Hi guys,
What are you running or building or collecting?? Standard or Narrow gauge and what made you decide on one or the other??
I’m 100% narrow gauge. I have always had an interest in early American history especially the late 1800 and early 1900. Being an outdoors person I have always had an interested in logging. To me its a much more interesting time period and the engines have more to see with the side rods and especially the geared engines. When building things there is no real set standard. Things were built for a purpose not looks. I have always found standard gauge boring. The look of a diesel just never did it for me (shut up Rooster).
Modern standard. Love the big AC44s, Dash 9s. Plus all the little short lines these days have such an interesting assortment of hand me down locomotives and rolling stock. Also gives me a chance to add live steam (one day) as a tourist line. Now if my finances would catch up with what I want to do, I’d be good!
It depends on my mood. I run both.
I run whatever works on my rails
I am just a train fan, doesn’t matter what era, if I like it, I will use it.
Narrow gauge, because the first LS engine I bought was narrow gauge…
My Pizza layout is narrow gauge as is all the stuff that runs on it, my Harbor layout is standard gauge and likewise. I differentiate the two rosters by their couplers, narrow gauge get link/pin, standard gauge stuff gets knuckles.
Narrow gauge:
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/vsmith/Whadahellizit4%20pic1%20TooEasy.jpg)
Standard gauge:
(http://1stclass.mylargescale.com/vsmith/Boxcab%20Thomas%2008.JPG)
Started in NG, still my favorite but decided to do standard with the harbor layout as there were no examples of narrow gauge harbor layouts around NYC.
Dont care for modern RRs, too darn boring, just the same identical ugly toolboxes on wheels pulling car after car of extremely boring container stack cars, even adding in occasional mixed frieght the cars are graffiti covered, I’m just not interested so I model the depression era- post WW2 era years.
I run Standard guage, because I run the late 70’s to 80’s era, and diesels…
However… There have been narrow guage units run on my railroad, after we re-guaged the wheels…
Narrow gauge. For modeling I like the idea of the ole’ broke down railroad scratching to get by. The small steamers wandering through the country side, having a purpose in a community such as milk runs, local passenger service and the mail. There’s a certain charm to it that to me, mainline railroading lacks.
My HO trains are all standard gauge steam, I don’t run them. Plus i’m not a big fan of diesels. To me, they are kinda boring. (again, shut up rooster)
Terry
I do narrow gauge; like Ken said, my first locomotive was NG.
However, it would be cool to have a standard gauge boxcar (in 1:20) for comparison…
Bruce,
Build you one of those ‘Hogshead’ cars Southern/NS had. They will dwarf the NG stuff even in 1/29.
Bob C.
Steve and Vincent - me too.
tac, ig, ken the GFT and The Malheur Lake Boys
I run mostly standard gauge although I do own a few narrow gauge engines and rolling stock (a mogul and an Annie- for a future project). Mrs. Diesel loves narrow gauge. I model more for the era (Architecture, Auto’s, etc). I always liked the look of mid-century America. Big steam engines and diesels side by side, Art Deco buildings, cars with tail fins, drive-ins, you get the idea.
-Kevin.
Standard gauge for me, as narrow gauge is a little to narrow for me.
Nick
Bruce Chandler said:
…
However, it would be cool to have a standard gauge boxcar (in 1:20) for comparison…
I got one running in my (NG) hopper train …
I just added the Pennsy decals that Stan did for me:
(http://www.largescalecentral.com/public/album_photo/b0/b3/01/1b0fe_c7c6.jpg)
Clem has a std gauge and a dual gauge siding on his portable show layout, with a Saxton std gauge boxcar on it.
I’m a steam era short line fan so gauge isn’t the main criteria for me. The simple fact though is if you like small and/or geared steam engines then narrow gauge is the only game in town as to locomotives unless you “roll your own” with few exceptions.
Standard gauge models whether in 1:32 or 1:29 are mostly diesel and of the steam locos about all are big mainline engines except for maybe a switcher or two. I love the 3 footers such as D&RGW and EBT as much as I like the standard gauge Sierra RR or the Ma&Pa.
For a 1940 (or earlier) short line narrow gauge is the most expedient route. To me operation is the number one priority with plenty of way freight type trains and a more casual style. Thus running 1:22/1:24 on 45mm track equaling 42" gauge or thereabouts doesn’t bother me as much as it does some although I like the 1:20 offerings very much. Too, it’s a lot easier on the nerves to have cheap and durable 1:22 rolling stock caught in the rain or knocked off the railroad and mostly just snapped back together than to see the same happen to a $100 plus piece of rolling stock do the same.
Steve Featherkile said:
It depends on my mood. I run both.
Me too. I do tend to run the narrow gauge stuff more since that’s what my operations program is set up for and I really like the NG locos and cars I have. Haven’t run a standard gauge train yet this year.
Narrow gauge, but in 1:24 (ish) as that around around this neck of the woods is 3’6". If you wanted other choices, in addition to 4’ 81/2" you could I suppose choose to model 5’3" (1:35 representing broad guage in South Australia and Victoria) or 2’6" (1:17, Victoria narrow gauge and some cane lines in Queensland) and some people do, or at least variations around that, but I’ve always liked the relative freedom that narrow gauge gives while for the 3’6" you can still run pretty big trains if you want. I was strictly a prototype original standard gauge modeller when I was still heavily into N, and got a bit bored with the rivet counter approach.
Steve
My Standard Gauge diesels get the call to work while the narrow gauge steamers come out to play. I often run both togther and they look fine unless the 38 ton Shay is out there.
I model narrow gauge in 1/24th scale, which as Steve pointed out, is 3’ 6" (or 42") gauge when using typical “large scale” 45mm gauge track.
I love small, funky trains, whether narrow gauge or short line, and the narrowish gauge fits in well with the rugged topography of my desert mountain themed layout.
I especially love steam, but I do occasionally enjoy other forms of motive power so I extensively kit bashed an Aristocraft RS3 into a fictional narrow gauge variant. And I have a scratch built Model T railbus. I also plan to eventually build some other, smaller diesel or gas/mechanical locos.