Scales
| Name | Size/Scale | Gauge in mm |
Comments | Picture |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Grand Scale | 1:4 and up | 254 mm and up | 254 mm (10 in). Several large scales exist, but are not strictly model railroading gauges. Instead, they are used mostly in commercial settings, such as amusement park rides. |
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| Live steam | 1:8 | 184 or 190 | Ridable, outdoor gauge, named according to the gauge in inches, and scale in inches per foot, for example 7 1⁄4 in (184 mm) gauge, 1.5 inch scale. The gauge is 7 1⁄2 in (190.5 mm) in the western parts of US and Canada, where the scale sometimes is 1.6 inch for diesel-type models. Private and public (club) tracks exist in many areas, among them the world's largest model railroad, Train Mountain Railroad, with over 25 miles (40 km) of tracks. Powerful locomotives can pull 50 or more passengers. Narrow gauge models in this gauge can be as large as 1:3 scale. |
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| Live steam | 1:12 | 127 or 121 | Ridable, outdoor gauge. The gauge is 5 in (127 mm) in Europe, but 4 3⁄4 in (121 mm) in US and Canada. For standard gauge prototypes at 5 inch, the scale is 1-1/16 inch per foot or approximately 1:11.3. Together with the 1:8 scale above, this is a popular scale for backyard railroads. Pulling power is enough for more than a dozen passengers on level tracks. | |
| SE scale 7/8 inch | 1:13.71 | 45 | Models of 2 ft (610 mm) gauge prototypes using 45 mm (1.772 in) track. Used by folks modelling the Maine 2-footers, but increasingly also by anyone interested in very large scale models of industrial prototypes, including the many Welsh slate mines and other European operations. Although this is mostly a scratch-builders scale, there is an increasing supply of kits, parts and figures. Some modelers using 7/8 scale operate on 32 mm (1.260 in) track, used to replicate 18 in (457 mm) gauge industrial lines found in Great Britain and other countries. | |
| Live steam | 1:16 | 89 | Ridable, outdoor gauge. The gauge is 3 1⁄2 in (89 mm) the world over. | |
| gauge 3 | 1:22.6 | 63.5 | One of the original model railroad scales standardized in 1909, a minority interest, which is undergoing a revival in the UK and in Germany (where it is known as Spur II). 63.5 mm (2 1⁄2 in) gauge 3 track is commercially available, as are a growing number of locomotive and rolling stock kits . The European standard of 1:22.5 scale trains on 45 mm (1.772 in) track is called IIm scale, as per European narrow gauge naming conventions or G scale, its popular name. | |
| Live steam | 1:24 | 63 | At 2 1⁄2 in (63.5 mm), this is the smallest of the "ridable" gauges. Only one or two passengers can be pulled. This was one of the first popular live steam gauges, developed in England in the early 1900s, though now less popular than the larger gauges it still has a following. A model can normally be lifted by one person. | |
| Wide gauge | 1:26.59 or 1:28.25 | 53.975 | Called Standard Gauge by Lionel, who trademarked the name. Other manufacturers used the same gauge and called it Wide Gauge. Not widely produced after 1940. Gauge No. 2 using track of gauge 2 in (50.8 mm) was one of the standard model gauges in 1909. | |
| 16 mm scale | 1:19.05 | 32 | This scale was first developed in the UK in the 1950s to depict 2 ft (610 mm) narrow gauge prototypes utilising 32 mm (1.260 in) or "O gauge" track and wheels, but really took off in popularity during the 1960s and 70s. Originally, it was mostly used as an indoor modelling scale, but has also developed as a popular scale for garden railways of narrow gauge prototypes. Some manufacturers that produce models depicting North American 2 ft (610 mm) narrow gauge prototypes have also adopted this scale for use alongside the near-compatible Fn3 (15 mm or 1: 20.32) scale on 45 mm (1.772 in) track already popular in the US. Both electric, battery and live steam propulsion is used to power model locomotives in this scale, and is supported by a growing range of commercially available ready-to-run models, kits and parts. |
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| Fn3 scale | 1:20.3 | 45 | Similar to G Scale below, this scale also uses 45 mm (1.772 in) gauge track, and is used for both indoor and garden railways of narrow gauge prototypes. The scale of 1:20.3 was developed to depict North American 3 ft (914 mm) gauge trains in exact proportion to their correct track gauge whilst using 45 mm (1.772 in) gauge model track. It equates to 15 mm = 1 foot (1 : 20.32) scale. Increasingly popular for both electric and live steam propulsion of model locomotives, with an ever growing range of commercially available ready-to-run models, kits and parts. Fn3 scale, together with G scale and ½ inch (1:24) scale, are commonly and collectively referred to as "Large Scale" by many modellers. | |
| Fn2 scale | 1:20.3 | 30/32 | Used by mostly American modelers wishing to model smaller industrial prototypes, including two-footers; this is a minority scale. While 30 mm track is more prototypically accurate for
2' gauge, many modelers use 32 mm track gauge for the convenience of access to O-scale mechanisms, trucks, and track elements. |
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| G scale | various | 45 | (Originally from the German groß (meaning "big"), now also G as in Garden) G is generally used for garden railways of narrow gauge prototypes, and uses the same track gauge as 1 gauge, below. The scale ranges aproximatively from 1/19 to 1/29, according to the size and gauge of the prototype. |
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| Gn15 scale | various | 16.5 | Evolved around the Millennium (possibly earlier), much in the same manner than On30, HOn30, and Nn3 have, which is the desire to model in a larger scale, but using the track gauge, mechanisms and wheelsets of a smaller scale; in this case HO/OO. If Gn15 did not start in the U.K., it certainly has the largest following there. Some model "estate railways", inspired by the Eaton Hall Railway built at the end of the 19th century by Sir Arthur Haywood, while others simply desired a means of modeling in something close to half-inch scale in a small space. This scale is closely aligned with the "micro layout" movement. | |
| IIm scale | 1:22.5 | 45 | Similar to G scale above, this scale also uses 45 mm (1.772 in) gauge track, and is used for both indoor and garden railways of narrow gauge prototypes. It depicts 1 metre gauge trains in exact proportion to their correct track gauge. | |
| ½ inch scale | 1:24 | 45 | Similar to G Scale above, this scale also runs on 45 mm (1.772 in) gauge track, and is generally used for both indoor and garden railways of narrow gauge prototypes. The scale of 1:24 in combination with 45 mm (1.772 in) track is an attempt to model North American and UK 3 ft (914 mm) narrow gauge or 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) narrow gauge trains in better proportion to the rails they run on. | |
| Gauge 2 | 1:29 | 50.4/45 | The dominant scale used in the United States for models of "standard gauge" trains running on 45 mm (1.772 in) track, even though 1:32 is more prototypically correct. 1:29 represents standard gauge using 2 in (50.8 mm) gauge track, the original gauge 2. This fell into disuse as gauge 1 at 1.75 inch was very close. Some manufacturers kept the scale for the models but running them on slightly narrow gauge track. | |
| 1 gauge 3/8 inch scale |
1:32 | 45 | This large scale, once rarely seen indoors in modern use but frequently used for modelling standard gauge trains as garden railways, is making a come-back. The Japanese firm of Aster Hobby offers ready-to-run gas-fired livesteam models. Accucraft Trains Read more about this topic: Rail Transport Modelling Scales Famous quotes containing the word scales:“Love once “As deaths have accumulated I have begun to think of life and death as a set of balance scales. When one is young, the scale is heavily tipped toward the living. With the first death, the first consciousness of death, the counter scale begins to fall. Death by death, the scales shift weight until what was unthinkable becomes merely a matter of gravity and the fall into death becomes an easy step.” “It cannot but affect our philosophy favorably to be reminded of these shoals of migratory fishes, of salmon, shad, alewives, marsh-bankers, and others, which penetrate up the innumerable rivers of our coast in the spring, even to the interior lakes, their scales gleaming in the sun; and again, of the fry which in still greater numbers wend their way downward to the sea.” |