As i am reading different stuff on the web or magazines i have ran acroos the term narrow gauge. Is it N scale or something different?
Thanks
Matt
It is something different Matt. Gauge is a measurement of distance between the insides of the rails. Standard gauge is 4’ 81/2". narrow or n gauge is 3’6" or less. it is common to see HOn30, HO scale, narrow gauge 30" gauge. HOn3 is HO scale, narrow gauge 3’ width. there are actually smaller gauges but most of them were used in mining and other industries.
Here is a book from 1876 explaining the why of narrow gauge:
http://books.google.com/books?id=nJUpAAAAYAAJ&dq=narrow%20gauge&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=&f=true
Harold
Something different. To understand it forget about models for a while. In the USA there is a “standard” distance between the rails. The distance between the rails is called the gauge. So in the USA “standard gauge” is track and trains that run on track with 4 feet 8 1/2 inches between the rails.
Narrow gauge is any track and trains that have less than 4 feet 8 1/2 inches between the rails. In the USA there are many sizes of narrow gauge. Most Colorado Narrow gauge railroads (D&RGW, C&S, RGS, etc.) were three foot gauge. That is they had three feet between the rails. The State of Maine had much smaller gauge railroads two feet between the rails. There are many other 2.5 feet, seven inches, 1 foot. etc. Most of the smaller ones are mine railroads.
Broad gauge is the opposite. Anything larger than 4’ 8.5" between the rails. Before the civil war many railroads were 5 feet gauge. Even after the war the Erie line was six (6) feet between the rails.
When you understand that the models become easier. HO scale is HO scale (1:87th) regardless if they are models of standard gauge or narrow gauge equipment. The designations for narrow gague usually have a small “n” in them. HOn3 = HO scale narrow gauge three foot gauge. HOn2.5 = 30" between the rails.
Likewise you will hear the term O-gauge for Lionel type equipment because the track it runs on is larger than the scale track at 1:48th would be. I believe O-gauge track would equate to 5’ O scale
Perhaps part of the confusion is that trains operating on tracks for a smaller scale are narrow-gauge. For instance, O-scale models operating an HO-gauge track is On30. HO-scale models running on N-gauge track is HOn30, N-scale models running on Z-gauge track is Nn3.
Mark
It’s kind of the other way around…[%-)]
The problem with O is that it started in Europe as “0” (as in zero) gauge, the smallest of Marklin’s numbered gauges. (No.1 is that track LGB trains use now, IIRC it went up to No. 3 gauge which were BIG trains!)
1-1/4" track works out to 7mm = 1 foot, a scale of 1:43.55…all of which was baffling to modellers using inches and feet like in the US. Early American O guagers instead adopted the “close enough” size of 1/4" = 1 foot, for a scale of 1:48. This means that in the US our O scale trains are actually running on a track gauge of 5’ wide rather than 4’8-1/2", and the engines and cars (and buildings, people etc.) are slightly undersized compared to the track gauge.
However, many toy trains were built smaller than scale so they could go around sharp toy train track curves. Many Lionel and American Flyer O gauge trains over the years were made to a scale of 3/16" = 1 foot, or 1:64 scale; although today, many Lionel and MTH three-rail trains are in fact built to full 1:48 scale.
Later, American Flyer used 1:64 scale but narrowed the track to the correct gauge for 3/16" scale, and this was S scale.
BTW later in Europe smaller trains came along that were exactly half as big as O scale. Half of 1:48 would be 1:96 scale…but remember this was Europe where they used the correct 1:43.5 scale. Half of 1:43.55 is 1:87.1 scale, which we know as “HO” (“Half O”) scale today.
In England, their real engines were fairly small so HO models of most of them would have been too small to hold the then-smallest available motor, so they used HO gauge track but increased the linear scale from 3.5mm = 1 foot (remember, hal
3 foot gauge was more economical, the first big railroad tunnel was using a 3 foot gauge line.
3 foot gauge lines grew in the 1800s as standard gauge lines and businesses merged or buyouts or whatever happenned due to highway competition, they abandoned, or standard gauged, the most resilient lines continued with 3 foot gauge.
Going all the way back to the prototype, and taking a world-wide perspective, if you Google “The Gauge Sage” (with the quotation marks) you’ll get a multi-page list of railroad gauges used throughout the world. 1435mm (4’ 8 1/2") ‘Standard’ gauge appears on the next to last page, after listings clear down to 305mm (one foot) - all of which are “Narrow gauge” by our American criteria. The list goes on clear to 9 meters - a Russian ship elevator. (The Chinese ship elevator around the Three Gorges Dam isn’t listed. I wonder what gauge it is?)
Most of the aberrations either were proposed but never built (Hitler’s 3 meter gauge super-railway) or were overwhelmed by passing time and disappeared (a lot of oddball narrow gauges only used by a few collieries or streetcar lines.) What is most surprising is the huge number of sizeable systems built to narrower-than-ours gauges, which are ‘standard’ in those countries.
I wanted to post a link, but the link that shows up on Google (and a printout,) if entered directly brings up a Russian-language discount retail site.
Actually, I model two narrow gauges (1067mm and 762mm) in 1:80 scale. All you folks who model the far side of the Pacific use Shinkansen gauge, which, by Japanese standards, is wide gauge.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
If you are interested in narrow gauge this is a good book to get -
Hilton, George W. (1997) [1990]. American Narrow Gauge Railroads. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0804717311
The first section is a general discussion of narrow gauge in America, the second a brief description of each of the different narrow gauge railroads in this country.
Enjoy
Paul
In general, narrow gauge was chosen rather than standard gauge because either 1. Smaller narrow-gauge equipment was big enough to do the job required or 2. Smaller narrow-gauge equipment (and corresponding tighter curves and narrower right-of-ways) were all that would fit in the given space. Narrow gauge tended to show up in hilly / mountainous terrain where it would have difficult for standard gauge trains of the time to run, due to sharp curves and such; or in places like industrial plants, agricultural operations (sugar cane for example) or other places where say 2’ or 30’ gauge trains were large enough to get the job done.
And H0n3 (or Hon3 how name a few it) has got a big push by Blackstone. Years ago you bought expensive brass engines but now there’re good running engines available.
H0 means 1:87, n3 means narrow gauge 3 feet
Wolfgang
You, say it is the other way around and then say the exact same thing? [%-)][%-)]