Am I missing something on this forum? I have been on this forum for a while and blindly noticed that 87% of information is in regard to HO scale, and the rest is N scale, never thinking about 027 (LIONEL) scale. Is 027 not considered a model railroading? or is there another forum I’m not aware of for 027 scale.
Hope I get some answers and hopefully they are not sympathetic answers for someone like me lol. Surely there must be a site or forum for the millions of 027 fans.
Hi!
Right Church, wrong pew… There are tons of stuff on the Classic Toy Trains portion of this Forum. Each of Kalmbach’s train mags has their own - Model Railroader, Trains, Classic Trains, Classic Toy Trains, and Garden Railroads.
Just click on “discussion forums” and that will get you to the main index.
ENJOY!
You’ll find plenty on 027/O Scale HERE.
I am not aware of an O27 only forum although you might want to check the Yahoo Groups. Classic Toy Trains forum referred to above covers all Toy Trains including Lionel O and Lionel O27. But you can start O27 threads there and others will participate.
BTW O27 is not a scale. Although some O27 models like Industral Rail are 1/55, others are just smaller than O.
Personally, I dabble a bit in O27.
Good luck
Paul
What does O-27 mean? I understand what it is. I understand what O scale is. I guess I’ve assumed that O scale being 1/4th inch to the foot or .25 to the foot, 0-27 was slightly bigger at .270 to the foot.
The O-27 name comes from the size of the track’s curves. A circle made of eight pieces of standard 45-degree curved O gauge track will have a 31 inches (787 mm) diameter. A circle made of 8 pieces of 45-degree curved O-27 track is smaller, with a 27 inches (686 mm) diameter. Full-sized O cars sometimes have difficulty negotiating the tighter curves of an O-27 layout.
In addition to what Ulrich said, here is a page worth reading:
http://www.lionel.com/ForTheHobbyist/AboutGauge/
[8-|]
It should also be noted here that the original O-27 items in the Lionel line are not really 1/4" to the foot models, but are actually “selectively compressed” so the will go around the 27" diameter curves.
No offense intended, but they are toys, not models.
While also not talked about much, there is actually a moderately sized group of modelers who run true 1/4" to the foot models on two rail track. The first RTR models of this type were made by Atlas decades ago and they still make them and a whole line of track for them. They also sell the same models with “Lionel” Hi Rail trucks and couplers.
MTH, Lionel and others have also offered two rail versions of their scale models over the years.
It really is three separate “groups” - O-27, O gauge “scale Hi Rail” and 1/4" scale two rail.
And all three have been around a LONG time.
Sheldon
Thanks for great information, although I’m not an “O” gauge fan they are a great hobby, especially those Lionel couplers, sorry HO never came anywhere close to resembling them, and they really worked, maybe in time.
True, except for being grossly oversized, the old Lionel coupler is probably the most realistic working knuckle coupler ever made as far the actual mechanics of how it works.
O-27 refers to O gauge (not scale) track, 27" diameter curves. The correct scale for O gauge is 1:43.5. In Europe they use this scale, approx. 7mm = 1 foot, but in the US we use 1:48 which works out to 1/4" = 1 foot. Because 27" diameter curves are very sharp, something in real life only a streetcar could use, O27 trains generally are built to a smaller linear scale, down to around 1:64 scale where 3/16" = 1 foot.
Lionel and MTH today make many three-rail O gauge engines and cars that are made to 1:48 scale, but require larger curves…generally from O-36 to O-72.
There is also the O gauge magazine forum
http://ogrforum.ogaugerr.com/forums/category/2415514336485183
I think it really depends on what you are doing or how you are doing it. If your goal is a old timey toy train set up then yes the other forums will be better able to help that modeler, but what if you want a traditional built up layout with realistic scenery and such, then being here is going to be more helpful, regardless of whether it N, HO or O27
am sure there are alot of readers here who are doing neither N or HO but are still using all the same layout building technics used and described here. Thats my case, I doing G indoors, but all my track is wired traditional DC manner, straight out of an old Atlas manual BTW, so I read up on things here, same for scenery and detailing technics, the scale is irrelevant but the technic is universal.
It is too bad that Norm Charboneau, one of the very best model railroaders today, won’t ever be featured in MR or RMC. They don’t consider him a ‘model railroader’ because his 1:48 scale layout used three-rail track.