To those new to the hobby of model
railroading the concepts of scale and gauge can be confusing. A good starting
point is to consider what happens in full-size “real” railroads.
Scale vs Gauge in the Real World
If you are looking at either modern rolling stock or rolling stock from the 1800’s all such items are full-size prototypes of themselves. They are not a model so there is no concept of scale involved. Depicted mathematically, all such rolling stock is 1:1. The same goes for any other items in the real world such as buildings, highways, motor vehicles or people.
If you are standing beside a mainline
railroad track in North America, Great Britain, most of Europe, most of
Australia and parts of Asia and South America the gauge of the track will be 4
ft. 8 ½ in. (1,435 mm.) measured between the inner faces of the load-bearing
rails. This has come to be known as “standard” gauge. If you are standing beside a mainline railroad track in Russia, the Baltic States,
Georgia or Ukraine the gauge of the track will be wider at 4 ft. 11 27/32 in.
(1,520 mm.). Major railways in Chile, Argentina, Brazil and Burma have track
gauges of 3 ft. 3 3/8 in. (1 metre).
Regardless of the gauge of the track, all
objects on the track or beside the track (people, buildings, etc.) are the same
scale (1:1) because we are dealing with the real world. In other words, your
height is the same (the same “scale”) regardless of the gauge of track you are
standing beside.
Scale vs Gauge in Model Railroading
The reason that this topic becomes more confusing in model railroading is because not only are we “scaling down” real world objects to smaller dimensions but the gauge of the track is also scaled down but not always in the same proportion as the scale of the objects. Attempting to unravel the history of various scales and gauges over time can be very confusing. Using the standards of the National Model Railroad Association, following is a table showing scales and gauges.
The most popular scale in use in the model
railroading hobby is HO followed by N. There is no right or wrong scale. The decision
on which scale to model can be influenced by one or more of the following
factors:
- A person’s age and/or eyesight – it is not as easy to work with smaller items, especially when it comes time to build or make modifications to equipment and buildings and even to put rolling stock on the track.
- The available space – much more track can be modelled in a given area in N-scale compared with HO-scale. O-scale is a very nice gauge because it enables highly detailed models, but it also requires a much larger space than HO. If I had the space, I would probably model in O. I once modelled in G-scale (garden railway) and very much enjoyed it but, except in rare circumstances, these are usually found outside. I no longer have an outdoor space, having moved to a condominium a few years ago.
- The available budget – generally, but not always, the larger the rolling stock and buildings the more expensive they become.
- The availability of commercial products – since HO-scale is the most common in the hobby it stands to reason that there is a huge amount of commercial product available in this scale. This leads to a certain amount of price competition and to a wide range of qualities and quantities. Modelling in one of the rarer scales means that you will need to scratch build a lot more of your rolling stock and buildings (not a bad thing but be prepared for this if you are venturing into one of the more uncommon scales).