Nobody has posted in this section yet. So I thought I'd ask an utterly random question to get the ball rolling - why on Earth is N scale called N scale. What does the N stand for? Not very big?

For that matter perhaps someone knows why OO scale and O scale have the names they do. I was pondering this question the other day and then realized that since I don't know the answer, no amount of thinking about it will change that!

The N stands for nine which is the gauge of the track in millimeters.
Simple

N scale is a minefield. the scale varies where you are in the world.

OO scale is exactly that, a scale of 1 to 76 or 4mm to the foot for convienience the HO gauge track (16.5mm) was used. HO stands for Half O. OO as a name was used to differentiate the scales not the gauge.

O gauge was originally 0 as in zero not O as in the letter O. This was because the gauge was smaller than Gauge 1.

some more for you.
Z Gauge because Z being the final letter of the alphabet was used as it was thought there would never be anything smaller.
However T gauge stands for Three, 3mm being the gauge.
G Gauge stands for the first letter of grob, The german for big and not garden as some people think. G Gauge is the same as Gauge 1.
Since I have no Idea why Gauge 1 is Gauge 1 goto

Only registered users can see links on this forum! Register or Login on forum!

Anoraks are in the post

Wow! So much information! I think my question has been thoroughly answered!

Darryl wrote:

Wow! So much information! I think my question has been thoroughly answered!

Well you did ask. Anyway I thought everybody knew this.

Have you ever wondered why a hobby that can be so nitpicky about trivia can blithely ignore the fact that the UK's railways do not run on a track gauged to 4ft 1and a half inches?

When the Continentals invented Half O (HO) at a scale 1/87 and a track gauge of 16.5mm their larger loading gauge meant that the then smallest reliable eletctic motors would fit inside the body of most European model engines.

This was not the case with UK Engines so keeping the track gauge we expanded the scale from 1/87 to 1/72. Seemed a good idea at the time as we could then fit the motors in!

This carefree attitude spilled over onto UK NGauge which in effect is H(alf)OO as far as scale is concerned i.e. 1/144 however the track gauge did not become an HOO 8.25mm but 9mm which gives a far more reasonable 4ft 6 inch track guage.

TT (Triang invented the name) meant Table Top. The scale of 3mm to the foot fell neatly between 4 and 2 but all logic regarding track Gauge was discarded. Its trains ran on 4ft track. (Ideal for the Padarn Railway but not much else.)

Finally I once owned a Rivarossi LMS 4-6-0 which was in HO scale, (I've always modelled free lance Continental) It looked so right. Because the eye adjusts to the track and the OO loco seems to be too tall and wide.

God, I could bore for the Universe's first team.

62430

Thankfully, this mish mash of gauges and scales results in the saying "If it looks right, it is right". Hang the realists, if you want to model a real railway, that existed, then it exists. If you want to create your own version of reality, you can. Do you want an exact replica of Upper Bourne Water station on the old Westershire Railway Company? You can have it. Do you want to run trains that have never existed on a railway that is so intense and dense that it could never have existed? So what? Do you want P4? You can have it. What exactly is the colour of locomotives, coaches, wagons? If they no longer exist, I challenge anybody to query the authenticity of Apple Green, Malachite, BR Blue, Crimson Lake (my favourite colour)...

Do what you want to do, enjoy it, and don't give a toss if somebody else comes along with "You don't want to do it like that.............."

I was trying to explain how OO came about and nothing else.

As a freelancer I agree with you, if you like it, it's right, however OO layouts never look right as the track is visibly far too narrow. Go look at the real thing.

18.83mm with scale section and wheel profiles is fine as long as you don't mind constant de-railments so I'm quite happy with practical solutions such as deep flanges, over-size rail etc etc it's just a shame that a compromise made in the 1930's has carved itself in stone.

1 foot in 00 is 72 scale feet in HO it's 87 thus every base board for modelling puposes could have effectively been 20% larger in every dimension.

62430

It is a big regret that we 'went our own way' with OO and also with O and N. We do seem to want to be different from the rest of the world.