Guage

Wouldn't you just know it.

Reply to
Christopher A.Lee
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In that case don't ever get into US "G Scale"!

Greg.P.

Reply to
Greg Procter

Nahh, it's the scale that's wrong for the gauge!

Greg.P.

Reply to
Greg Procter

Wouldn't 'S4' be three scales?

- S = 1:64.

- S (UK) = 16mm/foot.

- 4 = 4mm/foot.

Describing a scale in terms of a ratio of two different measuring systems seems to me to be well along the road to insanity.

Greg.P.

Reply to
Greg Procter

Well, if one had a sheepdog named "an" and ...

Reply to
Greg Procter

Someone's wrong? That would be me - my wife keeps telling me!

Greg.P.

Reply to
Greg Procter

"Para" and "loco" are abbreviations that have taken on their own life as nouns.

Strictly they should both be followed by a full stop, like "etc." but people don't seem to bother any more even though it would have cost me marks .

When part of a word is missing from inside it, an apostrophe is used to show this. Like "didn't".

It boils down to whether you treat loco and Para as abbreviations or nouns in their own right.

As an abbreviation, the plural of loco. would be "loco's" because "motive" is missing from inside "locomotives".

As a noun in its own right, the plural of loco would be "locos".

Reply to
Christopher A.Lee

On 17/01/2008 19:17, Greg Procter said,

No - S4 as in Scalefour, 'n' as in narrow, and '2' as in 2ft prototype gauge :-)

Reply to
Paul Boyd

Hi Paul, _I_ know what _you_ mean when you write S4 (n2) but the whole point of writing in a public forum is to tell other people about ... "S" has long been used to denote 1:64 scale. It's the most common NZR scale here in New Zealand, although it's normally refered to as 3/16" scale. It took me ages to find out that the "S" in various UK narrow gauge designations stood for "sixteen". (pre internet)

Greg.P. Gee, we're being pedantic today :-)

Reply to
Greg Procter

In message , Paul Boyd writes

I thought Scalefour was a society, and that the gauge/scale was P4.

Reply to
Jane Sullivan

Jane Sullivan said the following on 17/01/2008 22:06:

The Scalefour Society is a society (!) that works to P4 standards. The history is complicated, but the gist is that the Scalefour and Protofour Societies were at war, then they merged, and kept the Scalefour name whilst working to Protofour standards. Something like that, anyway!

It's not actually about a specific gauge though - it's to promote scale modelling at 4mm:ft. The Finescale Narrow Gauge Study Group is an Area Group within the Scalefour Society, and there are also people within the Society modelling broad gauge of both GW and Irish varieties, and I'm sure a whole host of other gauges, but all 4mm:ft.

More info at

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- look at the About" page and ignore the bit where it mentions a specific gauge :-)

Reply to
Paul Boyd

Greg Procter said the following on 17/01/2008 21:21:

Ah, but in the UK "S" scale is almost unknown, although it does seem to be gaining ground.

Technically, what with you being on the other side of the world, wasn't it tomorrow when you wrote that ;-)

Reply to
Paul Boyd

In message , Paul Boyd writes

Don't mention that to Jas Millham, Trevor Nunn, Barry Norman, Bernard Wright, or the readership of MRJ.

Reply to
Jane Sullivan

Jane Sullivan said the following on 18/01/2008 09:06:

I did say "almost" :-) You missed Alan Gibson off the list!

Reply to
Paul Boyd

That was pathetic. You went to shows and saw stands selling wheels and other bits, with a sign saying that the goods would be sold to the general public but not members of the other society.

Reply to
Christopher A.Lee

Paul,

I think it was Cyril Freezer who said that the apparent popularity of S scale was maintained by the regular appearance of high quality layouts at exhibitions (led by the layouts from the gentlemen mentioned above), and that this was a misrepresentation of reality :-)

Also mentioned should be Les Bevis-Smith who built the 'Thame' layout in the early 1970s. This was the first large layout to use the exact scale track and wheel standards in S and appeared in several exhibitions alongside Heckwondwike, but with non of the hype :-)

The S Scale Model Railway Society is actually the oldest specialist model railway society in the UK, being formed just after WW2 as the Half-One Society, then changing its name to the SSMRS shortly afterwards.

BTW, Bernard Wright passed away a good few years ago.

Jim.

Reply to
Jim Guthrie

Christopher A.Lee said the following on 18/01/2008 11:40:

That certainly hasn't been the case since I've been a member - I assume you're talking about the time of the Scalefour/Protofour argy-bargy, which does sound pathetic in hindsight. I was too young to have even heard of them at the time :-)

I'd have thought it would be a bit difficult to prove that a buyer wasn't a member of another society though!!

Reply to
Paul Boyd

wrote

Hmm, I think I've seen just one S-gauge layout at shows in the last 30 years, and that did nothing to inspire me - from memory it was little more than a shunting plank with scenery.

John.

Reply to
John Turner

I can remember a couple of excellent ones - Thame, and a guy who built GE layouts.

Reply to
Christopher A.Lee

John Turner said the following on 18/01/2008 13:36:

I have seen one or two fairly recently - Barry Norman's "Lydham Heath" at RailWells a year or so ago is one that comes to mind - so they are about. Just not very many.

Reply to
Paul Boyd

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