Everyone knows that narrow gauge modelers form a large subgroup of our hobby - but what about WIDE gauge modelers…after all a substantial portion of the world operates on five foot or above
"Broad gauge is the dominant gauge in countries in Indian subcontinent, the former Soviet Union (CIS states, Baltic states, Georgia and Ukraine), Mongolia and Finland, Spain, Portugal, Argentina, Chile and Ireland.
And the Erie and Lackawanna were wide gauge in their eary days - not to mention the ante-bellum South
Is anyone daring eough to model Great Western’s 7 foot 14 inch gauge (please, in the name of all the saints in heaven, why, oh why, 14 inch!)
The extra 1/4" was almost certainly to aid with flange clearance on sharp curves in that age before lathes capable of making consistent coned treads would be cost-effective…
Remember that the original point of the broad gauge was to put the wheels all the way on the outside of the train – whether or not this would have eventually gotten around to Breitspurbahn-level overhangs with the wheels under the lateral quarter-points of the equipment is an interesting question to consider, but in the absence of separately journaled wheels this would result in interesting minimum mainline curvature.
Much more interesting would be an Erie and associated systems (perhaps under Gould or the van Sweringens if the different standard had persisted) built out to what would have been a larger loading gage but still comparatively close track centers.
What would have been well and truly more interesting would be Joseph Ramsey’s ‘new’ railroad following 1903, built out at 6’ gauge with appropriate clearance for the (very substantial) earthworks, with an incentive for connections both to the east and west. There is something I’ve always thought a little compelling about a train that not only made Chicago in under 10 hours but did it with interior accommodations more common to ship scale than plain old trains… while retaining the ability to operate ordinary equipment either with wider truck exchange or gauge adjustment, or on specialty cars…
Incidentally most O scalers are modeling broad gauge…
Probably the finest – and perhaps the best financially-supported – example of broad gauge, modeled or not:
The adoption of the 5 foot gauge in the Soviet Union, and previously Russia, predates the German advance to their borders, and any aggression between the two countries by decades. Prior to Barbarossa, the Soviet Union did not directly border Germany (controlled/occupied territory).
How would a DB locomotive drop through the rails anyway? Are you under the impression that they butt-connected the two gauges?
Did you think the Soviet Union reguaged all their equipment to 60" in the Summer of 1941 when Germany invaded? Seriously. Really?
Well, for a while American Flyer (circa 1940) made S scale trains that ran on O gauge track. This would be 6’8" - pretty close to the 7’ 1/4" Great Western.
Lionel over the years made some of their locomotives to scales smaller than 1:48 - some that were 1:64 (S scale).
So get some of those 1:64 Lionel locomotives. Swap the trucks on the current American Flyer freight and passenger cars. And you’re in business with wide gauge.[:D]
This is wrong on so many levels. Whistler (the artist’s father) proposed this, I believe following Horatio Allen’s practice that made 5’ the Southern gauge standard well into the 1880s (vs. Melnikov’s 6’, also from American practice). It was standardized in Russia by 1860. Rather obviously any 5’ route in wartime could easily be regauged by moving one rail inboard on the ties – a method that was in fact commonly used when major lines using the Allen or Pennsylvania (4’9") were converted to standard.
In partial defense, the idea that Russia preserved 5’ to make invasion more difficult was widely promulgated, so it’s not surprising to see it repeated. It’s just that it ain’t so in real life.
What you may be thinking of is some Russian military standards, notably gun caliber, where the Russian bore is just slightly larger than common “enemy” spec – this would allow Russian guns to fire captured ammunition, but enemy guns to jam (or worse) if the opposite were tried.
I remembered that a significant amount of Brazilian railroading is 5’3" Irish gauge, and there is a pretty well developed modeling community there. One approach there is to retain the HO proportions (English to metric) but to use “HOb” gauge in the track – 18.2mm. I do not know the extent to which manufacturers make things like flex or sectional track in HOb, but would expect at least some market for it in areas this gauge would be modeled.
There is an active group of Civil War era modelers, at least one of whom uses finescale (P:87) components for track and wheels but at 17.5mm gauge.
Surely there is a community of modelers in India who work in their broad gauge and come here to read about ‘the craft’…
Yes, the Germans had no problem regauging Soviet trackage to 4’ 8 1/2" as they occupied territory. Some accounts of German field engineers stated that the Soviet attempts to sabotage their trackage actually made the regauging work easier on the invaders.
The Soviets took as much of their equipment as they could as they retreated. I do not know of any scaled measures for Gemans to regauge Soviet equipment. I am certain it happened here and there, but doubtful very much.
Ther Germans had quite a bit of captured Polish equipment in fine condition that they used extensively in the Soviet campaign, including armoured artillery trains.
This I am curious about. I have read many conflicting accounts of this from sources that should be reliable.
The Soviet heavy anti-tank gun was 85mm, the German was 88mm, but the shell designs were so different that neither could use each others ammunition.
The Germans had a 37mm anit-aircraft gun, the Soviets primary AA gun was 40mm, but I am very doubtful German ammuntion could be used in the Soviet gun. The soviet AA gun was similar to the Bofors 40mm AA gun used by the United Kingdom, and I have never read accounts of the UK 40mm gun firing captured German 37mm ammunition.
The Soviets had a 76mm gun used in the T-34 and KV-1 tanks up until 1943/1944, self propelled artillery/assault guns, and on field guns (ZIS-3). The Germans had a 75mm gun used in the Panzer III and IV tanks, and some anti-tank guns (PAK-40). This might be the only
(seriously, if you are the least bit interested in history at all, subscribe to this guy’s channel)
Supertrain? You mean Love Boat but on a train? One wonders at how much damage that idiotic show did to the reputation of trains in the minds of the general public.
The model of the Supertrain used in the outdoor shots was actually an impressive bit of building.
I watched this show when it was on TV, I was 11. I picked up very quickly that when the train was in the countryside it was on wide trackage, but magically transformed to standard gauge when it pulled into a station.
There was an article in MR not long after it was cancelled about the sale of the models used. Cost the studio millions. It’s on ever list of worst TV shows of the 70’s, and there were some other doozys too.
BART is 5’6" gauge for stability. If Marin county had voted for BART, the tracks from SF to Marin would have been on the lower deck of the Golden Gate briidge and the wide gauge was to improve stability in high winds.
Numerous street car lines in the US were built to 5’ plus gauge due to franchise requirements intended to prevent interchange of RR freight cars.
