North American 4mm scale EM gauge trains

[Anonymous]

I have some unusual passenger cars that came with a mixed lot of trains of all gauges and ages I got from ebay I while ago. They are a baggage and passenger car that are decaled for Canadian Pacific and are in the old maroon paint scheme with black roofs. What makes them peculiar is that they are larger than HO gauge and smaller than S gauge. I have found out that they are 4mm scale or EM gauge (see info. below). I would guess they are from the 1950's. They are of a very high quality and I assume they were bought as kits. The baggage car has a diecast body with a tin roof and the passenger car has a tin body with a wooden roof. Cast into the bottom of the baggage car is "Scale Models 876" and a logo that is a diamond with a swan inside. The trucks are marked Mills. I have seen some information of a British company by that name but have never seen the swan logo or heard of them making North American trains.

The reason this gauge exists is the same reason why we have HO and the British have OO. When the German company Bing made the first ever HO gauge trains in the 1920's (The Bing Table Railway, which were nearly all intended for the British market and sold by Basset Lowke) it was determined that the correct scale for the gauge would be 3.5mm=1 foot. However, at that time the technology wasn't available to make motors for trains small, so they decided to make it 4mm scale since it would be "close enough". These were tinplate windup trains and not real scale models anyways. In North America we didn't have that problem since North American trains are larger than British ones, so we could use the 3.5mm scale. Even though technology has improved, the scale has remained the same for OO models and the track gauge is too narrow there are some modelers who have EM gauge, which is correct for the scale of the trains. This is still a rare gauge, even in Britain and the majority of EM equipment used is scratch built.

Has anyone heard of someone modeling North American trains in this scale? Does anyone have any information on my passenger cars? Perhaps there was a failed attempt to promote the gauge here and only a few items were made. Perhaps someone has seen simmilar equipment at train shows. I look forward to hearing anyone's responses.

[Anonymous]

I have some unusual passenger cars that came with a mixed lot of trains of all gauges and ages I got from ebay I while ago. They are a baggage and passenger car that are decaled for Canadian Pacific and are in the old maroon paint scheme with black roofs. What makes them peculiar is that they are larger than HO gauge and smaller than S gauge. I have found out that they are 4mm scale or EM gauge (see info. below). I would guess they are from the 1950's. They are of a very high quality and I assume they were bought as kits. The baggage car has a diecast body with a tin roof and the passenger car has a tin body with a wooden roof. Cast into the bottom of the baggage car is "Scale Models 876" and a logo that is a diamond with a swan inside. The trucks are marked Mills. I have seen some information of a British company by that name but have never seen the swan logo or heard of them making North American trains.

The reason this gauge exists is the same reason why we have HO and the British have OO. When the German company Bing made the first ever HO gauge trains in the 1920's (The Bing Table Railway, which were nearly all intended for the British market and sold by Basset Lowke) it was determined that the correct scale for the gauge would be 3.5mm=1 foot. However, at that time the technology wasn't available to make motors for trains small, so they decided to make it 4mm scale since it would be "close enough". These were tinplate windup trains and not real scale models anyways. In North America we didn't have that problem since North American trains are larger than British ones, so we could use the 3.5mm scale. Even though technology has improved, the scale has remained the same for OO models and the track gauge is too narrow there are some modelers who have EM gauge, which is correct for the scale of the trains. This is still a rare gauge, even in Britain and the majority of EM equipment used is scratch built.

Has anyone heard of someone modeling North American trains in this scale? Does anyone have any information on my passenger cars? Perhaps there was a failed attempt to promote the gauge here and only a few items were made. Perhaps someone has seen simmilar equipment at train shows. I look forward to hearing anyone's responses.

[Anonymous]

They're actually North American OO. OO in North America was always 19mm Gauge and 4mm to the foot, only in the UK was it on H0 track; but it had mostly died out by the 50's, when H0 beat it out. EM is the modern UK finescale equivalent in 4mm Gauge.

[Anonymous]

They're actually North American OO. OO in North America was always 19mm Gauge and 4mm to the foot, only in the UK was it on H0 track; but it had mostly died out by the 50's, when H0 beat it out. EM is the modern UK finescale equivalent in 4mm Gauge.

[Anonymous]

Thanks a lot for the information! I'm really glad to know some more about them. When I got these cars I had no idea what they were and neither did anyone I knew. It's nice to know that someone else out there has heard of them. I'd wouldn't mind finding a locomotive to go with them, but I suspect that could be a hard task. Thanks again.

[Anonymous]

Thanks a lot for the information! I'm really glad to know some more about them. When I got these cars I had no idea what they were and neither did anyone I knew. It's nice to know that someone else out there has heard of them. I'd wouldn't mind finding a locomotive to go with them, but I suspect that could be a hard task. Thanks again.

[BR60103]

before WW2, Lionel made some OO gauge trains. There were a number of other manufacturers, making kits. The OO lines seemed to be a war casualty, although a few dedicated modellers kept it up.
I think Collectors Corner in Railroad Model Craftsman covered OO a few times.

[BR60103]

before WW2, Lionel made some OO gauge trains. There were a number of other manufacturers, making kits. The OO lines seemed to be a war casualty, although a few dedicated modellers kept it up.
I think Collectors Corner in Railroad Model Craftsman covered OO a few times.