Hope I don't get grief over this, but last night I was lying abed, thinking. I first became intrigued by the idea of 'Scale' when I first saw an article on 'TT' scale. I was prob'ly 11-12 years old. Had to be in the Saturday Evening Post, the only magazine Dad subscribed to. That's when I first realized my Lionel 027 was a size unto itself. TT was 'proportioned and realistic', according to the article.
Just wondering. I don't believe I've ever even seen a piece of it.
I received my August issue of GR today. To recap, there exists a difference of opinion between Friend Wife and Mr. Kalmbach about who owes whom what, which is being resolved. I hope.
Also, today at a garage sale, for the unbeatable price of a nickel, I found an ore car body that is very roughly 2"L x 1.5"W x 1.5"H. No wheels, no coupler. It's a toy, but acceptably detailed, esp. to my undemanding standards. Since a feature of my RR will be a mine, I wondered what is commonly used for ... well, 'mine gauge' in 45mm layouts? Or is it pretty much dealer's choice? It came to me that 4 HO wheels and a few pieces of HO track might do the trick. The car, if wheeled as above, would be about waist high to 'Johnny Verbeck', my only G gauge figure, the guy off the LGB inspection car. (Anybody remember that old ditty, about a German with a sausage machine?)
Les
TT fell off the face of the map when "n" came about....EXCEPT in eastern Europe.
My understanding is they still make "Table Top" sized trains.
On your ore car.....sounds like "0" track might be a better idea for outdoors.
Half "0" will work, but 2 axles of "0" inside bearinged would look good, too.
Just a thought.
Curmudgeon wrote:TT fell off the face of the map when "n" came about.
http://www.thortrains.net/ttscale/ttdex.html
http://www.ttscale.com/w-dealers.htm
http://www.ttscale.com/faq.html
http://www.delphes.net/alain/triang/catalogue/TT.en.html
Just to get you started.
The Home of Articulated Ugliness
I became aware of TT scale trains in the late 50's. Until now I always thought TT stood for Tom Thumb. I'm pretty sure that TT and Tom Thimb were pretty much interchangable way back then in the dark ages.
Walt
I wonder how many ever even heard of Tom Thumb! Kids these days can't believe that there wasn't any TV or Computers when I was a kid. What? No Power steering??? You gotta be kidding! Cars you had to shift grears in? Your'e a nut! Cadillacs without A/c; You out of your mind! Wadda you mean a torque converter transmission???
Those things are even more passe than passenger trains! At least there are a few of them around that we can take the grandkids on just so that they have had the experiance in thier lives and will have some idea of what we're talking about!
You're sorta on top of this stuff, aren't you?
I'd go read your profile if I could figure out how.
Of course O ga would be more rugged for outdoors. Never even crossed my mind.
Darn, I just blew a nickel.
BTW, is there a source for B'mann 4-6-0 operating/lube-- and if impossible wishes can be fulfilled, an IPB (Illustrated Parts Breakdown)?
If I don't get started on something RR-related pretty quick, I'm gonna go bonkers.
G.
Thanks for the note. When I became aware of TT, it was ca 1955-57. N scale I have never felt an affinity for. Forget Z, I'd have to track it by ear and I'm needing batteries to do that. I posted once that I blew a lot of pre-retirement $$ on HO, then realized I couldn't see it, either. Then I discovered G gauge on the web. When I realized how big it was ... well, here I am.
This gauge is good. More precisely, G gauge is a great dimension to kitbash, scratchbuild, whatever, w/o aid of large magnifying glasses. The sight of my thumb under higher magnification is off-putting.
Ralph:
Just to keep my head straight, 45mm is 'my' narrow gauge. (3 foot, US). That's because I've learned that narrow gauge equipment is smaller than its standard gauge cousins, and that 3 foot is often considered US narrow gauge, although there are a plethora of other narrow gauges that have been used over the years in the real world. And in model RR.
So, what I was after was a 'narrow gauge' for my 'narrow gauge 45mm' track. It seemed plausible to me that, having some HO trucks to hand, and doing some eyeball comparisons, this five-cent ore car might be just the ticket.
Now it happens that Curmudgeon's suggestion dovetails brilliantly with another feature I've always found interesting, and that is dual gauge trackways. How switches would work in that world I have no clue. But it was a happy thought because much fiddling in the mine site would be possible and I'm more a shuffler of cars and builder of operating things than a runner, though I certainly intend to have a dual track mainline when all is said and done. But that's far in the future.
Thanks for the kind reply. BTW, aren't you across the pond? Does it ever snow in your neck of the woods?
Les at the confluence of the Missouri & Mississippi R's.
Several of the aftermarket track and turnout manufacturers make dual-gauge turnouts.
I have seen "0" and "1", and recently "1" and "2" (think it was 2 ga).
Whole dual-gauge yard, including turntable.
Just make sure you do it "right".
Doing a bad job is a whole lot harder to fix when you have all those extra bits, like more points, frogs, guardrails.
I knew it was about 63mm.
That's the euro standard gauge, not the hairball 1:20 that is very expensive.
The Ga 3 stuff you can get wheelsets and such reasonably.
Totally separate, yes, for now, but you wait.
Someday you're going to be looking at a dual-gauge interchange, if for no other reason than engine service facilities.
When the bug bites, the "infection" is set.
Get the Garden Railways newsletter delivered to your inbox twice a month