Garden Railway Scales - (Scales, as in proportion, not weighing)
There is certainly much confusion as to what garden railway scales are in use. Quoting and adapting liberally from a text by Jim Banner's Virginia Creek Railway (on the Saskatoon Railroad Modellers site), garden railway equipment must have been built with a rubber ruler. Some is 1/2" to the foot, others are 3/8" to the foot, and still others are 1/29 scale. A few are of no discernable scale at all. That makes structures a good match for engines and rolling stock, which seem proportioned the same way. The original New Bright engines may have been 1/36 scale; Aristo-Craft's RS-3 is 1/29 scale and Bachmann's Big Hauler is either 1/24 scale or maybe 1/20.3 scale narrow gauge; the VCR runs it as 1/29 scale standard gauge. Jim says, "Go figure". VCR rolling stock includes a number of Bachmann 1/24 scale cars, including 3 bay hoppers which the VCR shops measured and found to be exactly 3 times as large as similar Athearn's hoppers {HO}, making them closer to 1/29 scale. Jim didn't even mention Märklin's Maxi at 1:32!
That doesn't even begin to compare to Jim Thiewes's RMI 2.5" scale (2½" to the foot (1:4.8 scale) boxcab in Phoenix, all 1,200# of her! That one runs on SIX actual miles of 7½" gauge track and she's a full 84" x 36" x 24"! That is one BIG loco! They also make them (probably far more) in ~1.9" scale. But those don't really count as "Garden Railways"; they are more on the line of "Township" or "County" Railways! Hell, there are real revenue roads that have smaller equipment!
Just for laughs, let's go a bit further with all this and show you how long a scale mile is in each of these scales:
SCALE TY ½Z Z N TT HO OO S O 1 G Maxi ¾ 1" 1½"
Proportion 900 440 220 160 128 87.1 76.2 64 48 36 32 22.5 16 12 9
(1:X)
=======================================================================================================================================
1 Scale Mile = 5' 10½" 12' 24' 33' 41' 3" 60' 6¼" 69' 3½" 82' 6" 110' 146' 8" 165' 234' 8" 330' 440' 586' 8"
=======================================================================================================================================
Note: HO scale of 1:87.1 used for calculations; actual scale is 1:87.08571428571------.
In the giant 2.5" scale, that's 1,100' and even in ~1.9" scale, it's ~836'! Those are almost in the range of an actual quarter mile! Why bother with a model; buy the real thing!
You might also like to look at José Lopez, Jr.'s
The Scale Card, for a most extensive discussion of scales. I have a
write-up and photo of his Z-scale Scale Card and Scale Rule on my
Z-Scale page 2.
@ - While Comet's AUTHENTICAST line did include some
true HO RR models, most of it was military vehicles at 1:108 with soldiers advertised
as that but actually HO; a very few figures at 1:108 accompanied Korean-action era
missile launcher models.
Other scales used refer to the height of miniature figures (especially military), such as
30mm, 40mm, and 54mm (this latter is 1/32 Scale); I hope to post more of these as I
find them. One of such is 28mm scale at roughly 1:60 (1" = 5') or nearly "S"
scale (which is exactly 1:64 or 1" = 5' 4"). A common variation is that the height
in millimeters refers to the height to the eyes (to avoid headgear interfering with
measurement), thus resulting in an automatic difference of a few scale inches.
Differences in body build will also cause variations in appearance, so height scales,
rather than precise proportions such as 1:100, are fraught with confusion.
Then, to further confuse matters, some manufacturers have made figures a bit larger
than the stated scale - so, "ya pays yer money and ya takes yer chances"!
(14 Mar 07)
In addition, there is a scale called 2mm Finescale (1:152) active in
the UK; one good introductory site is
David Mallott's site; track gauge is 9.42mm (4' 8⅓"), so it's a
sort-of-N gauge offshoot. There is also a
2mm Scale Association. The Brits also have a
3mm Society (Tri-Ang TT3, 12mm gauge, 1:101.6) and a
Scalefour Society( 4mm scale, 18.83mm gauge, 1:76.2), but that latter is
basically a fine-scale version of OO.
(Berlinerwerke)
The BERLINERWERKE SAGA, the story of the HO Berlinerwerke pike,
is now on its own page with the Horseshoe Curve story.
(Berlinerwerke-Z)
The full BERLINERWERKE-Z SAGA, the Z-scale pike story
now appears on its own page (and continues onto several more).
Visit these courtesy and official home pages:
Long Island Sunrise - Trail Chapter
(National Railway Historical Society)
Sunrise Trail Division
(Northeastern Region)
(National Model Railroad Association)
Ztrack Magazine
The Newsletter for Z Scale Model Railroading
Long Island Live Steamers
Brooklyn Eastern District Terminal Railroad
Degnon Terminal Railroad
Marion River Carry Railroad
You may also wish to jump to SB,III's RAILROAD Page, et seq., and
SB,III's MODEL RAILROAD Page, et seq.
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S. Berliner, III
To contact S. Berliner, III, please click here.
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1999, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005,
2008
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