Topic For Discussion

[Steve Bratina]

Saw this on another site and thought it might make for interesting discussion. I thought George and Don said the highline was doing well.

[James Powell]

It's the naysayer's, saying Nay !.

Dad just had the TSME track arrive at his house, both clubs here have/or are building a 3.5" gauge line (BCSME has been at it since about 2000, but keep running into lack of will, I think, based on the mileage of 7.5 on the ground and ongoing maint)

A 3.5" track can be reasonably built by 1 person (see Jack's posts on his line, or mine on Flickr/Facebook), but a "fun" 7.x gauge layout really is going to be a club. 3.5 can be transported by post, try that with even a small 7.x gauge loco . (I understand John in Ottawa's Tich has a carry on box...)

I think it's an effort by someone who thinks that bigger=better to get someone to abandon a fairly complete project to go to 7.x gauge...

James

[sncf141r]

You know, you see and hear this all the time. Generally from clubs where grey hair, or no hair, seems to be part of the membership. I think lots of clubs are closer to death than they think.

The Montreal Live Steamers are doing incredible things in 3-1/2, 4-3/4 and 7-1/4. The members don't seem to differentiate, and from what I can see, the 3-1/2" guys are having an absolute blast. The fact that these really active guys are doing lots of 3-1/2, have hair, (and it's not grey!), bodes well for the next couple of decades. (join them on Facebook, and get ready to sit down and be amazed)

Yes, my Tich goes on as cabin baggage if flying; so long as it goes through the x-ray machine, no problem! Have not steamed it a good few years, though.

Years ago, my wife and I looked at revamping our house to allow me to build and easily move 7-1/4 locomotives, and decided that the extra years of work required pay for it to "do" 7-1/4 was not worth it. So, 3-1/2 and smaller, or get out of the Live Steam hobby.

Now, I love seeing anyone's work, and did lots of full-size steam, so I understand the attraction of "bigger is better". Just my opinions, and I welcome other's as well.

[Mountaineer]

Narrow gauge prototype, 3.5” gauge track. Best of both worlds!

Mountainer.

[gwrdriver]

I agree with James.
I heard similar propagandizing in 1966 when our club was founded. At least four of the six or seven local founding members either had completed, had under construction, or actively planned 3.5"ga engines, and a local private track facility had been staked out. But the lone 7.5"gauger (the first president) bullied the group into abandoning 3.5"ga, and in the process proclaimed that "his" Club would always be 7.5"ga only. And bullying it was - the old familiar Bigger=Better and it's My Way or the Highway and I've never understood how he managed to impose his agenda on a group of mature and experienced adults. (I was "the kid" and did whatever the group decided.)

His agenda of course was that he was getting on up in years, had a 75% complete 7.5"ga loco, would need a track, and he'd need others to build it for him. I think other understandable current thinking is that adding a high-line to a 4.75"/7.5"ga club operation would divert badly needed resources, funds and manpower, from the large scale operation.

[SteveM]

Narrow gauge prototype, 3.5” gauge track. Best of both worlds!

Mountainer.

1" scale, 3-1/2" gauge narrow gauge locomotive built in the style of British / Indian tank locomotives:

Steve

[Pontiacguy1]

I actually think that the smaller scales will be making a real comeback at some point. So much of our population lives in cities or suburbs where they have little to no space to put down a large-scale track. On top of that, land prices everywhere are going up, so getting a large enough plot of land to put decent sized track on is getting more difficult for the average person to achieve. There may come a day when 7+ gauge tracks are a lot more rare than they are right now. There is also a lot higher likelihood that larger scale trains may have more government regulation foist upon them at some point, and of course there are transport and storage issues to work out.

I like the smaller scales too. I mainly model in 1 1/2" scale, 7 1/2" gauge, because that's what I grew up with, and about all that there is South of the Mason-Dixon line. I also dabble in 1/2" scale, 2 1/2" gauge. The nearest 2 1/2" gauge track to me is about 350 miles! Not letting that stop me. At some point I plan on having several operational locomotive and will then look at some type of track, temporary or permanent, to be able to run them on. Maybe even a switching layout in the basement. There are a whole lot more 3 1/2" gauge tracks than there are 2 1/2" gauge.

[Bill Shields]

When my current 1" gauge 2-4-0 is finished...the 7.25 loco goes on sale. Cannot justify keeping an extra vehicle to transport the bigger loco.

The 1" comes apart into two pieces weighing about 70# each and can be loaded into my subaru.

[FKreider]

You know, you see and hear this all the time. Generally from clubs where grey hair, or no hair, seems to be part of the membership. I think lots of clubs are closer to death than they think.

The Montreal Live Steamers are doing incredible things in 3-1/2, 4-3/4 and 7-1/4. The members don't seem to differentiate, and from what I can see, the 3-1/2" guys are having an absolute blast. The fact that these really active guys are doing lots of 3-1/2, have hair, (and it's not grey!), bodes well for the next couple of decades. (join them on Facebook, and get ready to sit down and be amazed)

X2!!!

I'm turning 30 years old this year and I am not at a point in my life where I can afford to build a 7.25" gauge engine. Nor do I want to store and transport an engine of that size at this point in time. I consider myself lucky to have the machinery that I my age. However a 3.5" gauge engine? Absolutely!

Its very disappointing that so many people discredit the small scales, pick up a copy of "Live Steam of Years Gone By" and be prepared to be amazed by how many builders there were back in the beginning days of this hobby. None of those guys complained about their 3.5" gauge engines being "too small" and in fact many of the pictures show these small engines pulling 3 to 6 adults or three times that many children around a high-line track!

[Builder01]

When my current 1" gauge 2-4-0 is finished...the 7.25 loco goes on sale. Cannot justify keeping an extra vehicle to transport the bigger loco.

The 1" comes apart into two pieces weighing about 70# each and can be loaded into my subaru.

1" gauge??

[SteveM]

When my current 1" gauge 2-4-0 is finished...the 7.25 loco goes on sale. Cannot justify keeping an extra vehicle to transport the bigger loco.

The 1" comes apart into two pieces weighing about 70# each and can be loaded into my subaru.

1" gauge??

Yea, it runs on the rails that define 4-3/4" and 3-1/2" across from the common rail

Actually, when I was a kid, I wanted to build a train to run on that.

Steve

[Fender]

Another way of looking at this is the size of the locomotive/equipment. Can you have a lot of fun running an engine that weighs 100-150 lbs? Yes. Is a larger locomotive more impressive? Yes. Is the larger locomotive more of a PITA to build, move, load and transport? Yes! The gauge is not really the issue. A smaller locomotive can be 3.5”, 4.75” or 7+” gauge.