Unconventional scales and/or gauges.

[rocor]

Finding the time and resources to pursue the railway modelling hobby can be difficult enough, even when adhering to mainstream scales and gauges. There are however a minority of modellers that will adopt a scale and or gauge that though still recognised as a standard is far from usual. 

 

Examples of such:

 

F/S 2mm.

3mm TT.

British outline HO.

EM.

S4/P4.

S scale.

 

Then there are those that will have no compunction in disregarding the conventional, and totally going their own way. One of the best cases to illustrate this point is Gordon and Maggie Gravett’s Pempool, built to a scale of 1:50. Other examples are 32mm or 45mm gauge garden railways, where the scale that the rolling stock is built to, is determined by its ratio to the prototypical gauge.

 

There will always be the tendency to retain a standardised gauge and modify the scale, as building a large amount of customised trackwork and regauging stock is always going to be a pain in the proverbial. Which is probably why a lot of 4mm scale Irish railway modellers do not adopt a 21mm gauge.

 

I am curious about any case where someone has embraced an unorthodox scale or gauge. There are a few instances in which I am particularly interested.  

 

Have there been any British outline layouts built to the original TT scale of 1:120?.

 

Seeing an increasing number of kits for rolling stock in 1:35 scale (mostly German outline), has anyone motorised them? and built some 41mm track, to run them on?.

 

Are there any British eccentrics still building models to No. 2 gauge (2”).

 

Ron

[Happy Hippo]

I've built stuff at 1" to the foot on 1 1/2" gauge to represent 18" gauge.

[Damo666]

I believe many years ago British Rail built locos and coaches at 1:1 scale, but they had very unreliable running.

[MarcD]

I'm building stock for an 0-16 Talyllyn layout and an NSW micro layout in S7 and 0-14 do these count?

 

Marc

[brack]

I build (less frequently these days - kids) models, often of narrow gauge locos. In the past decade I have built over 30 locos, but have none of them, as a) people kindly offer me money for them or b) i run out of cash and offer them for sale. To be honest my interest jump about and when a loco is finished it tends to just occupy a shelf until someone offers cash. I have thought of trying to build things in less common scales (1:50 for instance, or 1:55) but if I chose such a scale it'd be much harder to move on stock I was bored with or if I needed to cash in assets.

I thought it might be worth sharing that consideration - many of us switch projects and sell off stock to fund the next, but if you choose an unusual scale there is a lot less chance of that.

[rocor]

30 minutes ago, Happy Hippo said:

I've built stuff at 1" to the foot on 1 1/2" gauge to represent 18" gauge.

 

1:12 scale, was that for a indoor/outdoor line or a static display?. Yours was  1:12 scale, I raise you 1:10. This is a 1:10 scale/18mm gauge model of a 7 1/4" garden locomotive that I constructed for a diorama, which there is a good chance will not get finished, as it is now at the paint stage, and I hate painting, neither brush, spray or flicking it on with your fingers.

[rocor]

1 hour ago, Furness Wagon said:

I'm building stock for an 0-16 Talyllyn layout and an NSW micro layout in S7 and 0-14 do these count?

 

Marc

 

Asking just for clarification, is that 7mm/ft on OO gauge track and 7mm/ft on P3 track?.

 

Ron

[MarcD]

7mm on 00 is 0-16.5 which is no known narrow gauge ever used in the real world. The closest to it is the Talyllyn but that works out 0-15.85 (official gauge) however the working gauge is actually 3ft3.5 which is 0-16. Also the rail profile is to big and the wrong shape.

0-14 and S7 are 14mm and 33mm respectively. 14mm is correct for 2ft gauge and 33mm for 4ft8.5.

Marc

[Steamport Southport]

EM is unconventional?

 

I thought it was pretty mainstream. I would think there was as many or possibly even more modellers of EM than 0 gauge. Certainly seen more EM layouts than I have 7mm.

 

 

 

Jason

[Binky]

I've dabbled in Gn15 although it had quite a following at one point, and quite a few kits are/were available using OO gauge chassies so I wouldn't say it's the most difficult scale to get started in.

[brack]

52 minutes ago, Furness Wagon said:

7mm on 00 is 0-16.5 which is no known narrow gauge ever used in the real world.

2'4.25" - within 6mm/1/4" of the glyn valley tramway (2'4.5") and snailbeach district railways (2'4"). Given the standard of construction and maintenance on the latter I reckon there would be stretches of line it'd be dead accurate for! Either way, it's more accurate modelling either of those two on 16.5mm than it is using 14mm track for 600mm gauge stuff like the wdlr.

[Alex TM]

Hi everyone,

 

Is the following unconventional enough?

 

A few years ago I experimented with a scale of roughly 1:56 and a model gauge of 16.5mm to scale out at approximately 3'.  It was an attempt to combine two hobbies (wargames figures and model railways).  It never got further than a couple of card mock-ups of diesel locos and a few wagons but seemed to work.  This was before I discovered the existence of the 5.5mm scale society.

 

Regards,

 

Alex.

[Northroader]

Got a bit of 38.5mm gauge on the go, just test pieces for now.

[Talltim]

Currently building a railcar and hopper in Sm, 1/64 scale using 16.5mm track as nearly metre gauge (Wide by 0.875mm or 56mm in real life)

 

Edited September 22, 2020 by Talltim

[sncf231e]

I have a 3 1/4 Inch, 1:17 Bassett Lowke GNR Atlantic in the process of restoration. A gauge/scale combination from early 1900 that was abandoned after a couple of years and replaced by the well known 3 1/2 Inch (model engineering) gauge with a scale of 1:16. I do not think there is a track for this gauge anywhere.

 

For those interested in the history of Gauge and Scale for Toy and Model trains: I made a free to download e-book on that subject:

http://sncf231e.nl/gauge-and-scale/

 

Regards

Fred

[Nortonville Phil]

About ten years ago I laid out some 1:55 scale standard gauge track at 1.015” gauge there was also a bit of 16.5mm mixed in on that base board representing 3’ gauge. Never got around to finishing any rolling stock for that project before a house move caused me to put it aside.

 

lately I have been working on some 9mm scale 1:34 models running on 32mm gauge representing 3’6” gauge.  I just call it 1n42. Here is a piece of batten track I just made as a test piece. 
 

Phil

 

Edited September 20, 2020 by Nortonville Phil

[PatB]

I'm currently awaiting the arrival of a Smallbrook 1:35 loco kit to get me started in that scale on 16.5 mm gauge. I'm working on the basis that it's sufficiently minority that my scratchbuilding efforts will not have to compete with high quality r-t-r, but can use cheap 00 chassis and track as running gear. 

[BR60103]

I have claimed some uncommon combinations at times.

A model of Walt Disney's 7.5" gauge backyard railroad at a scale of 1:12 on 5/8" gauge track. 

TTC streetcar/subway gauge is 1.5 meters (or very close: 4' 10 7/8").  This can be modelled at 11mm to the meter on 16.5mm gauge track. (1:90.9 but no rolling stock at that size)

 

[Michael Edge]

7 hours ago, Nortonville Phil said:

About ten years ago I laid out some 1:55 scale standard gauge track at 1.015” gauge there was also a bit of 16.5mm mixed in on that base board representing 3’ gauge. Never got around to finishing any rolling stock for that project before a house move caused me to put it aside.

 

lately I have been working on some 9mm scale 1:34 models running on 32mm gauge representing 3’6” gauge.  I just call it 1n42. Here is a piece of batten track I just made as a test piece. 
 

Phil

 

9mm scale is used quite widely in New Zealand for 3'6" on O gauge track, I have designed several kits in this scale. The most common scale used in NZ is S (on 18mm track) but there are others, more recent kit design has been in 1:48 scale (O scale in USA), strangely the only commercial scale which doesn't seem to be used there is HOm - which is slightly over 1m and nearer to 3'6".

[DavidB-AU]

How do you define unconventional? 1:150 scale on 9mm gauge track might be considered unconventional but is staggeringly popular in Japan.

 

Sn3½ was the predominant scale for 3'6" narrow gauge in Australia until commercial HOn3½ started to become available about a decade ago.

 

1:120 scale on 9mm gauge is relatively popular in New Zealand.

 

I wouldn't call P4 unconventional. On the other hand I would call OO unconventional! 

 

Cheers
David

 

[MyRule1]

In my view the most logical scale is 1:100 it seems ideal both for ease of conversion and size, never tried it myself, but I have only ever seen one layout built in this scale at a show. It was a 3rd real southern region model.

[burgundy]

16 hours ago, rocor said:

There will always be the tendency to retain a standardised gauge and modify the scale, as building a large amount of customised trackwork and regauging stock is always going to be a pain in the proverbial.

My most recent layout is Roswell Mill, which is HO scale but 17.5mm gauge, since the railroads in the southern states of America were originally built to 5 foot gauge. I tend to refer to it as HOb5 - but there has been discussion about this on another thread.

My UK models are built to EM, so I have got over the hang ups about building track or chassis.  A visit to ExpoEM or ScaleForum (in pre-Covid days) might suggest that adjusting the gauge of rolling stock and track is a more common proposition than using a bespoke scale, just in order to use available track and running gear. 

Best wishes 

Eric 

 

[TheQ]

I'm seriously considering a layout in NT gauge, 2mm to the foot on T gauge track. so giving a track width or 18inches on the prototype which is about right..

[009 micro modeller]

17 hours ago, rocor said:

Seeing an increasing number of kits for rolling stock in 1:35 scale (mostly German outline), has anyone motorised them? and built some 41mm track, to run them on?.

 

They do have kits for (presumably) 41mm gauge track, although I don’t know if anyone has motorised anything. I once built a 1:12 scale layout, using T gauge equipment to represent an 0 gauge train set (4mm overscale), with doll’s house furniture. As an 009 modeller, I’m intrigued by the idea of S scale (1:64) on 9mm gauge, which is almost spot on for the Penrhyn and Dinorwic gauge of 1’ 10 3/4”. 1:35 on 16.5mm is similarly accurate for this gauge. I’ve played around with the more conventional but relatively niche 4mm NG combinations of 006.5 and 00n3, although so far only as static models, and also tried to build a Zn2 locomotive using a T gauge chassis. I’ve also built some stuff using a cheap plastic train set (gauge around 12.5mm) in 1:32 scale to represent 15” gauge.

[Northroader]

8 hours ago, PatB said:

I'm currently awaiting the arrival of a Smallbrook 1:35 loco kit to get me started in that scale on 16.5 mm gauge. I'm working on the basis that it's sufficiently minority that my scratchbuilding efforts will not have to compete with high quality r-t-r, but can use cheap 00 chassis and track as running gear. 

Good luck with your project, but be careful,  i tried a narrow gauge line recently, but found that cheap track plus cheap chassis can equal cheap running, with a cheap controller thrown in as well.