David, OW5 used to be called just O-scale till P48 came along. If you look on the NMRA's website for their wheel standard charts, it only shows O-scale, P48 hasn't been included yet. P48ers started calling O-scale OW5 to make us feel annoyed, but in true O-scale tradition we just shrugged our shoulders and adopted it.
It all happened because calculators hadn't been invented so having fixed the track gauge at 1-1/4" it was easier to do the calculations at 1/4":1ft rather than 17/64":1ft. Probably still is..., anyway, OW5 wheels, the 'norm' for O-scale are a tad further apart than they should be.
Jason