I have what i would think of as a more gerneal question about gauge size. The train sets im running are ho gauge. I have been finding buildings in 0/OO/ON30 gauge that i have liked. Would any of these be appropiate size wise to go with buildings and such from ho gauge? Sorry if i seem ignorant. I have been around ho and just getting back into the hobby (after many years away) and do want to acquire more knowledge and have the most options available. On the cars i heard you can run the on30 on ho gauge track as well. Thats what has gotten me to think about this. Thanks everyone.
Well, let’s start by clarifying a couple definitions. First you have “Scale”, such as O scale (1/48), HO Scale (1/87), N Scale (1/160), and others. Then you have gauge, which represents the distance between the rails. In the U.S. the standard gauge is 4’8 1/2". Narrow gauge is anything less than this. Common narrow gauges were 3 feet, 30 inches, and a few 2 foot lines. Of course others existed, but these were probably the most common.
Now to complicate things, when we represent narrow gauge in model form, we denote this with something like On3 (O Scale, narrow gauge, 3 feet), or HOn30 (HO Scale, narrow gauge, 30 inches). As such, HO scale is still HO scale, regardless the gauge you model. Hopefully this clarifies things a bit.
Brad
TrainTraveler,
Gauge refers to the distance between the rails. For any given scale, there is standard gauge and narrow gauge. Narrow gauge is indicated by the notation n and a number, HOn3 for example is HO scale narrow gauge with three feet between the rails. Anything made to the scale 1:87.1 will be correctly sized for HO scale; HO, HOn3, HOn30, HOm are all HO(1:87.1) scale. The gauge (distance between the rails) for HOn3 is three feet while the gauge for HOn30 (also known as HOn2 and 1/2) is 30 inches (or two and one half feet) and with HOm the gauge is one meter.
Since the rolling stock for a narrow gauge railroad is usually much smaller than that for standard gauge, many of the line side structures will be built to different clearances.
This photo will give you an idea of the difference in size between standard gauge and three foot narrow gauge, The locomotives in the photo are a Berkshire, USRA Light Mikeado, and a K-27. They are all HO scale, the first two are standard gauge and the K-27 is a narrow gauge (HOn3) 2-8-2.
I hope this helps, feel free to ask any questions.
Good answers!
First, we expect our model trains to look something like the real things they represent. In order to get that look, with everything the same relative size, say the right diameter driving wheels on a given steamer, we have to “Scale” them down. If we just free-handed everything, guessing at a thing’s size, we’d have locomotives with odd fitting items and they wouldn’t look quite right…poor fidelity. So, we have to pick a scale, say one inch in our scale would equate to 10 inches in the real thing, and then use instruments to accurately measure all dimensions of things like the stack, feedwater heater, drivers and wheels, boiler diameters along its length, and so on. But each locomotive was meant to run on a gauge of track…rails separated by a certain distance, or gauge. If we want to scale down our locomotive, and the real thing only ran on the Denver & Rio Grande Western, we would have to make the wheels a certain distance apart, and those wheels would run inside the standard HO scale rails. Not good. So, we’d have to build or buy rails that are scaled in gauge to be the correct distance apart. To make things easier, we fudge them a bit when it comes to the distance between the rails and just use the next major scale track downward. So, if you have an On30 train set for running under the Christmas tree, as I have, it would be a train with engine and cars about twice the size of HO engines and cars, but it would run on HO track because we designate that HO gauge track, while not perfectly scaled to 30" in O scale trains, is close enough that we give it a wave through and use it because there’s lots of it and its not very expensive.
I don’t know if my words help at all, or if they are complementary to what goes before them, but I hope so.
Crandell
It is quite a complicated issue for a newbie to understand the difference between scale and gauge. Maybe the following table helps to add a little light to the issue.
As you can see in the table, HO standard gauge and On30 narrow gauge share the same gauge, but On30 is nearly twice the size of HO scale.
|
Scale |
Gauge |
||
|
Z |
1 : 220 |
Standard |
6.5 mm |
|
N |
1 : 160 |
Standard |
9.0 mm |
|
Nn3 |
1 : 160 |
Narrow 3 ft. |
6.5 mm |
|
HO |
1 : 87.1 |
Standard |
16.5 mm |
|
HOn3 |
1 : 87.1 |
Narrow 3 ft. |
10.5 mm |
|
HOn30 |
1 : 87.1 |
Narrow 30“ |
9.0 mm |
|
S |
1 : 64 |
Standard |
22.5 mm |
|
Sn3 |
1 : 64 |
Narrow 3 ft. |
14.5 mm |
|
O |
|||
Hi Travler –
If you are using H0 scale trains, buildings near the trains should be H0 scale.
O scale (1:48) buildings will be way too big for an H0 scale layout.
You can maybe fudge it a little and use OO scale buildings in the foreground with H0 scale trains a little further back. OO scale is a British thing - it is not O scale (which is 1:48 and twice as big as H0 scale - 1:87.1). OO scale is 1:76.2 scale (1 foot in reality is 4 mm on the model).
An OO scale building will be about 14% oversize compared with an H0 scale building. Or put another way - a 7 foot tall doorway on an OO scale building will look like it is about 8 feet tall compared with an H0 scale figure standing next to the building. So instead of the doorway looking like it is about a foot taller than the person’s head, it will look like it is two feet taller than the person’s head.
And you can use N scale (1:160) buildings at the far rear of your layout, if there is nothing H0 scaled near by - in a few cases it may help create the illusion that the building if further away, and thus look smaller.
But in general - stay with H0 scale buildings for H0
Hi
SOme very good explanations here, and I won’t confuse you further over “guage and scale” as your question is simple
The simple answer is to stick with the size you are modeling, regardless whether you “like the buildings and things in other scales” or not.
Simply put:
O scale stuff is way too large for your HO stuff { the term “HO” refers litterally to means “Half O” {scale}
OO scale is a british thing about the size of HO, but not exactly, so stay away from it.
On30 Is O scale stuff running on HO track. For it you WOULD use O scale buildings and stuff while you run your On30 trains on HO track. This is because it is O scale trains in size, running on “narrow guage track” {Ho track} Beware however, that the O scale stuff requires more room than HO scale stuff inthe same space. JUst because the HO track fits, doesn’t mean the O scale buildings and people will fit.
If you are in HO, search the Walther’s big book Catalog {available at any LHS-Local Hobby Shop- or online}. Often what you see in other scales MAY be available in HO-especially more european looking stuff.
If you have any more questions, don’t hesitate to ask!
[8-|]
Thanks everyone. It does help and clarify the basics. Im in what i heard as the dream phase of trying to decide what the layout will be.
Long ago, Marklin in Germany numbered their different electric train gauges, IIRC 1-2-3 with 1 being the smallest - No.1 Gauge is the size track used with LGB and garden “big scale” trains.
When they needed a smaller size, they called it “zero” gauge or “0” gauge, which came to be called “oh” gauge like the letter “O”. It scaled out to 7mm = 1 ft. or about 1:43.55. In the US the metric system was largely unknown, so we rounded it off to 1/4" = 1 foot, or 1:48 scale.
Half of O scale (7 mm = 1 foot) would be 3.5 mm = 1 foot, which is the 1:87.1 scale of HO (Half O).
There was a similar discussion a couple of months ago. In it I posted photos comparing standard gage HO, narrow gage HOn30, and N scale track, boxcars and locomotives. Scroll to the bottom of this link for my photos, but read through the whole thing as well
http://cs.trains.com/TRCCS/forums/t/180564.aspx