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Thinking about scale, the 1/50 project

Dave John

Entry posted by Dave John in The 1/50 scale project

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During the lockdown periods various things set me thinking about scale. Somewhere in my head is a desire to have a go at some modelling in a bigger scale. Something I can actually see as I age. Perhaps something  a bit out of the ordinary, perhaps something out of the UK spectrum.  Hmm, but what ?

 

So the next logical scale up would be O.  Thing is, which flavour of O, and anyway it isn’t really unusual. Folk would just compare anything you do to that which is commercially available. Anyway, this is about making stuff not about buying stuff.

 

I understand how many of the scales and gauges have come about and the reasons that some represent more compromise than others. Once that happens someone decides that they need standards which manufacturers bend to suit themselves.  The debate is endless, I’m not joining in.

 

So, thinking continental and metric.

 

Hmm.

 

1/150 Far too small.

 

1/100. Still too small.

 

1/75.  Kinda far too close to what I already do.

 

1/50.   Now that has a certain appeal. 20mm to the metre. 1mm to 50mm.  Yes, its odd numbers converted to imperial, but the entire point of the exercise is to think metric not imperial.

 

 

So I did a bit of research. Despite being arithmetically convenient 1/50 is not a scale that has attracted railway modellers. A few Japanese static kits, but no rtr, track or buildings. There are plenty of road vehicles and a range of Corgi trams, but no railway stuff.

 

A thought struck me. 20mm to the metre is really suggestive of metre gauge. I did a bit of research into that. Uk modellers, (apart from a few that follow Hom),  just tend to ignore it. But there were, and still are relatively speaking a lot of metre gauge railways globally. Miles of the stuff, or should I say kilometers of the stuff.

 

Now although some might regard metre gauge as “narrow gauge” a lot of it isn’t. There are plenty of railways globally that run on metre track but have a loading gauge similar or greater than one one see on UK main lines. Serious sized trains, though fewer of them these days than were about in the 1950s and 60s.

 

So should I choose a prototype, do a lot of research and build accurate models in the same way that I strive to do with Kelvinbank? Hmm. The issue with that is my lack of fluency in other languages. I have a little, but nowhere near enough to study the detail of a specific prototype.  It has been done, during my researches I came across this wonderful layout, albeit with a slightly underscale gauge.

 

https://www.narrowgaugenorth.org.uk/index.php/exhibitors/previous-years/134-pempoul#prettyPhoto

 

But, for the sake of argument, what if I went freelance? Base the ideas on a variety of prototypes, but not one in particular? It gets round the detailed research bit and just lets me mess about with ideas on the bench. That has a certain appeal.

 

Many folk will think all this is a bit daft. A scale not used, imaginary but realistically designed stock.  Nothing available off the shelf, so a complete scratchbuild.

See what I can make without spending very much. But that is the appeal of it.

 

Anyway, sorry to ramble on a bit. Let’s see what the bits box yields. 

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Compound2632
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It'll be interesting to see where this goes. I did toy with 1:36 scale, in which 16.5 mm gauge track represents 1' 11½" gauge with an error of less than 0.5%. I have a steel rule marked in 1/12" divisions! That, like S, would be an all-imperial scale unlike your sensible all-metric scale but I was contemplating prototypes designed in feet and inches. A problem with any esoteric scale is the lack of commercially-available figures. 

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HSB

In 1:50 32mm gauge scales exactly at 1600mm which is Irish broad gauge also used in South Australia and Victoria. 1:50 (6mm/ft scale as near as dammit) has also been used with 12mm track for two foot gauge  and Gordon Gravett used EM gauge standards to represent metre gauge although it actually works out at 3' gauge. There are, of course, many model buses and lorries available in 1:50 along with figures.

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Mikkel
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Interesting, I hadn't seen that one coming Dave! 

 

The Uganda Railway was metre gauge. Here's Limuru station in Kenya in the 1890s.

 

limuru.jpg.60711113647ec70915228f12ad36e6fe.jpg

 

But I like the idea of a fictional British line. You'd need a proper history for it of course, i.e. why the gauge was chosen. Sounds like fun!

 

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kitpw

kitpw 2,589

Posted (edited)

At least one of the engines built for the metre gauge Davington Light Railway was sold to Brazil when that railway closed after a very brief WW1 existence. It's believed that Davington was metre gauge because a loco was bought in from Gemany just before WW1 and rails laid to suit its gauge which happened to be a metre. You'd have thought they might have noticed that before buying it but history seems to be full of such accidents. The railway was subsequently provided with UK built metre gauge locos and Davington represents the only UK excursion into metre gauge that I'm aware of. However, it's interesting that one of the redundant locos went to Brazil where there was nearly 2000 miles of British owned, metre gauge railway and a good deal of UK built motive power and rolling stock. In spite of a Wiki article which asserts that the GWR (as in Swindon) operated the system under lease between 1901 and 1957, it was I think the Great Western of Brazil Railway (as in not Swindon), much as I would have liked the idea of green locos emblazoned with the arms of London and Bristol pulling into Barao de Mana Station at Rio de Janeiro.  But it does set one thinking, doesn't it? 

 

4 hours ago, Mikkel said:

a proper history

Picking up Mikkel's comment about a back story, I was thinking about Sir James Weeks Szlumper (1834-1926) and his interest in 2' gauge railways in Wales and in Devon, on the Lynton & Barnstaple.  Had his engineering inclinations been towards metre gauge rather than 2' (he had extensive experience engineering standard gauge as well), some of the "disconnected" railways such as the Lynton & Barnstaple might  have ended up as metre gauge.  I wonder what drives that choice - if choice it was?

 

 

 

 

Edited by kitpw
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Dave John
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Interesting ideas there. No idea about location yet, might be somewhere obscure. 

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H2O

Railways in New Zealand are 1067mm (3' 6") where the language barrier to do research you mention wouldn't be a problem :-)

 

1:48 is very close and lots of commercial items in that scale.

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John Brenchley

Western Australia also has a 3'6" gauge (1,067mm)

At 1:50 that works out at 21.34mm so depending how accurate you want to be, 20mm is reasonably close.

Same language (near enough!)

Best wishes

John

Perth, Western Australia

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Sithlord75

Queensland likewise uses 1067mm and has the largest system to that gauge in the world - including some oddities like the Gulflander.  
 

Language issues similar to WA and NZ however 😉

 

Cheers

Kevin

 

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HSB

HSB 4,701

Posted (edited)

Cape Gauge (1067mm) was also used in other countries around the world including South Africa, Japan and Taiwan. There was also the East Cornwall Mineral Railway which was later converted to standard gauge as part of the Bere Alston to Callington branch. Many of our tramways were also built to this gauge.

Edited by HSB
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Camperdown

"The issue with that is my lack of fluency in other languages"  Plenty of English language metre gauge in the British Empire.  As noted, East Africa (Kenya/Uganda/Tanzania) was MG, and there was also extensive MG mileage in India.  The French and Belgian colonial empires used metre gauge in Africa and Indochina (Vietnam).  If your tastes are more modern, then there are the successor lines in former colonies, plus some lines in France/Spain/Germany.

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Camperdown

Irish standard gauge (1600mm) comes out at a nice round 32mm in 1:50 scale.  Also used in Brazil.  Russian railways (1520mm) are another nice round number of mm.

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