Anyone working in 1:29 fine scale or Proto:29?

[Charlie Conway]

Hello all,

I'm planning a 13' x 22' indoor large-scale layout in 1:29 scale using locomotives and rolling stock from USA Trains and Aristo Craft as a starting point.  My intention is to hand-lay track to 1.948 gauge (rather than No. 1 gauge) and to model track components, wheels, trucks and couplers as closely to AAR prototype standards as practical.

If there is anyone out there who is working in 1:29 fine scale or Proto:29, I'd be interested in sharing information.

This post duplicates one I placed on the Model Railroader forum.  Another forum user suggested I might have better luck posting my question on the Garden Railways forum, so here I am.

Charlie

[vsmith]

I am active on 4 large scale forums and I am not aware of anyone doing this, I suggest asking on Mylargescale.com and Largescalecentral.com , there are alot more 1/29 practitioners who might be able to help, while handlaying track I dont see as a problem but reguaging Aristo? good luck with that...AC locomotive wheels uses tapered pressed mounts on their axles, once the wheels are pressed onto the axle they are pretty much  impossible to regauge, you will need to replace the entire axle assembly. to get them to the wider gauge, if you can do that then the car trucks shouldn't be too much trouble besides widening the truck to allow for the wider gauge as the stock wheels are pretty tight in the trucks as is. 

I've heard of this being pitched before but the practicalities of modifying as-built stuff that by design seams to have been engineered to be unmodifiable got the better of them. Let me ask this as an alternative:

Some time ago another fellow on the other forum also wanted to do this, but ran into the same issues I mentioned above. After some experimentation he found that by reducing the rail code, from Aristo/LGB/USA code 332 down to a more scale code 250 or 225, that the appearance was tremendously improved, so much to the point where the minimal gauge difference (3/8" ??) pretty much disappeared, I would suggest considering this in the case you find that what your considering turns out to be as troublesome as it seams. 

[Charlie Conway]

Thanks for the references to the other forums - I'll definitely give them a try.

No question this could be a tough row to hoe.  I may find the difficulties are too great to be worth the effort, but I have some basic skills as a machinist, so I'm willing to give it a try.  I'll be sure to share the results (good or bad) on the forum.

Charlie

[captain perry]

Of course the other alternative is to go 1:32.  this is "gauge 1" which is a well respected scale.  quite a bit of good stuff is available in this scale. 

One disadvantage with going 1:29 fine scale is that you will not be able to run on anyone else's line or have them run on yours.  Also should you (or your family) wish to liquidate any of your collection for any reason, you will have trouble finding a buyer

if you like to make stuff, you still can certainly do that in 1:32 or you can modify what is available in either scale.

If you are mostly a builder, another scale to consider is gauge 3 which is (i think) 1:22.5ish scale when modeling standard gauge.  this makes for big equipment.  there is some gauge 3 presence in the UK, not much in the USA.