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Author Topic: Information and inspiration thread on modelling railway  (Read 3144 times)

former user

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Information and inspiration thread on modelling railway
« on: September 17, 2009, 05:30:47 AM »
Hi Steamheads and Dieselheads
now that there is a Railway section we might as well have an info thread.
I noticed that recently several members came out of the hills with their past and future projects

so many infos are spread throughout the forum, also general Information
in order not to repeat things, I would like to suggest that members who have already done a lot of research share their knowledge here

I would not consider myself an expert, but when I started my project I had to collect a lot of information on railway modelling which was vital and previously unknown to me.

I shall start with general information on the topic and encourage the true experts who have done this for many years to contribute on their field of expertise and maybe "hatch" casual contribution from others in their opening posts - this way we might get an assorted collection of links to make it easier for beginners to get through the jungle

former user

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Re: Information and inspiration thread on modelling railway
« Reply #1 on: September 17, 2009, 05:50:57 AM »
Railway Modelling and Wargaming - general

Scales, gauges and tracks

since throughout history and around the earth there were and are many gauges,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rail_gauges
it is impossible to simulate them with TT, H0, S, and O  standard model railway gauges (12, 16,5 ; 22 ; 32  mm respectively)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_rail_gauges

the basic standards in countries are narrow, standard and broad gauge, but these are not international standards
european trains to spain and russia even today have to be re-gauged

TT is 1:120 scale and useful for 15 mm wargaming - although it is a niche scale and hard to get
the 12 mm track gauge would correspond to 120 cm real life in 15 mm scale, which allows both narrow and standard gauge representation.

for 20 mm / 1:87-1:72 HO or OO gauge is the choice
this is the widest spread railway modelling scale and it usually fits perfectly with 20 mm

28 mm wargaming is difficult with railway scales
In 28 mm, with HO track you can simulate exclusively narrow gauge - in 28mm/ 1:56 this would be 92,4 cm real life
S gauge, which is rather not frequent, is in our model scale 123 cm real life, that is well below general standard gauge, which is around 150 cm
0 gauge, which is very frequent as a large scale, would be 179 cm real life and well above standard gauge, nearing broad gauge in real life

meaning that either You decide on a special region and time for your track in order to have it accurate, or You go for availability of the rolling stock, which is 0 and 0n30 (1:48 on H0 track - narrow gauge)



« Last Edit: September 17, 2009, 05:52:56 AM by bedwyr »

Offline Bungle

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  • Posts: 235
Re: Information and inspiration thread on modelling railway
« Reply #2 on: September 21, 2009, 09:40:35 PM »
British TT is 3mm to 1ft, 1:101.6 scale 12mm gauge (inside track width)
perhaps a better match for 15mm but the only european stuff is old Triang French and is highly collectable.

European TT 1/120

Track Peco HOm is 12mm but designed for 1/87 narrow gauge quite easy to get in the UK. Old TRIANG Type A track tends to be cheap on Ebay.

British OO 4mm to 1ft, 1:76 scale, 16.5mm gauge (inside track width)

HO Gauge 3.5mm to 1ft, 1:87 scale 16.5mm gauge (inside track width)

British O 7mm to 1ft, 1:43.5 scale 32mm gauge (inside track width)


N gauge British 2mm to 1ft, 1:148 scale in UK 9mm gauge (inside track width)
Europe and North America the scale of 1:160 is used for N gauge models

"2mm Scale" 2mm to 1ft, 1:152.3 scale 9.42mm gauge (inside track width)

N scale Japan 1/150 on 9 mm

Z Gauge 1.5mm to 1ft, 1:200 scale  6.5mm gauge (inside track width) or 1/220 depending on what you read.

Apparently the japanese do static models 1:50, 20.5 mm between track  but I have never seen one... Japanese use different width tracks http://www.xs4all.nl/~raicho/model/manufact/50scale/50scale.htm

there is a narrow gauge model railway scale of 5.5mm to the foot..... a 6' tall bloke at that scale is....33mm.. which seems about perfect for 28mm figures.
« Last Edit: September 24, 2009, 11:51:46 AM by Bungle »

Offline Ramirez Noname

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Re: Information and inspiration thread on modelling railway
« Reply #3 on: September 22, 2009, 03:04:37 PM »
Just following on -

US O gauge - 1/4" (6mm) to the foot, scaling out at 1:48

A bit more information about 5.5mm (or 1:55th) can be found here -

http://www.blackhamtransfers.com/55/MalSavKits/Index.html

As you will see Malcolm Savage produces an armoured simplex loco for WWI

Ramirez


Offline Bungle

  • Scientist
  • Posts: 235
Re: Information and inspiration thread on modelling railway
« Reply #4 on: September 24, 2009, 11:47:08 AM »
OK just in case anyone is interested in East Africa for wargaming

East African Railways and Harbours Corporation

ran through modern Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania

track was 1m between rails
so at 15mm/1/100 wargames scale it would be 10mm there is a rare model narrow gauge track which is 10.5mm (HOn3) but using N (1/144 to 1/160) track, 009 (1/76), HOn30 (1/87) or HOe (1/87) track at 9mm wide would probably do  with TT scale  trains
at 20mm 1/76 or 72 it would be just over 13mm   TT or HOm track is 12mm wide with OO scale trains
at 28mm 1/55 it would be 18mm  EM and P4 track is just over 18mm but HO or OO track at 16.5mm would probably be easiest to get. (it 5.5mm scale trains not many kits )
at 28mm 1/48 it would be just under 21mm    S gauge track is 22.42mm (On3.5) with O scale trains

Commercial stuff

On30 uses commercial 16.5mm track to represent 2'6" or 30" gauge track in 1/48
On3 uses scratch built track to represent 3' or 36" gauge track in 1/48
On2 uses scratch built track to represent 2' gauge track in 1/48
http://www.valleymodeltrains.com/website/585o.html


this might give an idea of the huge variety of scale and gauge used in narrow gauge modelling... much of it scratch built.
http://www.ngrail.co.uk/index2.htm




http://www.greywall.demon.co.uk/rail/Kenya/nrm.html

 

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