Scale, Scale & Gauge

Or is it Gauge, Gauge & Scale

By Rick Henderson

It may take some time, but eventually, most everyone who gets into Model Railroading in G-gauge, which has been expressed as #1 Gauge, Garden Gauge, G-Scale, F-Scale and Large Scale along with a few other colorful nicknames, begins to finally understand the Scale and Gauge thing. Those who seem to have the hardest time comprehending the issue are those who moved up from smaller modeling scales where everything is in thesame scale but on different gauges of track. As my friend Don Niday states, "G is One Gauge, Many Scales, Much Confusion." To totally grasp the issue, you need to comprehend several key terms or words as they apply to railroading, both prototype and modeling. These words are broad, code, dual, gauge, narrow, scale and standard. Many people enjoying the hobby, do not care about scale and gauge as long as their trains run and that is great; just being in the hobby is the main point. For the rest, I will explain what it all means. If you are still reading, we have come to the part where the twisted details are unraveled. Remember first that our models are based on prototype, real life, and full-sized trains. You may want to grab a drink, because this may get harder to understand. Lets identify some of the basics in this numbers game called scale and gauge. There are three types of gauges in railroading, standard gauge, narrow gauge and broad gauge. Standard gauge was established in England in the 1800's as 4'-8½" between the inside head of the two rails and the history of setting it to 4'-8½" is another story and has many versions. Standard gauge is the gauge of over 60% of the world's railroads today. Broad gauge is any gauge wider than 4'-8½" whereas narrow gauge is any gauge less than 4'-8½". In Large Scale, G-gauge 45mm track can be representative of any of these prototype gauges.

While we are speaking of the rails, let me explain rail codes (size). Prototype railroad rail is measured in pounds per yard or how much a 36" length of rail weighs. Rail size over the years has grown from 20 lbs per yard to over 155 lbs per yard. But in model railroading, rail sizes are expressed as code sizes, which is the rail height measured in thousands of an inch, with code-332 being the size of the most common G-gauge track. That means the rail is .332" or 1/3 of an inch tall. Modelers who are more concerned about the look of the seemingly over-sized G-rails, have taken the step of using a smaller code rail size, typically code 250 or even code 215 to obtain a more realistic looking track system.

Prototype Rail lb/yd Modeled in Various Scales
	Sizes are approximate
	1:32	1:29	1:24	1:22.5	1:20.3	1:13.7
Code-215	130#	110#	85#	75#	65#	30#
Code-250	115#	132#	100#	90#	80#	40#
Code-332	none	none	155#	142#	130#	65#

Since 155 lbs rail is about the largest used today in the US, code-332 rail for the scales of 1:32 & 1:29 is really too oversized to represent a realistic prototypical weight rail. The reason code-332 rail is so dominant in the hobby is its durability outside. When properly laid, you can walk on it. Smaller code rails are not as well suited. Therefore, the trade off for most modelers is that code-332 works best for most outdoors and its scale is overlooked.

Now onto the little issue of Scales.

Scale: n, the ratio between the size of something and a representation of it.

The reason for the confusion about scale may go back to the early days when G was introduced into the U.S. from Germany as a very nice toy train offering. So nice in fact, that it caught the attention of modelers in smaller railroad scales, parents looking for Christmas trains, as well as many older folks that recognized how great these big trains would fit into a garden setting. G-scale was not first intended as a scale model, but when its excellent quality was recognized by modelers, a demand was created to expand into scale model trains. However, that part of the story is for other articles; we want to look at gauge and scales. When these trains first came out from Lehmann-Gross-Bahn, better known as LGB, in 1968, they were models of European one-meter narrow gauge trains. Meter-gauge is 39.37 inches or slightly wider than the common US three-foot narrow gauge tracks. The scale of these new trains was 1:22.5, meaning 1 inch on the model equals 22½ inches on a real train. The gauge of 45mm track for this one-meter gauge model was selected from an existing track gauge used in another scale, that being the width of the old #1 gauge. #1 gauge was 1:32 scale for standard gauge. So basically, LGB took the existing track gauge already used in the scale of 1:32 and used that 45mm track width as the starting point of their new G-Scale line of 1-meter narrow gauge toy train line in 1:22.5 scale. As the demand for American prototype trains in this new Large-Scale grew, LGB introduced the American Mogul style locomotive along with a few American style cars, all in 1:22.5 scale. As the line grew, since 1:22.5 scale did not equal anything common in US railroad history, modelers started asking for more accurate scales to be produced for the 45mm track and over the years, two scales became prominent in the American G culture, 1:29 and 1:20. Why 1:29 and not 1:32 became dominate as the scale for standard gauge is another long story, with no amenable resolution. While LGB may be passing into history, several companies are still producing in 1:29 and 1:20 to keep the G hobby strong and even growing. One reason given about the choice of 1:29 is that it was a compromise to work with multiple scales between 1:24 and 1:32 when the market was first evolving.

The G-Scales or the Five Faces of G

This is a rough size comparison of cars built to scale using 45mm track.

Basically, G-gauge has five different common scales [six if you add 13.7 for 2' gauge], all using the same size of track, (45mm width to the insides of the two rails). That 45mm is about 1¾ inches or if you want to be more exact, it is 1.771". In recent years, and it is not just to confuse modelers, a second track gauge was introduced in 1:20.3 scale, which I will cover further on, however 99% of G is on the same 45mm track gauge. So now understanding the basic terms and a short history review of G-gauge, we understand that when using 45mm track, modeling in 1:32 scale is modeling prototypical standard gauge trains. The scale of 1:29 has also been deemed as acceptable as a standard gauge by sheer volume of product availability and the 10' rule [if it looks okay 10' away, it will work]. All other scales using 45mm track are narrow gauge scales of prototypical railroads. Therefore 1:24 scale is for 42" gauge, 1:22.5 scale is for 1-meter gauge, 1:20.3 scale is 3' gauge and 13.7 is for 2' gauge.

What Scales are the Major Manufactures?

In review, on 45mm G-gauge track, 1:32 & 1:29 are scale models of standard gauge trains while the scales of 1:24 through 1:13.7 are all models of narrow gauge trains. The main large-scale model train manufactures producing models in scales are: 1:32 Standard Gauge Trains: Accucraft Trains Gauge 1, Marklin 1 Gauge, M-T-H RailKing 1:29 Standard Gauge Trains: Accucraft Trains (AMS) American Mainline Series, Aristo-Craft Trains, USA Trains Ultimate Series 1:24 Narrow Gauge: Accucraft Trains ½ Inch Series, Aristo-Craft Trains Classis Series, Bachmann Big Hauler Series, USA Trains American Series 1:22.5 Narrow Gauge: Marklin-LGB 1:20.3 Narrow Gauge: Accucraft Trains Fn 3 Series, Bachmann Spectrum Series 1:13.7 Narrow Gauge: no major vendor Non-Specific Scale: HLW Trains [not specified but mostly 1:24] Note: there are other limited scales

Do Railroads Run Different Scales?

When you see different size railroad cars together, is it incorrect? Not always, given that all railroad cars were never built to the same exact plans. Go to a large freight yard, obviously not a coal or container yard, and browse over the lines of freight cars and you may be surprised to see the variety of car sizes. If a yard is not nearby, just browse the Internet. You should find that all cars are not the same, most noticeable in boxcar sizes.

Are all cars the same scale in this shot of a 1910 freight yard?

So is having multiple scales on one track a mistake?

Do the three G-gauge car scales look so different from the 1910 photo?

Actually in the 1910 photo, they are all 1:1, it just looks like a lot of G-gauge yards. For the average hobbyist, the majority of those that are spending the money on G-gauge, absolutely not. As long as they stay coupled together they can be used together. Those that prefer to have one G-scale, have the option of picking the one scale they like and model only with equipment in that scale. The big reason we do not have one G-scale and multiple G-gauges of track available, as in the smaller scales such as 'O' and "HO', is due to the very high cost of the track components that would be required. It is simply cheaper for manufactures to produce one gauge of track and let modeler's choose their favorite scale to put on the track. So no, it is not a mistake, it is a necessary economic compromise.

A 7½" gauge Large Scale Track with multiple scales of trains.

Having multiple scales on one gauge is not unique to G-gauge. The original Large Scale railroads, what are really the "riding scales", have been around a lot longer than G-gauge and have multiple scales running on the same gauge of track with no complaint amongst the owners. On a 7½" gauge track, you will find trains in 1:8, 1:7, 1:6, 1:5, and 1:4 scales running happily together for over 60 years now. Most of these railroads do not have much, if any, detailed scenery, which would make scale a more noticeable issue.

By now you should see the scale thing is not that hard to comprehend once you appreciate that the track is always 45mm wide and the scales change based on the prototype railroad gauge you want to model. With that all clearly in mind, let us consider dual gauge railroads, in my next article, Introducing Dual Gauge in G.

Start 2nd Article

Introducing Dual Gauge in G

By Rick Henderson

Where short-line narrow gauge railroads met mainline standard gauge railroads, there were often merging tracks in two gauges. Instead of having two separate yards for each gauge, railroads merged the gauges together so both gauges could operate on the same track. This saved space and money. This practice is known as dual gauge track and typically one rail size is common to both gauge widths.

A working dual gauge yard. Click to enlarge

I have not seen any wide spread attempt to do dual gauge modeling in G outside of 1:20.3 scale. Since 45mm track in 1:20 scale is for modeling 3' narrow gauge railroads, to also model standard gauge 4'-8½" track and trains, both track and rolling stock need to be larger. The gauge for 1:20.3 scale standard gauge track is 70.64mm or 2.78", which is basically 2¾". For those that think G-gauge trains are almost too large, you would be overwhelmed by the size of a 1:20.3 standard gauge car next to a 1:20.3 narrow gauge car.

Don Niday's dual gauge cars on turntable lead tracks.

Berry Boggs dual gauge yard with standard gauge and narrow gauge, 1:22.5 scale cars on dual gauge track.

Obviously having dual gauge trackage presents a new set of issues to consider. When laying out the narrow gauge track between the standard gauge track, should the narrow gauge work off the left rail or the right rail. The answer is either one and you can even have the narrow gauge on two separate rails set between the standard gauge rails, though this is not the most common approach. Another issue is use the same size of rail on dual gauge. If you used code 332 rail for the standard gauge and add a code 250 rail for the narrow gauge line, the narrow gauge trains would be tilting towards the lower rail plus the smaller rail could not cross the larger rail at a frog.

Dual gauge track tie strips are actually available for code 215 and 250 rail. They are 7½" long and eight make up 5' of track.

If you are going to the trouble of modeling in 1:20.3 dual gauge, then it is obvious you would be doing it with a closer to scale rail size than 332. Code 215 rail would equal about 65# rail while code 250 rail is equivalent to 80 lbs prototypical rail. Either is appropriate although the smaller sizemay be more suited for an earlier time period setting.

Dual gauge turnouts required three frogs to switch both gauges instead of one.

Dual gauge turnouts are typically scratch built and are often custom built to fit the situation. When you plan out your yard area, you have to consider which side the narrow gauge will run common to and make the turnouts accordingly. Beyond considering left or right hand and frog number, you need to consider if the narrow gauge is on the left or right side and build accordingly. Then there is the option that only one gauge is diverging so that is a different custom turnout. Where a standard turnout has two choices for each frog #, left or right, dual gauge turnouts have 14 different layout patterns for each frog number. As I mentioned, the narrow gauge track could be common to the left rail or right rail and there may be times when you need to change which rail is the common. To achieve this, there must be a transition section that crosses over the narrow gauge track from one side to the other. There are even time when you transition to the center such as for a turntable.

Looking into a 1:20.3 dual gauge yard. Click for larger image.

Looking close at the above photo you can pick out several of the variations in dual gauge trackage. Dual gauge turnouts with left and right side narrow gauge track, along with left and right diverging routes. On the right side you see the narrow gauge line switch into and then out of the dual gauge track through track. Since the narrow gauge on the dual gauge track was on the right side, those turnouts only required one frog each. To get from left side running up the center track, to right side running on the right track, notice the transition, just past the dual gauge turnout, moves the narrow gauge from left to right. This saved installing four extra frogs and at the next pair of turnouts.

The dual gauge Idler car

When it comes to shuffling around cars in a dual gauge yard, there was often only one gauge of motive power to make the moves. An Idler flat was used that was basically just a short standard gauge flat with both standard gauge and narrow gauge couples on both ends. This allowed locomotives to move freight cars of other gauges anywhere there was dual gauge track.

Modeling Dual Gauge in 1:20.3 Scale

There are a limited number of items available in 1:20 Standard Gauge, the most important being the trucks.

There are two parts suppliers working in 1:20.3 Standard gauge to supply some parts for scratch builders. One is Cumberland Model Engineering Products and the other is Iron Creek Products owned by LSOL member Don Niday.