I am new to all this and I am finding rather off putting that there is a range in model scale even though the track width is the same.
So what do people do - stick to a brand or a series of brands for model trains ?
How noticibly different would it be if you mix scales ? Is 10% (roughyly) significant ?
What about couplings even if you get adapters are the heights the same ?
N scale is 1:160 in America. If you model American trains, that is what you use. In 1:160 scale, normal gauge tracks come out to 9 mm between the rails.
The same 9 mm N gauge tracks can be used for other scale trains as well.
You can e.g. use N gauge track, N scale wheels assemblies and N scale drive mechanisms with H0 scale (1:87.1) superstructures to model narrow gauge railroads in H0 scale.
Then those N gauge tracks instead of representing normal gauge tracks is a stand-in for what in real life would have been 30" (2.5 foot) narrow gauge tracks.
That particular combination (H0 scale superstructure on N gauge tracks) is called H0n30.
Not totally accurate for most American narrow gauge railroads, which would most commonly have been three foot gauge in reality, but close enough for a lot of railroaders who doesn’t want to bother to handlay tracks and make their own drive mechanisms to get rails 36" scale inches (10.5 mm in H0 scale) apart.
You can also run 1:148 scale trains on N gauge tracks. In some countries that is called N scale.
Whatever scale models models you run on N gauge tracks, you would not normally mix different scale cars and engines in the same train.
You can if you absolutely want to, but then you will have to come up with your own solutions for aligning couplers and suchlike.
Smile,
Stein
That makes sense…
So do particular brands make to one scale only ie 1:160 or 150 or 148 ? Is there a list of who makes what scale ?
Suppose I need to do more homework…
Regardless, the car numbers are too small for folks over 40 years of age to read, This has major impact on potential operations. Because of that and other reasons, for layouts in my part of the country available for serious operation, a ratio of 10 in HO-scale are available compared to Zero for N.
Mark
Mark,There are thousands of us that are in the over the hill salt and pepper gang that does serious operation in N Scale…
So, please don’t lump all us old geezers into the “to tiny to see the numbers” group.
Of course I realize there are those that can’t see HO numbers either.
Or is that just a excuse not to operate with car cards/waybills or a switch list in either scale?
Yes. Stick with 1:160 and you’ll be fine. There are plenty of models available.
Well,Here’s the ticket…
Any car or locomotive you buy from Atlas,Athearn,Red Caboose,Fox Valley,Exact Rail,Walthers,Micro Trains,BLMA,Kato and other like companies you are getting 1:160th N Scale.
As far as structures stay with American brand names and some European made structures are a tad smaller but,can still be used.
Forget the worries and enjoy N Scale.
When you say “mixing scales” , are you talking about accessories or are you talking about rail equipment?
You can get away with more error on things that will be separated (background items, things that won’t have trains right next to them) or things that vary in size (trees buildings, animals) and less error in things that are going to be next to scale size things or are a common size (such as people, autos).
Rail equipment normally doesn’t mix well in scales since they are so different:
Z 1:220
N 1:160
TT 1:120
HO 1:87
S 1:64
O 1:48
There is no model railroad scale of 1:148 or 1:150.
Yes, and some of us have to have big trains to compensate for shortcomings in other parts of our lives.
They’re called Reading Glasses, Mark. You can get them at the Dollar Tree.
Lee
Are you wanting to run models of British trains or Japanese trains? Then you might have to consider whether trains labeled as N scale could be 1:148, 1:150 or 1:152 instead of 1:160.
If not, N scale is 1:160 for the rest of the world. Including trains based on US locomotives and cars, produced in Japan for the US market.
Smile,
Stein
You are wrong there, 1:148 is British n scale and 1:150 is Japanese n scale.
And for the record 0 scale is 1:45 (international 0 scale), 1:43,5 (British 0 scale) or 1:48 (US 0 scale)
I already wear reading glasses to read the cards and waybills and hope to remember to bring a magnifying glass when an N-scale layout is open for operation here to give the scale a try. Just hope the cards and waybills aren’t half as large as I’m used to. Hah, hah.
Mark (59-and-still-holding for several years)
So who makes the 1:148 … Graham Farish, Peco, Hornby, Dapol, Ratio ?
Ok…Here’s the ticket you will need.
Here in the U.S we use 1:160th for N scale.Any cars or locomotives you buy from the companies I named will be 1:160th…You need not be concerned with any other measurement.1:160th as been the U.S.standard since the 60s and that’s exactly how our models been made for the past 45 years.
Again enjoy N Scale worry free.
I didn’t read every word, but this page: http://teladesign.com/british-n-scale/ appears to be accurate, and answers a lot of those questions. Japanese N-scale (of Japanese prototypes) is 1:150, except for Shinkansen models, which are 1:160. That’s because other than the Shinkansen, most Japanese trains run on 3’ 6" gauge track, and the larger scale comes closer to looking right with 9mm track. The Shinkansen runs on standard gauge track. It strikes me as a little unfortunate, since modelling the two next to each other would be interesting, but it wouldn’t look right. Most any N-scale model of US or continental European prototypes is going to be 1:160, though I’m sure there is an exception to every rule. The real point is that unless you are trying to do something a bit unusual it’s not going to be an issue for you.
Wow, Mark – shortsighted in many ways. [:)]
OK, I promise not to burden you by inviting you over for ops when I get my layout running. [;)]
If you can make the assumption that the poster will not be modeling British prototype trains.
Since the original poster has not indicated the purpose of his/her questions, it is hard to know whether that would be a correct assumption or not.
Smile,
Stein
Firstly, Marlio, welcome to the forum and to “The World’s Greatest Hobby” . . . . . . . . . . stick with it and you can look forward to many years of ecstatic enjoyment as you hone your model railroading skills. Stick with it long enough and you may even acquire a flat forehead as I have which comes from beating one’s head against the wall!
Somewhere or another the poster encountered UK N-Scale which is modeled to a scale of 1:148; 9 mm track gauge renders a gauge of 52.5", 4" narrower than 56.5" standard gauge. !:148 scale would require a track gauge of 9.7mm to model 56.5" standard gauge track. UK N-Scale is 8.11% larger than US N-Scale.
I am going somewhere with this!
I suppose that there are places where UK N Scale structures could be adaptable for use on US N Scale layouts particularly in adaptations for selective compression. On the surface that 8.11% doesn’t seem like very much but the difference in scales would be readily apparent in juxtaposition.
Case in point: at one time one of the local Borders bookstores carried a couple of railway model magazines from the UK. I have sometimes fantasized that my Seaboard and Western Virginia Railway was still lugging freight over the hump of the Appalachian Plateau on an electrified mainline. One of the reasons for purchasing these magazines was that I hoped to locate a (modern) diesel–or even an electric loke for that matter–that would convey the impression of a locomotive adopted from a foreign prototype that would be adaptable to this electrification had it, unlike the N&W and Virginian, survived into the 21st Century. This is not as far-fetched as it might appear on the surface . . . . . . . . . . keep in mind that Pennsy once gave serious consideration to the electrification of the line from Harrisburg to Pittsburg. World War Two apparently interfere
Marlio,
The 1:148 scale ratio is mostly used for British outline models, just as British ‘OO’ scale is 1:78 instead of 1:87 as in HO.
The reason for this is because the smaller shape of British locomotives meant that when scaled down , the manufacturers found it virtually impossible to fit small motors into the N scale models. This was happening back in the 1970s, when motors weren’t as small as they are now. So they compromised by making the scale a bit larger while keeping the track gauge the same size.
Cheers,
tbdanny
True,so true…