very much a newbe

[Anonymous]

Hello everyone !
I have mastered the art of HO. Now I have a house and a yard to go BIG time [:)]
I am very confused about the scale and gauge I should be starting out with.
What is the best brands to buy and what gauge ??

[toenailridgesl]

G'day putzman, & welcome.
Garden railway gauge is pretty much standard at 45mm unless you do the Brit thing of 32mm.
Scale is a hassle in LargeScale because of the mish-mash of different ratios used by the main manufacturers.
It depends where your preferences lie, if with narrow-gauge then 1:20.3 is the correct scale to represent US ng 3ft track on 45mm gauge.
Here in Australia our ng was 3'6" so 1:24 is the correct scale for that.
If you lean towards standard gauge modelling the correct ratio is 1:32 but not much is made in that scale, the usual standard-gauge models are made to 1:29 which is incorrect but looks OK.
Best brands? Depends on how much you want to spend & how much of a stickler you are for correct proportions. LGB is bullet-proof but expensive & not consistant in scale. They make no secret that they aim their products at the toy market, not the scale modeller.
Bachmann offerings in the last 5 years are excellent, very accurate to 1:20.3 scale, highly detailed, reliable & reasonably priced. (Their rolling stock, however, has not kept up with their motive power, most of it is in 1:22.5 scale, ie about 10% undersize)
Aristocraft & USA trains have good reputations for quality & price, just bear in mind that if you're a scale nazi they are not the correct scale.
MTH is now making high-quality models in the correct standard-gauge ratio of 1:32, very detailed and apparently pretty spendy.
Make sure you also surf the other LS websites, especially http://www.mylargescale.com/ for excellent information.

[grandpopswalt]

Phil,

I model in 1:24 scale so my 45mm track scales out to about 3 1/2'. You mentioned that your county's NG track is 3 1/2' gauge. Can you give me a reasonably close estimate of the dimensions of your rolling stock , both freight and passenger? Car width and length? Wheel diameter and axel spacing (assuming that they used 2 axel trucks)?

If your stuff is proportionally larger, then I could devise my RR's history around some Austrailian equipment that found it's way to the East Coast of America.

Thanks

Walt

[grandpopswalt]

Putzman,

My son and his family live in Ross, north of downtown. We visit them regularly. If you get something up and running, I'd like to drop over sometime to see how your're doing and maybe give you a hand. I'm between layouts right now so I need a train fix from time to time.

Grandpopswalt

[bman36]

QUOTE: Originally posted by putzman40

Hello everyone !
I have mastered the art of HO. Now I have a house and a yard to go BIG time [:)]
I am very confused about the scale and gauge I should be starting out with.
What is the best brands to buy and what gauge ??

Hello! Welcome to the forum! Great bunch here. We try our best to be as helpful as we can. Check out the threads here as a lot of questions you may have already been covered in detail. Enjoy the forum! [:D] Later eh...Brian. [tup]

[Anonymous]

Hi Putzman,
Ditto the welcomes and say hello to the great outdoors. Just go for it mate, it's so easy to sit, and sit , and sit and think, and think..........you get the idea! Whatever the commercial scales measure out at you will be using 45mm track, so my advice is to get the civil engineering head on and lay some track. The rest will follow.
Cheers,
Kim
[tup]

[Anonymous]

You guys are great and thanks for all the input ! No wonder I was confused.
I plan on learing as much as I can this winter and starting next spring, but I will keep up to date and anyone that wants to come over would be more than welcome.
Thanks again and I am sure more stpid questions are to come :)
Tom

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by putzman40

You guys are great and thanks for all the input ! No wonder I was confused.
I plan on learing as much as I can this winter and starting next spring, but I will keep up to date and anyone that wants to come over would be more than welcome.
Thanks again and I am sure more stpid questions are to come :)
Tom

Tom [#welcome]
As my father once said "There are no stuiped questions."
One mistake I made was wanting a 120' x 50' lay out and thinking I would have track ready for 2004 spring....man was I wrong. I goofed.
I can either lay it this winter because I am in Texas or wait till Spring 2005.
Another idea like other guys do is wait till Astro Track goes on sale, nice time to pick up on it and other stuff.

[Anonymous]

Putzman40

welcome to G scale, well the only advice i can give (since im kinda new also) is get a loco and a car or 2 , get some GOOD track ( aristcraft) IMHO lay it down and go from there.I started on mine just about 2-3 months ago, and it is alot of fun, BUT alot of work in the beginning. Just have ffun and keep it on the rails



Jeff

[Anonymous]

Hi Grandpopswalt
That is nearly as big an ask as expecting the "G" scale manufaturers to
build all their stuff the same size I have seen drawings for a width range of 6'10" up to 8'113/8" wide.
Even std gauge stock on 3'6" bogies like for instance the old Ghan to Alice springs in Phils neck of the woods they have even been known to put broad gauge stock permenantly on 3'6" gauge
and I dont have any drawings of SA broad gauge 5'3" gauge stock to be able to tell you how wide it is..
But a good rule of thumb is three times gauge so anything up too 10'6" wide is theoreticaly OK but I dont think anything was orriginaly built that wide for three feet six inch Gauge.
Aussie rollingstock is a peculiar mix of mostly US and UK design features
with a local twist on it and the local twist depends on which state it is in.
The old Sth Aus suburban cars are very US in thier apearance but have central doors on the side as well as the balcony end doors the Westland Express that used to run to my Home Town has cars of both US and UK appearance in it
Freight cars here where prodominatly 4wh ones but there where a few on bogies mostly of UK appearance and the odd one or two that looked like US ones
Hope this confusing mess is of some help but it also illistrates well what our colonial forfathers did to us as far as railways goes everything standard as long as it was different.
regards John

[Anonymous]

This is a very hard question to which their are many answers, depends on how much money you have and how much room and many other factors.

My advice is don't do much or spend much money, as you will change your mind and possibly regret everything you have done and spent.

Get a starter set, get it on the ground and get it running and like topsy it will grow from there.

i only run LGB and that now is all i can run. i have opted for less gear but good quality stuff that will keep going and not have any of the funny limitations that some brands do have. But even then i have much trouble with my MTS and there are other traps fpor young players to numerous for me to go into.

So start small don't buy anything unless you have decided to go that way for at least three months then think it over again.


Rgs

ian

[Kiwi Down Under]

Reading the comments and advice, many from modelmakers that I hold in awe, and cant compete with, but there is another way of looking at the scale question. First, the 10 foot rule is very true in this scale, If you want everthing exactly to scale your not going to get it, and you will end up with ulcers.........
f it looks right it is right. The reason I say this is that unless your very tallented, more than me, you will end up buying the locos. This in effect sets the scale you want to go with. Trouble is if you build coaches, rolling stock etc to the proper scale they will be out of proportion to the loco.... One way of getting it all to proportion is to put the plan on the photocopier and keep enlarging until the roof is the same height of the loco, ( If thats the size you want it to be) then do the same with the width) Just be careful that the wheels and bogies your going to use are also in the correct proportion.
NZ is the same as Australia 3ft 6in but if you build a carrage to scale it is far too big for the bachman locos, but at the same time too skinny... so when the train pulls into a platform the loco just fits, but there is a big gap between that and the coach.. You should be able to look along the train and all is more or less the same width. Least, here it is....
Using the photocopier to set the scale for the models you want to model they all come out the right size.... Just an idea, but thats what I did. You can see my effort on www.gscalechuffchuff.com, needs updating and cant compete with some others, but everthing looks top be at the same scale.. Only I know that the carrages are 7mm wider than they should be...

The advice your getting about get the track down is 100% correct. I know a lot of people that are going to, but never do... Force yourself, make a start.
regards

Tony

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Gscalechuffchuff

Reading the comments and advice, many from modelmakers that I hold in awe, and cant compete with, but there is another way of looking at the scale question. First, the 10 foot rule is very true in this scale, If you want everthing exactly to scale your not going to get it, and you will end up with ulcers.........
f it looks right it is right. The reason I say this is that unless your very tallented, more than me, you will end up buying the locos. This in effect sets the scale you want to go with. Trouble is if you build coaches, rolling stock etc to the proper scale they will be out of proportion to the loco.... One way of getting it all to proportion is to put the plan on the photocopier and keep enlarging until the roof is the same height of the loco, ( If thats the size you want it to be) then do the same with the width) Just be careful that the wheels and bogies your going to use are also in the correct proportion.
NZ is the same as Australia 3ft 6in but if you build a carrage to scale it is far too big for the bachman locos, but at the same time too skinny... so when the train pulls into a platform the loco just fits, but there is a big gap between that and the coach.. You should be able to look along the train and all is more or less the same width. Least, here it is....
Using the photocopier to set the scale for the models you want to model they all come out the right size.... Just an idea, but thats what I did. You can see my effort on www.gscalechuffchuff.com, needs updating and cant compete with some others, but everthing looks top be at the same scale.. Only I know that the carrages are 7mm wider than they should be...

The advice your getting about get the track down is 100% correct. I know a lot of people that are going to, but never do... Force yourself, make a start.
regards

Tony

Tony,

You're suffering from proper punctuation... the coma won't let the link open...

http://www.gscalechuffchuff.com/

this should work

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by putzman40

Hello everyone !
I have mastered the art of HO. Now I have a house and a yard to go BIG time [:)]
I am very confused about the scale and gauge I should be starting out with.
What is the best brands to buy and what gauge ??

Putzman40,

What can I say that hasn't already been said. Welcome, this is one of the most amiciable and helpful web forums I have visited. We have developed a true circle of friends. I take great pride in the successes [:D] of my peers here in the forum and and share in their not so successful endeavors[:(].

Don't worry too much about issues related to scale, you will find your interest and run with it in do time. Most, if not all, that I know about Large Scale Railroading I learned from these fine folks.

Again, welcome and don't be affraid to ask questions and share projects!

Capt Carrales [4:-)]