I'm sure everyone knows that the Tomix Thomas and friends are considerably larger in scale than British outline n-gauge. Does anyone know what scale these work out at? I know scale is moot with a fictitious model, but Awdry did base his engines on real prototypes. I believe Thomas is based on an LBSCR E2, anyone have leading dimensions for that so I can work out the scale for myself? Cheers, Bill.
Tomix Thomas scale?
Nov 22, 2003
11 Replies
Seems to be true of all Japanese outline - I have a couple of Tomix
060 shunters (diesel) for my docks and they are a bit taller than the Farish engines - Not sure what the Japanese loading gauge is though
Japanese outline is scaled at 1:150. The prototypes are actually narrow gauge, so they scaled them up in order to be able to use standard 9mm trackwork. The Thomas range is bigger still, but I don't know at what scale.
Pete
Any idea what the gauge out there might be - Didn't look particularly narrow last time I looked
Is it/"he"?
I was actually wondering about this myself the other day (like I've got time on my hands...) and, as Rev Awdrey was a bit of a real rail nut, I'd have thought he'd be consistant in terms of "blue loco = Eastern Region original", or am I just showing my ignorance?
-- Brian "This isn't the longest day of the year: it just feels like it"
Most Japanese lines are 1067mm, that is 3'6" or "Cape Gauge". Shinkansen lines are standard gauge (1435mm) along with some converted branch lines over which Shinkansen type trains operate as through trains from Shinkansen lines, but not at high speed on those sections. This means that many Japanese modellers, if they operate both Shinkansen and 'normal' types, have trains of different scales sharing the same N gauge tracks.
I'm not sure, but may be some Metros and Trams also have Standard Gauge lines.
HTH
Charles
: >Pete : : Any idea what the gauge out there might be - Didn't look particularly : narrow last time I looked
In message , Charles Towler writes
Is there any mixed gauge? 1435 and 1067 mm track scales out at 9.6 and
7.1 mm at 150:1 or 16.5 and 12.3 in HO (87:1).
There are also some trams/metros to more obscure gauges.
Yes, a good example is the Kinki Nippon Railway/Kintetsu network. They run on 3 gauges, 1435mm, 1067mm, and 762mm.
There are numerous other standard gauge operators in Japan.
Mark.
Japanese N gauge modellers don't seem to worry too much, but there is what is known as HOj for the HO perfectionists. This uses 12 mm gauge track with
1:87 scale trains. Ready-to-run HO is 1:80 scale, though, so there is also what is known as #13 gauge, which simply involves regauging 1:80 scale trains to 13 mm gauge (from 16.5 mm).Going back to the original question, though, I think the Tomix Thomas rolling stock was just made overscale to make it more suitable and more robust for small fingers.
Their railways were all 3'6" until new high speed 1435mm lines were added from around 1965.
Regards, Greg.P.
Fellas, It's a little odd that when the Japanese decided on a scale for their n.g. trains to run on 16.5mm gauge that they selected 1:80 instead of the British 1:76, but the difference wouldn't be much.Perhaps they had no knowledge of the existence of 1:76 scale. 16.5 x 80 = 1320mm, and 9 x 150 =
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