LMRA Newsletter
Lubbock Model Railroad Association
Staying on Track - May 2007
Website: http://railserve.com/lmra
LMRA mailing list - messages, photos, links, files, calendar, chat, more - http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LMRA
Meetings at Highland Baptist Activity Center, Quaker Ave. and 34th St. - the first Monday of each month at 7:30pm.
May 7: Dave Lamberts, plaster rock castings
Playday, Saturday May 19. Setup on the 18th.
June 4: Joe Price, TTrakHO
July 2: Ice cream social and perhaps a movie
From President Rosales and Vice-President Randel Bittick:
We would to say a Big Thank You to the following Club Personnel that helped with the Arts Festival this year. Joe Price, Andy Anderson, Rip Maples, Finis Ply, David Hunt, Jan Kutch, Jack Seay, Dave Lamberts, Curly Bunting, Shirley Bunting, Gene Haustein, Allen Hagens, Sheldon Klock, Bob Hoehne, Hope Rosales, Raymond Mata, President Javier Rosales, Vice-President Randel Bittick, Patrick Pritchard, Al Fox
What are the differences between scales and gauges in model railroading?
Scale is the ratio between the model and the prototype (the real trains).
Some common scales are:
G scale - 1:20.3 or 1:22.5
O scale - 1:48
S scale - 1:64
HO scale - 1:87
N scale - 1:160
Z scale - 1:220Gauge is the distance between the rails of the prototype (the real track, not the model). 4’ 8 1/2” is standard gauge. There are many narrow gauges: 3’, 30”, 2’, 18”. All of the scales above are usually also standard gauge, since they are 4’ 8 1/2” on the prototype.
If you are referring to O-27 (Lionel), then O is the scale and 27 is the radius of the curve of the model in inches. Neither the O nor the 27 refer to the gauge, which is roughly standard: 4’ 8 1/2” on the prototype. Another example: HOn3 means HO scale (1:87), narrow gauge: 3’ between the rails on the real track. A good rule of thumb is to always say “scale” unless you are talking about narrow gauge track.
There is a long tradition of Lionel (and other) toy train owners to use the words gauge and scale interchangeably, and this may work when talking among themselves. But if this is done in a modern mixed scale group, it can cause confusion. To avoid this, just say scale when referring to G, O, S, HO, N, or Z; and Lionel, etc. when referring to the toy trains, as they are not made true to scale anyway. As I found on the NMRA website, “They are model railroads. They are just not 'scale' model railroads in the same way that HO and N are.”
by Jack Seay
April 2, 2007