What N scale is correct for my plan

[Mike-Venus]

Hi Everyone, 

May be you have seen my post regarding Tynemouth Station. Someone has very kindly offered to import the maps I need into Templot, the track designing saftware for building your own turnouts. I will then have the complete station perfectly to the scale, all trackwork and buildings.

I have been asked to confirm what scale I will use as this makes a difference to the overall Station as it will become longer or shorter, wider or narrower depending on which scale is chosen.

The question is which one to use, 1/148, 1/152 or 1/160 

1. I have Farish, Peco and Dapol N gauge locos and rolling stock.

2. I want to use N gauge Finetrax.

 

I want to maintain accurate track centres for realism and to not change the architectural accuracy of the station. If I use Peco Code 55 for example then the travk centres are 27mm where as Finetrax is accurate to BR standards at 23mm centres. All the station is curved with no straight edges. I plan to use original drawings for the station.

If I have asked the question badly my apologies, but everyone's views would be appreciated. 

Regards

Mike

 

[AY Mod]

6 minutes ago, Mike-Venus said:

The question is which one to use, 1/148, 1/152 or 1/160 

 

British N 'scale' is 1:148.

[Mike-Venus]

Yes!

[Izzy]

I don't know what era you intend cover but when track centre measurements are discussed bear in mind that those oft quoted are the minimum distances specified and in a lot of cases they will be more/wider. You also have to alow for the fact that quite a bit of RTR N gauge stock is over-width in one way or another, like the outside cranks on Farish 08's for example. Or the tender steps on quite a few steam locos. They can therefore catch on such as ground signals placed in the 6 foot or on platforms, so due allowance must be made for such aspects.

 

Templot does allow you to specify the exact track centres you want. The basic minimum standards are of course 11'2" between lines and 15'2" between pairs of them. The latter is also the spacing between running lines and sidings and allows the placement of such as signals in the distance between them in either case. So when you generate the track plan in Templot, using I guess the N option, then the full size track plan you are using should only be considered as a guide as scaled down it might not be that accurate in such matters and extra distance might be needed for the reasons stated as well.

 

Bob

Edited May 3, 2023 by Izzy

[Mike-Venus]

Question answered.

 

Should 1:148.

 

Thanks to Wayne Kinney of British Finescale.

 

Regards

 

Mike 

[Flying Pig]

17 minutes ago, Mike-Venus said:

Question answered.

 

Should 1:148.

 

Thanks to Wayne Kinney of British Finescale.

 

Regards

 

Mike 

 

Mike, Andy answered your question above.  British N scale is 1:148 so that is the scale of your rtr stock. It even says 1:148 on Farish boxes.

[Steven B]

Beware! The Templot file you get might be completely to scale - the points and crossings as designed may not be available within the standard FineTrax range.

 

You may find yourself having to build some track parts from more basic parts unless your volunteer tweaks the layout for the range that is available.

 

Steven B

[Mike-Venus]

Hi Steve,

Yes that is understood.  I already have a printed map and found through placing Peco Code  55 templates in position that Peco would be of no use in this layout for the station. This is why I have moved to Finetrax. I have tried the Finetrax templates in position and nearly all are good or at least very close with some slight fudging modifying straight turnouts to make gentle turnouts.

However if you saw my other post the real challenge is in the crossover junction. This will need some clever work to achieve what I want. Templot will let me obtain exactly what I want. Hopefully.

I now have a beautiful produced scale map of the station and loaded into Templot. Once all the track out has been laid out. It will be off to Pronto Print for a full size drawing which can go directly onto the baseboards.

Regards

Mike

Edited May 5, 2023 by Mike-Venus
Spelling error

[DCB]

Yes  1;148 ish precisely plus minus about 10% ish maybe 15% or thereabouts.     You really need to work from actual measurements not scale, a lot of RTR is much too wide even for 1:148 scale   10ft plus and they won't pass on the straight with scale standard UK track spacing.  That said there were plenty of sidings with less than standard track spacing from which outside cylinder locos were banned,  Likewise heights, plenty of RTR is a scale 15ft high against 13ft 6" max  and platform heights, they need to be a bit below your buffer heights, 3ft max against 3ft 5" max better to work from buffer heights than extrapolate some other figure.  And length.  an RTR coach will often be scale length over body which makes it over scale over couplings, the vast majority of 4 wheel wagons are seriously over scale length.   If you want to work precisely to 1:148 it won't work.  Simples.