Family Garden Trains
Discussion Forums

Visit our Affiliated Pages:
Return to Family Garden Trains Home page
Garden Railroading Primer Articles: All about getting a Garden Railroad up and running well
Big Christmas Trains: Directory of Large Scale and O Scale trains with holiday themes
Return to Big Indoor Trains Home page
Building temporary and permanent railroads with big model trains
Best-loved railroad songs and the stories behind them.

It is currently Thu Mar 28, 2024 1:17 pm

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 1 post ] 
Author Message
 Post subject: Is "G" the right scale?
PostPosted: Wed Jan 27, 2021 11:01 am 
Offline
Site Admin
User avatar

Joined: Wed Mar 12, 2014 9:13 am
Posts: 183
A reader writes:
I've wanted to have a garden railroad for a long time. I have the yard space, and now that I'm retired I have the time. I came across your site while researching track plans, and your articles have been a great place to start. Looking forward to your newsletter. Thanks!

Still confused about scale. Is "G" the correct scale?

----------------------------------------------

Thanks for getting in touch. Looking forward to seeing your progress. In case you couldn't tell, I DO recommend raised railroads, especially raised platform railroads, for folks who want more running time and less bending over or crawling around on your knees to weed.

To answer your question, "G" is not a scale. It's a gauge. The track is 45mm or 1.775" between the rails. It was LGB's interpretation of a century-old track gauge called Gauge One, which was 1.75". In fact, some folks insist that "Gauge One" or "One Gauge" is the "correct name."

LGB's earliest trains were models of "meter-gauge" trains, real-world trains that ran on tracks with one meter between the rails. Technically that would make their Euro trains 1/22.5 the size of the real-world prototypes. You could make the claim that 1:22.5 is "G Scale," if you wanted to, and some folks do.

Companies that make US-style trains have used other scales.

Models of US narrow-gauge trains that ran on 36" tracks tend to be 1:20.3, 1:22.5, or 1:24. 1:22.5 is the most common, due to the former popularity of Bachmann's Big Hauler starter sets (now discontinued). Folks modeling little logging railroads, etc., often gravitate toward Bachmann's Shay and Climax locomotives, which are 1:20.3 in scale (also more-or-less discontinued). One outlier is Hartland Locomotive Works, which is closer to 1:24 (recently discontinued, sorry).

Models of US standard-gauge trains that run on 56.5" tracks tend to be 1:29 or 1:32. AristoCraft (no longer made) is mostly 1:29, as is the current line of USA trains. MTH's garden trains (discontinued in early2021) are 1:32. Piko (still made and growing) tends to be in the 1:32 range as well. Trains from Accucraft are usually somewhere in between.

Confused? Don't be. They all run on the same track. Moreover, almost ALL buildings and accessories for garden trains are about 1:24, and almost all figures are in the 1:22.5 range. So if you were to visit most garden railroads when the trains were put up, you would have NO IDEA what scale trains they preferred.

I have 1:29 trains I like and 1:22.5 trains I like. Generally I run one scale or the other, depending on my mood or the time of year. (Most of my best Christmas trains are 1:22.5, for example.)

Some folks might get twitchy if I ran both scales on the same day, but none of my non-hobbyists visitors would notice at all. I have a few pieces in other scales that I use for special purposes as well.

In other words, buy a train set you like and get started.

Hope that helps,

Paul Race
Family Garden Trains


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 1 post ] 

All times are UTC - 5 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 8 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot post attachments in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
cron


Click to see sturdy Lionel(r) trains that are perfect for your Christmas tree.


Visit our affiliated sites:
- Trains and Hobbies -
Return to Big Indoor Trains Home page
Return to Family Garden Trains Home page
Big Indoor Trains Primer Articles: All about setting up and displaying indoor display trains and towns. Garden Railroading Primer Articles: All about getting a Garden Railroad up and running well
On30 and O Gauge trains to go with indoor display villages and railroads
Big Christmas Trains: Directory of Large Scale and O Scale trains with holiday themes
Visit Lionel Trains. Free building projects for your vintage railroad or Christmas village. Click to see Thomas Kinkaded-inspired Holiday Trains and Villages. Big Christmas Train Primer: Choosing and using model trains with holiday themes Visit Howard Lamey's glitterhouse gallery, with free project plans, graphics, and instructions. Click to see HO scale trains with your favorite team's colors.
- Family Activities and Crafts -
Click to see reviews of our favorite family-friendly Christmas movies. Free, Family-Friendly Christmas Stories Decorate your tree the old-fashioned way with these kid-friendly projects. Free plans and instructions for starting a hobby building vintage-style cardboard Christmas houses. Click to find free, family-friendly Christmas poems and - in some cases - their stories. Traditional Home-Made Ornaments
- Christmas Memories and Collectibles -
Visit the FamilyChristmasOnline site. Visit Howard Lamey's glitterhouse gallery, with free project plans, graphics, and instructions. Visit Papa Ted Althof's extensive history and collection of putz houses, the largest and most complete such resource on the Internet.. Click to return to the Old Christmas Tree Lights Table of Contents Page Craft and collectibles blog with local news of Croton NY.
Click to visit Fred's Noel-Kat store.
- Music -
Carols of many countries, including music, lyrics, and the story behind the songs Wax recordings from the early 1900s, mostly collected by George Nelson.  Download them all for a 'period' album.
Best-loved railroad songs and the stories behind them.
Heartland-inspired music, history, and acoustic instrument tips. Own a guitar, banjo, or mandolin?  Want to play an instrument?  Tips to save you money and time, and keep your instrument playable. Own a guitar, banjo, or mandolin?  Want to play an instrument?  Tips to save you money and time, and keep your instrument playable.



Click to trains that commemorate your team!

Powered by phpBB® Forum Software © phpBB Group