Train Scales

Lots of stuff in the rmr faq on this, have a read. Keith

Make friends in the hobby. Visit Garratt photos for the big steam lovers.

To confuse you even further, some scales run on different gauges of track(HO, HOn3, HOn2 1/2, etc), and some gauges of track support different model scales (O gauge supports O scale models, also American Flyer made 3/16" scale trains for O gauge track).

Rob

Duane=A0Ellison wrote: I was recently embarassed by being asked how rr scales originated - HO, O, OO, N, e.g. Although I am acquainted with the varying track widths of each I have no idea how these designations originated. Any help will spare me from further embarassment. Cheers,

------------------------------------------------------ These might help:

Maerklin made the leap from selling non-expandable train sets to railway systems in 1891. The gauges were 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. from smallest to largest. In 1900 they released "0" gauge. At that time the gauges were measured rail center to rail center with the rail head being 3mm(1/8") wide, so 0 gauge was 35mm and later 32mm between the rails.

Because Ma hadn't allowed for notation of even smaller gauges, each new one since has had to have a snappy title which may or may not have any meaning.

HO is of course Half 0, TT is Table Top, N is nine (millimeters) in most European languages, Z is the last letter of the alphabet.

Regards, Greg.P.

originated -

track

originated. Any

Too bad O gauge is excluded. :(

Uh, made to 3/16" scale, but hardly scale models it would seem.

... and of course OO is smaller than O, but not the same scale as HO.

Strangely, O (alphabetic) should really be 0 (zero) but seems never to be used that way these days! Similarly OO (alpha) should be 00 (zero-zero).

Jeff Law New Zealand

Perhaps not in English-speaking countries but in parts of Europe 0 (zero, null or nul) is used (France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway).

Its not excluded, the info is there, in the 'Scales and Gauges' section on this page

Keith

Make friends in the hobby. Visit Garratt photos for the big steam lovers.

They switched track gauges, from 3 rail "O" to 2 rail "S", after WWII to bring the track more in line with the scale...

Rob

G is from the G in LGB, also Garden.

L is for Lego scale. Apparently this scale is to be officially recognised by the NMRA at the 2005 convention.

"Ken Rice"

Not "Garden", that's an "Americanism".

The "G" comes from Lehmann Gross Bahn

Gross = big.

-- Cheers Roger T.

Home of the Great Eastern Railway (Site now back up and working)

That is what I said. G for Garden came later.

G is of course not a scale but only #1 gauge running assorted norrow gauge prototypes.

I didn't know that one!

If you look at the US usage of standard gauge prototypes in

Regards, Greg.P.

Here are some links to sites that might help you: a short history of mrring:

I've got nothing against Lego trains -- I have a few acquaintances (actually my 20yo son's adult friends) who are into it, and regularly take modules to train shows -- but I'd hardly call it a "scale". Seems more in the toy train category (not that there's anything

My guess is the NMRA sees Lego as a way to get youngsters interested in the hobby, so that it doesn't die out c.2050.

-- Kizhe

I guess I should have said L-gauge, not L-scale.

As for being "toy trains" consider the creations on the web sites below:

The toy train designations began as _track gauges_ and in some cases are still used that way. Today the designations are generally thought of as _scales_ by modellers and sales tools by manufacturers.

Regards, Greg.P.