Hello everybody.....I was looking on the U.S. Bachmann webpage and found a Bachmann trainset purporting to be of an Irish train..."N" class loco with 3 corridor coaches in HO scale. I find it a bit odd that Bachmann would be selling this in the U.S. I'm wondering if its just the Harry Potter set repainted? or an OO set thats being advertised as HO? or what? heres the link to that page...comments? opinions?
I suppose they have noticed that there are more Irishmen in the US than in Ireland, thanks to the Potato famine. The train is UK 00 repainted. Keith
Make friends in the hobby. Keith Visit Garratt photos for the big steam lovers.
Keith Norgrove > The train is UK 00 repainted.
But it does represent a real Irish engine. The SECR N Class loco was built by the Woolwich Arsenal during the First World War. After the war, many of these locos were unused in the UK and were sold (as kits!) to the Midland Great Western Railway of Ireland. They were erected with the wider gauge of the Irish network.
The Bachmann N class engine is a good replica. The OO gauge is already inaccurate but that inaccuracy is compounded when it is used on an Irish layout.
Part 1
-- Enzo
I wear the cheese. It does not wear me.
Women and children, too, some of whom collect model trains. ;-)
And its gauge is 4.5mm too narrow.
Sniped>
Ok I give in Please explain that last bit
MartinS > > And its gauge is 4.5mm too narrow. Trev > Ok I give in Please explain that last bit
Major confusion here! :-)
Irish railways have a gauge of 5 ft 3 in, while the UK standard gauge is 4 ft 8 1/2 in.
OO gauge models have a gauge of 14.5mm. The correct gauge for 4mm *scale* is 18.83mm. Martin is correct in that to be totally accurate a UK standard gauge loco in 4mm scale should have a gauge nearly 4.5mm wider than OO.
However, with the wider Irish gauge, in 4mm scale, Irish engines should have a gauge of 21mm.
-- Enzo
I wear the cheese. It does not wear me.
No, thats the figure for back to back. The gauge for 00 in the UK is 16.5. Hence 21mm - 16.5mm = 4.5mm
Fopr UK std gauge as Enzo says the gauge should be 18.83, so the Bavchmann N class guage is 2.33mm to narrow when used in UK
4.5mm to narrow when used in Ireland. KeithThe correct gauge for 4mm *scale*
Make friends in the hobby. Keith Visit Garratt photos for the big steam lovers.
Keith Norgrove > No, thats the figure for back to back.
LOL! Like I said... *major* confusion...! :-)
You are, of course, correct.
-- Enzo
I wear the cheese. It does not wear me.
Ya forgot about the 5ft bit as I think narrow, and the Irish 3FT are broad to me
You shot that bit? Excessive, surely? ;)
The Irish standard gauge is 5'3", as compared to 4'8.5" in England, Scotland and Wales. The Bachman model is 4mm/1' scale, so to be accurate in terms of scale/gauge it should run on rails ~21mm apart if it's a model of an Irish prototype, 19mm or so for an English prototype. It runs on rails 16.5mm apart for various historical reasons too long and dull to go into. It all depends whether you let this kind of thing worry you. Some do, some don't.
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