15" or 24" gauge?

Discuss park gauge trains and large scale miniature railways having track gauges from 8" to 24" gauge and designed at scales of 2" to the foot or greater - whether modeled for personal use, or purpose built for amusement park operation or private railroading.

Moderators: Glenn Brooks, Harold_V

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Topics may include: antique park gauge train restoration, preservation, and history; building new grand scale equipment from scratch; large scale miniature railway construction, maintenance, and safe operation; fallen flags; track, gauge, and equipment standards; grand scale vendor offerings; and, compiling an on-line motive power roster.
Springhill-RR
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Joined: Sun May 30, 2021 3:17 pm

15" or 24" gauge?

Post by Springhill-RR »

Trying to decide which direction to go, 15" or 24" gauge. I presently have 24" gauge but much work is needed to rebuild track and equipment, etc. Now is the time to decide. This is not a commercial project simply a personal project.
Glenn Brooks
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Re: 15" or 24" gauge?

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Hard choice! If it were me, for backyard, or private estate railroading I’d choose 15” gauge... three reasons: 1) much wider choice of equipment and versatility in size in 15” gauge (3” to 5” scale), 2) your time and money goes much farther, and achieves more when building and operating in 15” ga. 3) 15” gauge offers more than enuf capability for private railroading when transporting passengers and goods.

Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
rkcarguy
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Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: 15" or 24" gauge?

Post by rkcarguy »

I'm with Glenn, 15" gage, for reasons stated.
Things get awfully big and exponentially expensive as far as weight and costs of materials as you go larger scale. It would also require acres of land to have enough space for 24" gage and a decent turn radius
Glenn Brooks
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Re: 15" or 24" gauge?

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Something else to consider - perhaps go on a short road trip and visit several different 15” and 24” gauge train operations. Talk to the owners/operators of each railroad about what they like, don’t like, and what they do differently. Also you’ll get a great, comparative first hand look at what others have done, and how their equipment, scale, and gauge would fit into your landscape, and your shop capability.

I’ve always been very impressed with first hand inspections of different sized locomotives. They almost always are completely different in person than how they appear in photos. Pics just don’t do justice to the real life size of actual locomotives and layouts.

Good luck!
Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
Springhill-RR
Posts: 26
Joined: Sun May 30, 2021 3:17 pm

Re: 15" or 24" gauge?

Post by Springhill-RR »

Thank you gentlemen for the sound advice.
Springhill-RR
Posts: 26
Joined: Sun May 30, 2021 3:17 pm

Re: 15" or 24" gauge?

Post by Springhill-RR »

Newbie here, 3" scale means 3" = 1' and 5" = 1'? How can you have both for 15" gauge?
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Harold_V
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Location: Onalaska, WA USA

Re: 15" or 24" gauge?

Post by Harold_V »

Gauge and scale aren't necessarily related, although they can be. As an example, true track gauge for 1½" scale locos would be 7-1/16", yet it is commonly 7¼" or 7½". I know of no 7-1/16" tracks.

The models are built to scale, while they are gauged to the track on which they will operate. The equipment rarely will have a gauge that is in keeping with the scale to which it was built. In 1½" scale, that's why you often see engines built to 1.593:12 scale, which is true scale for 7½" gauge track.

H
Wise people talk because they have something to say. Fools talk because they have to say something.
Springhill-RR
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Joined: Sun May 30, 2021 3:17 pm

Re: 15" or 24" gauge?

Post by Springhill-RR »

Where can I purchase drawings, books, etc. about the 5" scale 15" gauge standards created by Mr. Erich Thomsen and William "Bill" Daney?
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Erskine Tramway
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Location: South Dakota
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Re: 15" or 24" gauge?

Post by Erskine Tramway »

Springhill-RR wrote: Tue Aug 10, 2021 8:14 am Where can I purchase drawings, books, etc. about the 5" scale 15" gauge standards created by Mr. Erich Thomsen and William "Bill" Daney?
The standards drawing is on-line...but, sorry, I don't remember where.

Mike
Former Locomotive Engineer and Designer, Sandley Light Railway Equipment Works, Inc. and Riverside & Great Northern Railway 1962-77
BN RR Locomotive Engineer 1977-2014, Retired
Glenn Brooks
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Re: 15" or 24" gauge?

Post by Glenn Brooks »

Here is a link to Eric Thompson’s 5” scale15 ga standard.

https://www.hillcrestreedley.com/5-scal ... -standards

Another way to think about scale is that scale represents the relative size of the superstructure of the equipment, while gauge simply pertains to the width between the rails. Hence you can build locomotive and rolling stock, even buildings and trestles, to what ever scale, e.g.size, you desire, so long as their wheel sets are fixed to the proper width, for the track gauge you have chosen.

For example, on my 12” gauge backyard railroad I have both a 2.5” scale Ottaway steam engine, and now restoring a 1/3 rd scale 44 ton centercab - having a frame and structure that is almost twice as long and tall as the Ottaway. Even though both are gauged to run on the same 12” width track.

The most distinguishing feature of gauge, is that the railroading world has adopted gauge and wheel standards to help insure interoperability of equipment on various different railroads. Hence the prototypical, 1:1 scale, 4’ 8 1/2” “standard” gauge track, and the various miniaturize versions, such as 7 1/2”, 7 1/4”, 5”, 4 2/4”, 2.5” gauge, etc.

The key thing to work with, is that scale does not determine track width, except that each gauge of track happens to be of a specific ratio of its real world counterpoint. This is because gauge simply determines how wide a load you can carry. And only fixes the width of the wheel set to match the rails. while scale determines how large or small the overall frame and structure can be to fit on the wheel set.

Glenn
Moderator - Grand Scale Forum

Motive power : 1902 A.S.Campbell 4-4-0 American - 12 5/8" gauge, 1955 Ottaway 4-4-0 American 12" gauge

Ahaha, Retirement: the good life - drifting endlessly on a Sea of projects....
rkcarguy
Posts: 1730
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 10:33 am
Location: Wa State

Re: 15" or 24" gauge?

Post by rkcarguy »

My build is an example of bending the scale and gage rules, I'm doing 12" gage with 2" (1/6th scale). If I was to proper scale, my track gage should have been more in the 9-10" range. My reasoning behind this, was wanting more stability of a wider gage yet keeping standard rolling stock and my switcher under 8' long in overall length for ease in building and transport in my 1-ton long bed pickup. Every aspect of my build is 2" in scale, then I simply made my truck sides thinner and my wheels further apart. Even the overall length and width of the trucks are very close to correct size in scale.
My RR will be put to work taking the garbage and recycling out to the road adjacent my 220' long driveway, and also bring up firewood from the other side of the property 400-500' away, to the house for winter and power outage season. And...I'll have fun doing it:)
I think there is a IBLS wheel gage/profile chart here in the large scale forum, or links to it. We were just recently hammering out some standards for 12" as it was missing from the chart.
STRR
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Location: Westminster, CO

Re: 15" or 24" gauge?

Post by STRR »

The easiest way for me to keep things straight is to think about prototypes. If a person was to build a near accurate full-size prototype, that person might build in 3" scale so the equipment would "look" proportional to the track gauge (15"). If that person wanted to build a narrow-gauge prototype, they might build in 5" scale so the equipment would "look" proportional to a narrow track gauge but still be 15" with the rolling stock being much larger and thus "look" better.
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