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Reply to "Finest ever produced?"

Casey Jones2 posted:

What's wrong with classifying it as G Scale as it runs on 45mm track??!!

Accucraft has a live steam version still in stock for $8K.

https://www.accucraftestore.com/g1-h8-allegheny

while it isn't technically wrong to call this model G scale, it may be the least useful information that could possibly be presented.  in the same breath, outdoor railroaders have no problem calling any of the popular garden scales from 1:32 up to 1:20.3, G scale.

other model scales have adopted standard designations to indicate the same scale on different gauge track as in HOn3 (indicating 1:87 scale on 3' prototype track) or On2 (as 1:48 scale on 2' gauge).  outdoor railroaders, all using the same 45mm (1.77") gauge track, accommodate the different gauges by changing the scale.  in outdoor railroading, #1 gauge track is used to represent a number of different prototype gauges.

from its recent roots in outdoor garden railroading, these mostly cosmetic-priority modelers were initially presented with the ambiguous LGB scale who loosely based their models on European prototypes running on meter gauge track.  scale, or rather scale-to-gauge ratio error seemed as much of a concern to this crowd as it did to 3-rail O gauge equipment operators.  when American three foot narrow gauge prototype models joined this gauge, things likely seemed close enough that a general catch-all scale designation of "G" was informally adopted to the narrow gauge use of 45mm track.  whether the "G" relates to the LGB heritage or the result of a general term for "Garden" railroading it started to be used interchangeably to reference both the narrow gauge track and the model scale(s).

with the introduction of modern US standard gauge (56.5") models, things got even more confusing.  there is a general misconception by most people that gauge and scale are essentially interchangeable, and now it seemed that anything running on 45mm track, now often referred to as G gauge, could be termed G scale.

the NMRA took up this challenge and actually assigned two new designations to the use of #1 gauge (45mm) track...

1:20.3 scale was assigned the letter designation of "F", and with the standard notation for narrow gauge modeling, its use with 45mm track would be designated Fn3.  this is the correct designation for US 3' narrow gauge models running on 45mm gauge track.

NMRA then defined a more general "LS" (for Large Scale) which is more of a definition of wheel clearance standards vs any definition of model scale, so in a way, there is still no precise definition for #1 gauge track treated as US standard gauge.  the two scales that seem to be most prevalent are 1:32 and 1:29 scale.  and while 1:32 is overwhelmingly the more accurate scale for this gauge (less than 0.05% vs over 9% scale to gauge ratio error for 1:29), there is no overlooking the pervasiveness of the noticeably oversize 1:29 models in the hobby.

IMO, MTH perhaps came the closest to an acceptable designation for their 1:32 models as "One Gauge" with the obvious reference to the heritage of #1 gauge track from the 19th century definition, or my personal preference for "#1 scale" or simply "OneScale".

the debate will likely continue.
cheers...gary

OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Suite 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
www.ogaugerr.com

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