What is 5" gauge

[John Tremelling]

Good morning all,

I have only just joined this site, but feel that it will be of both use and interest to me. I model N gauge indoors, I also model radio control boats, vehicles and aircraft in 1:12 scale. I have it in mind to build a model railway in my garden, and to make it compatable to my other models and figures wonder what is 5" gauge? Is the gauge exactly 5", or is it rounded to 5" for ease of nomenclature? To put it simple is 5" gauge 1:12, or would I be starting off on my own with 1:12. I am not a rivet counter, I consider myself more of a 'standoff' modeller, thus a slight variant in scale would not be too much of a problem to me, but I would wish, at least at first to be able to use readily available parts and castings, and dare I say it, initially I would not expect to model 'live steam', but electrically powered radio control. Am I likely to be ejected from this forum for such heresey?

Initially I would expect a modest layout in the corner of my garden, thus would perhaps start with a 1:12 Narrow Gauge, making a gauge of 2" or so. Is this an accepted scale/gauge?

Thanks,

John Tremelling

[Pete92]

Hey. The closest to 2" gauge you'll get is 2 1/2" gauge.

Personaly I would say if you want to build a 5" model then the least you need is a lathe and a variatiy of hand tools.

Castings and drawings etc are Quite easy to come accross (depending on your model). If you do want to start in 5" gauge I would suggest starting off with a simplex. This is a freelance locomotive. Drawings and castings are easy to come accross.

You could of course buy a ready built model but thats no fun really is it.

Some sites of interest may be
www.ajreeves.com
www.stationroadsteam.com
www.maxitrak.co.uk

[John Tremelling]

Thanks Pete, I do have a selection of tools and modest skills, even so I know that it will be a daunting task.

My question relates to, are there 1/12th castings and plans available to run on 5" gauge? I had not heard of 2 1/2" gauge, are there 1/12th castings and drawings for narrow gauge locomotives and stock to run on 2 1/2" rails?

Thanks, John T

[Havoc]

Yep 5" gauge means exactly that: the distance between the insides of the rails is 5". Now what scale that is depends on the prototype gauge it represents. So a 5" gauge engine can be 1/7.8 if the original is standard gauge, 1/5.4 for meter gauge, 1/5 for 3' gauge original etc. If you want to use 1/12 the you will have to look at prototypes that ran on 5' like russian locs. But that isn't narrow gauge, that is braod gauge territory.

There are other larger size tracks. Common are 5", 3.5" and 2.5". If you want to model narrow gauge and use 1/12 then some 3'1/2 prototypes to run on 3.5" track or 2.5' protos to run on 2.5" track would be the easiest way to go. There are plans around, search a bit on the net at model engineering shops.

[John Tremelling]

Thanks Havoc, great help. That is the sort of knowledgeable prompt I needed, wondering what is about rather than set off on my own scale/gauge.

So 1/12th 2.5" Narrow gauge it is. Does anyone else on here model this?

John T

[Havoc]

2.5' wasn't a very popular gauge, but then I'm not a narrow gauge specialist either. With some cheating you could try for 750mm prototypes. These had some popularity in Germany and eastern europe. The larger "Heeresfeldbahn" types used that gauge. Look here: http://www.heeresfeldbahn.de/ Other site: http://www.polrail.com/sections/hobby/p ... ry_07.html

[locoworks]

5 inch gauge is exactly that, probably the smallest gauge suitable for passenger pulling at ground level, though 3 1/2 has been done too. check out maxitrak, ride on railway's, and compass house. maxitrak do live steam and electrics and even petrol hydraulic, the other 2 are battery electric specialists. ROR is my personal choice for rolling stock and battery loco's though maxitrak has been around a long time and is still going strong with a good reputation.

[ste234]

I drive some 5 inch gauge locos, and unless you have a big garden your best goin with 2 1/2 or maybe 3 1/2. compass house does 5 inch kits, and some ready to run, maxitraxs, as said, is also a good one.
5 inch can either run on ground level or on raised tracks.
Cheers,
Ste.

[locoworks]

for 0-4-0's and bogie stock 10 feet radius is the minimum ROR recommend, but maxitrak state 8 feet radius for their small stuff. it all depends on the wheel base.

[LongleatCentral]

here are some videos of 5"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aI8OusH9OcE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BeBAvrV3oU

and this video shows how much track you really want.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQs9WqxWzK0

hope those help

[jcuknz]

If you go to the United States you would find that they largely do not have 5" gauge but rather 4 3/4 inch gauge which is true 1"/ft of 4'8.5 gauge [ closer anyway ], just as they also have 7 1/4 instead of 7 1/2 for 1.5" scale. Depending on the size of your garden and the type of loco you want to build the current trend in Model Engineering Societies is to build for 7 1/2. A few decades ago you would find 2.5/3.5 and 5' and my club's track is built to accomodate all three along with 7.5" though that was for ride-on trolleys originally. Another small beginners loco is 'Tich', but when you consider that the same engineering goes into the building of any steam loco it is only a matter of scale between live steam in O Gauge and 15" or 2ft or standard 4'8.5' gauge So if you have the tools or access to them through a technical collage evening class the preference these days is to build big, but whatever you build is a huge project not to be entered into lightly. You could do the unspeakable and build a petrol or battery electric loco with a steam profile if you are going to stay in your own garden
Depending on the size of garden my preference is for 45mm track [G] though with Narrow Gauge stock which a lot of the shop stuff is, metric prototype gauges.
Martin Evans wrote a good book on the subject back in 1960. Model and Allied Publications ... I have the sixth impression from 1976 from Argus Press. A character called 'LBSC' wrote in Model Engineer from around WWI through to after WWII and probably could be called the father of the Model Engineering Society world wide. There is a current magazine called Garden Rail worth looking at.
Bogie stock will go around tighter curves particularly if you increase the gauge slightly, their wheel base is usually shorter than any 0-4-0 loco. One early side show promoter with a circle of track had larger wheels on the outside of the loco to match the increased distance of the outer rail Then another builder of standard gauge locos had 0-4-2 config with no flanges on the middle wheel, while 0-6-0 and 2-8-0 had no flanges on middle drivers [ NZR P class - 3'6" gauge] The Glasgow docks railway had very close spaced 0-6-0 ["Butch" is the model engineering name for them] to get round their tightly curves track. Some example maybe of interest to you
O Gauge is 32mm, 1 Gauge is 45mm, 2 Gauge is 50mm, 3 Gauge is 63.5mm and 4 Gauge is 89. The last two are 2.5 and 3.5 inch in imperial.

[b308]

5" is a bit out of our territory for railway modelling! I've heard that anything over 3" (or 3 1/2") is regarded as Model Engineering rather than Model Railways... Looking at the skills those guys use I'd tend to agree with that definition. Many areas have clubs that cater for large gauge stuff, normally having some land where they've built a multi gauge circuit, normally 3 1/2", 5" and 7"... I know there of two near where I live in the West Mids and one at York next to the main line (York Model Engineers)! It may be worth you having a root around at your local library to see if there's anything where you live?

Try Googling Model Engineering as well, that should produce some links...

[ste234]

one at York next to the main line (York Model Engineers)!

Thats where I'm a member at, decent sized tracks aswell
This one looks quite impressive aswell: http://www.rsme.org.uk/

[b308]

This is the one nearest me, used to take the kids down when they were younger for rides!

http://www.kinvermodelengineers.org.uk/history.html

[jcuknz]

Reading you letter more carefully I would suggest that you could build using the more common Gauge 1 track, 'G' Gauge, 45mm which built to a scale of 1:12 gives you a 21 inch prototype so if you built to that scale your stock would be similar to the Welsh, and other places, 24" railways. I doubt if you would find 2" stock anywhere but in a toy museum. Probably a radius of around five foot or less depending on wheel arrangement would enable you to run around plants etc in your garden. I have in the past built to NZ24 scale and have remains in my garden ... that is half inch scale with 45mm track representing our 3ft 6inch 1067mm track. The advantage here is that we purchase quality reliabile LGB motive power and rolling stock and build our own bodies onto them. As I have for N gauge in the old 009 days buying Minitrix when I could afford it to build NZ120 or 1/8" foot scale [ 3mm ]. If you want to venture into live steam this is quite possible and we have two members in our club who have live steam running on 45mm track ... not sure what scale they are using and a few months ago I saw live steam hauling perhaps twenty wagons at the Colorado Railroad Musem, a big maybe pacific type loco and a smaller 0-4-0 both doing much the same work on a level track. Husband and wife team I think.