track gauge

[Anonymous]

What is the diff between o27 and Ho gauges.I have large asst of lionel and never see much in the mags except for ho or n scale.Any ideas on L&N pieces for lionel?

[cacole]

HO is roughly half the size of O27. The scale of the two is 1:48 for O27, and 1:87 for HO.

[Anonymous]

O27 is generally considered the Classic toy train realm. Lionel, MTH and old American Flyer. O27 uses three rails and AC power, the center rail carries the power and the two outside rails are common. There is also O scale, where the gauge is almost the same as O27. However, O scale is two rail, scale model railroading and DC powered. Cacole statement that HO is roughly half the size of O is right on. HO is Scale or model railroading and DC powered.

If you have Lionel equipment it may be collectible and worth money. At the vary top of this page is a click button for Classic Toy Trains, another Kalmbach publication, dedicated to the trains you have referenced.

[IRONROOSTER]

Lionel O27 uses O gauge track. It uses a smaller rail size than the bigger Lionel O (sometimes called O31) track, but the gauge is the same. O27 rolling stock is smaller than full size O (1:48), but is is not reduced proportionally in all three dimensions, so it has no exact scale. Industrial Rail makes a 1:55 scale with O27 trucks for use with Lionel O27 trains. O27 also refers to the diameter of a circle of track on inches. Lionel O27 will run on full size Lionel O track but not always the other way around.

Lionel track is tubular. Atlas uses a more prototypical cross section. Lionel and compatibles (frequently called toy trains to differentiate them from scale trains) use oversized flanges on the wheels which require bigger flange ways. While it is possible to build your track so that you can run Lionel (and compatibles) with scale trains commercial track doesn't support this.

Classic Toy Trains is the magazine where Lionel and compatibles (mainly MTH and KLine) are covered. It also covers American Flyer and Standard Gauge.

Model Railroader covers scale modeling in all scales, but the emphasis is on HO and N because that is what most scale modelers use. There are O scalers and S scalers and some coverage of their layouts does occur in MR. Great Model Railroads 2005 has coverage of a scale layout in both O and S scales and several layouts in both scales have been covered over the years.

One interesting trend for S and O scale manufactures other than Lionel, MTH, and Kline is to make their cars and engines to scale standards and then provide a version with toy train wheels and a version with scale wheels (sometimes both sets of wheels are provided in the same box)

Enjoy
Paul

[Anonymous]

Thanks to all for the information. It was greatly appreciated,best wishes.