller ones to the back... but the variations here are small and likely only noticeable to a discerning eye if you put two close together.

I just got a bunch of 1:150 painted figures from eBay, and the cost of these was so ridiculously low (300 painted people for less than $15, plus shipping from Hong Kong) compared to Preiser and Woodland Scenics.  Like comments above, I think they would be perfect to populate distant scenes.  Use just a select few of Preiser people and Classic Metal Works vehicles (although for the detail in the latter, their prices are surprisingly affordable, too) for important foreground scenes.