42 Inch Guage

[Calimero]

Looking at another modelling development and having sat reading Railway Modeller and the article about building 00-9 Diesels.

 

Anyway knowing nothing about narrow guages I was wondering what a 42" guage (3' 6") railway is in model form?

 

Thanks

 

Andy

[cornelius]

It would be 3.5 x whatever scale you are modelling.

 

So:

 

2mm scale = 7mm gauge

4mm scale = 14mm gauge

7mm scale = 24.5mm gauge

etc

 

As it happens, there are some standards for 14mm gauge derived from EM as it is used for accurate 2' in 7mm scale.

 

www.o14group.org

[Krusty]

The usual scales/gauges used in thems bits of the world wot actually have 1067mm as their standard gauge are:

 

TTn3.5 (called NZ120 in New Zealand to make sure outsiders won't know what they're talking about) - European/American TT scale on N gauge track.

 

HOn3.5 - HO scale on TT track. In Seth Efrikaa it's quite common to ignore the gauge difference and just use standard HO track.

 

1:80 scale - a sort of supersized HO used in Japan.

 

Sn3.5 - The most common scale, S scale on HO track.

 

On3.5 - 1/4" scale on S gauge track (7mm scale is almost unheard of). A growing number of modellers, particularly in Queensland, do their best to make OO gaugers look like finescalers by just using On30 and ignoring the 29% error. It's also growing fast in New Zealand.

 

9mm - 9mm to the foot/0.75mm to teh inch, 1:33.87 scale on O-gauge track. Mainly used in New Zealand and West Oz.

 

1:32 - The version of No. 1 scale that avoided the dead hand of Henry Greenly on O gauge. Used by some people in the past, but very rare nowadays.

[Calimero]

So where does HOm and HOe fit in with the scheme of things?

 

 

[BernardTPM]

So where does HOm and HOe fit in with the scheme of things?

 

H0m is the same scale gauge combination as H0n3.5; In scale terms it works out at just over 3'5" to exact scale so lies between Metre and 3'6"-42"-1067mm gauges, close enough for either given that there is plenty of R-T-R track and a fair few chassis available.

H0e represents the 2'6"-30"/750mm/760mm lines best.

Close to it is 009 which uses 4mm scale on 9mm track. It scales out at 2'3" but is used to represent gauges between 1'10.5" and 2'6", usually UK prototypes.

For the narrower 2'-24"/600mm gauages in H0, Z track is sometimes used on the Continent as this is quite close to scale. The relative lack of Z gauge chassis make it much less popular though.

[Calimero]

Thanks

 

So I'm either looking at doing HOm or OO9 - Looks like a lot of kit/scratch building coming up

 

Now what's the rules with narrow gauge, is it freelance or specifics, I note that OO9 has a lot of freelance cut & shut models from different types/styles and HOm tends to throw up Swiss prototypes.

 

I've been looking at the Henderson Mine Railroad which has overhead electrics running roughly meter gauge, although I don't know what the loading gauge is?

 

To do this means a lot of scratch building or bashing of kits/rtr models (quite a bit of bashing!)

 

However I'm up for this, but would need running chassis/motors for the locos (HOm) or go for a freelance idea using the prototype as an example?

 

 

Any tips and advice welcome, where I can acquire bits for the abve ideas!

 

Thanks all

 

With a head full of broken toys

 

Andy

[Penguino]

 

Now what's the rules with narrow gauge, is it freelance or specifics

 

Narrow Gauge seems to have a lot more freelance models than standard gauge, though both exist.

 

It depends on what prototype you want to model, if it's popular there may be kits or even RTR models, less popular prototypes will need kit-bashing or scratch-building.

 

It's very common to find a cheap RTR model that has roughly the right wheel size/arrangement in the same scale as the standard gauge track, remove the body and scratchbuild a suitable body on that chassis, that way you get the reliability of a factory built mechanism with the style you want.

[scaro]

From the TTn3 1/2 standpoint, with diesels, getting the right wheel size has not always been easy. Older clunkers like Lima or Bachmann seemed to come with 7 or 7.5mm wheels which were OK. The Lima flanges were kind of scary though. In later years Atlas and Kato and other manufacturers all went to a more prototypical 6.5mm dia for wheels which was obviously right for N but small for TT.

 

Now, US diesels have larger 45" or 46" wheels so diameters are going up - to 7.38mm or so (the Kato wheels are this size). These wheels can be bought as parts and retrofitted to existing Atlas or Kato diesels.

 

Also Graham Farish do 7 or 7.5mm wheels which is accurate for British N and kind of handy for TTn3 1/2.

 

Ben

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

Heard quite a lot about this system from my Father's family (he was born in Bogor, lived mostly in Magelang, until the evacuation from Java). Much of the railway in British empire sub-Saharan Africa was also built 3'6". The loading gauge was pretty similar to the Berne loading gauge used on the European mainland. Decades ago I talked to a Kenyan guy in the old Kings Cross model shop; he was measuring up loco chassis to use modelling East African Railways. He used HO track, suitable HO and OO mechanisms and running gear, and made the bodywork himself to 5mm/ft. I should think the bigger Garratts will have made impressive models at that scale.

[meple]

3' - 6" gauge was British Standard colonial gauge.

[travelintrev]

Heres a couple of pics I took a couple of years ago in Kampala (Uganda) 'Intemodal' yard. ( metre gauge) Converted coach frames used to carry containers. I have also been prommised a trip round the New (Brazian Built) GM locos recently delivered to Nigerian Railways.