Because at the start of life for this forum, January 2006, it is mainly for beginners I am only going to include the four main scales that are most freely available commercially in the United Kingdom. If you are already a reasonably skilled modeller in another branch of modelling, and are turning your attention to modelling railways, then there are more accurate scale/gauge combinations but much has to be made by hand and they are not really for the newcomer to modelling. You may notice that there are five sections below, not four. This is because the last one is not a different scale to the previous four but a combination of two of them.
At the bottom of this page you will see links to various sites and articles which will further help you.
The list will begin with the largest scale/gauge of the four mentioned above :
0 Gauge which is 7mm scale, 32mm gauge and 1:43.
There really isn't all that much commercial RTR (ready to run ) equipment made for this scale and what there is I find expensive, my pockets being fairly shallow at the best of times. There are many kits and component parts available in specialist shops and on the internet. Where 0 gauge really comes into it's own is in it's suitability for scratchbuilding and I have to admit that 0 gauge rolling stock makes a very impressive sight when seen in action and modelled by someone who knows what they are about. 0 gauge is of course well suited to the outdoors and makes a splendid addition to any garden. If your cheque book does extend to 0 gauge then there is a new flexible track from Peco which will make the life of a beginner much easier.
00 Gauge which is 4mm scale, 16.5mm gauge and 1:76
This is a British system only, although it has many followers in various parts of the world, especially Australia. The most common of the model railway scales in the UK. It is very well catered for commercially both on the RTR market and with kits of every description. This is the scale you will find in the 'train sets' that are bought every christmas for children all over the country. Boxed train sets can sometimes be a good buy for the modeller too, as occasionally the set is cheaper than if the different bits were bought separately. If, like myself, you live on the continent then everything has to be done through the post or over the internet from the UK.
H0 Gauge which is 3.5mm scale, 16.5mm gauge and 1:87
This is the scale that most of the rest of the world uses and you will notice that the gauge is the same as 00. This ratio of scale and gauge is more exact then 00. Very well catered for locos and rolling stock but with maybe fewer kits and component parts available in the UK. The USA and Europe has a dream market for H0. Trains in this scale will run quite happily on 00 gauge track and because the continental and American trains are bigger than ours a lot of the time the fact that they are built to a smaller scale, 3.5mm, will not be so obvious. Sounds ideal, I hear you say, why bother with 00 if H0 is more accurate and so many people use it? Good question but with an easy answer, H0 hardly caters at all for the British outline scene. You may well see the label 00/H0 on a boxed train and this means that the model inside the box will run on both 00 and H0 track but the model itself is built to a scale of 4mm, ie. 00.
N Gauge which is 9mm gauge and 1:148
This is the smallest of the scales we are going to be dealing with, although there are smaller. More and more equipment is coming on the market for this scale as it gains popularity in leaps and bounds. A couple of the main reasons for this is firstly it's size, you can get so much more in a given space with N gauge, and secondly the vast improvement in both the models themselves and their running qualities. The down side of this smallness is the more difficult task that scratchbuilders have in building locomotives and other rolling stock. In fact it may well be that N will overtake 00 in popularity as the space advantage is a very big one in this age of ever smaller houses. Personally I will stick with 00, both for it's larger models and the ease with which scratch building can be carried out.
Narrow Gauge :
Not confined to any particular scale or gauge but is a combination of two of them and is an increasingly popular area to be working in. Not really for the beginner but if you really, really like the look of it then why not. The two most popular narrow gauge combinations are probably 00/H0 on N gauge 9mm rails and gauge 0 running on 00/H0 16.5mm rails. There are kits available but not that many. When I say kits I mean for rolling stock , as narrow gauge is identical in all other respects with it's other scale brothers. This means that if you are modelling 4mm scale rolling stock on N gauge track then all else on your model is built to 4mm scale. The same goes for 0 gauge 7mm scale rolling stock on 00 16.5mm track, everything else is built to 7mm scale. One of the big advantages of these different scale/gauge combinations is that of space saving. If modelling in 0n30, for example, your scale is 7mm, which would normally be 0 gauge and taking up a lot of room, not to mention expense, however you will be using 16.5mm track so the space taken would be the same as if you were using 4mm 00 gauge.
Scales : A very interesting article from Wikipedia with short histories of the various scales. A good read. Scale & Gauge : A very useful page of information with a photograph to show the size difference between the popular scales. Scale Model Railroading : a good explanation of the difference between scale and gauge in model railroading. Scales - Understanding Them : A good article to read if you are not clear on this subject. Standard Scales - From the NMRA. Wheels - Standard Scales : Even though this is the American NMRA site it does cover most scales, including 00.
Scale & Gauge : Another great site from Australia which also gives prototype measurements.
Which Scale Is Best : Some thoughts from Stephen Chapman in Australia.
