The first of the BRAWA IIm (Large Scale that is to scale)...

Hi all,

For those who model the RhB (Rhaetian Railways in Switzerland) there is good News. The RhB G4/5 Steamer ( a Consolidation type) is planned for mid/late November delivery in Europe and two weeks later in NA. The cars should be even a few weeks earlier.
Rather than use the trickle method i.e. an engine now, a car maybe later and then another car sometime down the road; BRAWA decided to make their Large Scale debut with a complete consist: engine, baggage, first/second class and two third class cars.

BRAWA decided that scale accuracy is a good thing and produces their models in 1:22.5 scale. Of course they have many, many years of experience doing the same in HO with excellent models.
1:22.5 scale on 45mm track gauge is referred to as “IIm” - the “m” stands for Meter Gauge.

For those not so familiar with “II” scale (Roman numeral 2) , the scale is twice the size of European O scale (1:45). The gauge for standard gauge items is 64mm.
The 45mm track gauge is in Europe also commonly used for “I” scale (Roman numeral 1) at 1:32 ratio, with correspondingly smaller rail profiles and a different tie spacing. The numbering system is as set out in the NEM Standards http://www.morop.org/en/normes/nem010_en.pdf

I’ve seen a pre-production sample of this loco and one of the coaches in a shop over here - very nice indeed though you’ll need wide radius curves to run it (long 4-axle rigid wheelbase). Hopefully it’ll give LGB a bit of a kick and get them offering more new tooling for the European market.