[Robert Stokes]

I have always modelled in OO gauge although always unhappy about the scale gauge discrepancy. (I know all about the historical reasons for this.) I realise that I could try EM or P4 if I had the patience and skill but I was recently dreaming of the possiblity of one day moving to a larger scale.

Then I read that O gauge is 7mm to the foot (why the mix of metric and imperial?) on 32mm gauge. This corresponds to almost 4ft 7in so is much more accurate than OO. By the way, since HO is supposed to be half O gauge I expected to find that O gauge was 33mm. Why isn't it?

The next thing I read was that gauge 1 (why not 1 gauge?) is 10mm to the foot with 45mm gauge. That corresponds to exactly 4ft 6in so is not even as accurate as O gauge or even EM which corresponds to just over 4ft 6.5in.

Why is this? One would have thought that with that sort of size you could have had a perfectly accurate gauge/scale combination. It means that even if I can afford it I won't be moving to that scale but might, just might, one day try O gauge.

Cheers, Robert.

 

[Robert Stokes]

Ravenser. You say that the difficulty is scaling down clearances etc. My point was that if P4 can do it in 4mm scale then it should be very much easier to do it in 10mm scale. There still remains my question as to why gauge 1 is LESS accurate than O gauge.

 

[Robert Stokes]

Thank you Richard for another very informative reply.

I would gladly model in HO if there was easy access to British outline in this scale. I know that it is most unlikely to happen, but if a manufacturer started making British HO I'd spend large amounts on it straight away. (I know that Lima tried it in the 70's but it was very limited in extent and somewhat basic.)

The reason that I'm keen on British HO is this; consider what happens to someone like me who wants a more accurate scale/gauge combination. There are basically two choices if you want to stay at about the same scale - change to EM/P4 or change to HO.

The former means ripping up and replacing all the track which would take a great deal of time and expense. The track could be sold if in not too bad condition but would only fetch a small fraction of its original price.

The second alternative of changing the stock could be done one piece at a time with no reconstruction of track. O.K. it would look a bit ridiculous for a while but only if you ran things side by side. What's more the old stock could be sold on Ebay usually at well over half its original price (that is if anyone would buy it with HO available).

British HO, the holy grail of many modellers. Cheers, Robert.