Scale and gauge.

[mbinsewi]

I'm a total beginner to garden railroads, and "G" scale ( or gauge) trains.  I've built many HO scale layouts, and currently have one in progress.  I'm usually in the MRR forums.

Is G scale 1:29 ?

Thanks ! 

Mike.

[vsmith]

mbinsewi

I'm a total beginner to garden railroads, and "G" scale ( or gauge) trains.  I've built many HO scale layouts, and currently have one in progress.  I'm usually in the MRR forums.

Is G scale 1:29 ?

Thanks ! 

Mike.

Simple answer? No, now ready to go down the rabbit hole Alice? 

G scale and G Gauge are not the same thing, technically what is called G gauge in reality has been known as Gauge 1 (45mm gauge) since Marklin invented it in the 1890's. Where Gauge 1 represented standard gauge trains (4' 8-1/2" gauge) on 45mm track to a scale of 1/32", this has been a very popular scale for live steam folks and the main reason Gauge 1 lived on after It fell out of common usage after WW2 for electric trains.

It was revised for electric trains by LGB in the late 1960's for what originally was called "K" scale ("King" scale) but quickly became known as G scale, (G = Gross = Large in German) it used Marklins 45mm track, the scale was 1/22.5 to represent German meter gauge track on the 45mm Gauge 1 track. In US profile this gave a track gauge of 3'-3" (1 meter).

This was the status quo for decades until the 1990's when Polk Hobbies aka Aristocraft entered the fray. They decided that 1/32 standard gauge looked too small on 45mm track and pushed the scale of the bodies up to get the "Wow" factor as they called it. They decided on 1/29, which is 3X the size of HO scale. Others like USA trains followed.

Other manufacturers went for the easier scale usage of 1/24 scale, yielding a 3'-6" gauge but allowed a plethora of scale modeling materials to become available for modeling. Delton, Kalamazoo, Hartland all were/are made to 1/24 scale

More recently Bachmann Accucraft and others have gone the Full Monty to correctly scale American 36" gauge narrow gauge on 45mm track, giving a scale of 1/20.3.

Others decided the both meter and standard gauge were still too wide and began modeling 45mm track to represent 24" gauge and smaller gauge tracks, usually to a scale of 1/13, also called 7/8" scale (7/8" = 1'-0")

There are currently at least 5 major scales all using 45mm track

1/32

1/22.5

1/29

1.20.3

1/13

...and you thought I was joking about going down the rabbit hole 

[mbinsewi]

OK then.......     I guess I'll do some reading and searching and see whats available.   It does seem like like the 45mm track is the only thing "common".  The 1/32 would be handy for the use of the many vehicles and farm machinery that my son and grandson have collected.

Thanks for the info vsmith !

Mike.

[vsmith]

MTH is pretty much the only player in the US in 1/32, along with live steam manufacturers.

[Rene Schweitzer]

Hello Mike,

As you're finding out, the scale/gauge issue is quite a bug-a-boo in the hobby.

You might want to download our free scale-and-gauge chart. We recently revised it.

[ttrigg]

Vic, I'm surprised you did not bring up the "Gummi-Ruler"! 

mbinsewi: The "Gummi-ruler" refers to the mythical rubber rulers used to measure equipment in a particular scale. Example; LGB claims a 1:22.5 scale, That may be the scale of the length of the car, but the height and width of the cars are NOT to professed scale. If you are a true "rivet counter" you may well not be satisfied with anything on the market and revert to your own construction. I have a simple rule, If I like the look, I run it. All my stuff is "steam" and back then different lines built their cars to fit their different needs, some shorter/longer. Some times a mix of scale can produce an interesting look, some times it is so repugnant I do not run that combo again.

My buildings and people run the gambit from 1:19 to 1:24, larger up front and smaller in the distance. Adds a bit of "forced perspective" to the scene.

[vsmith]

Tom that's more like going down the worm-hole. I figured better start with just the rabbit -hole then feed him the deeper stuff  later.