Giants, Midgets, And In-Betweens

When a hobby has well over half a million devotees, you can be sure that manufacturers will supply them with an infinite variety of equipment. You can make your choice from all kinds and sizes of model trains, in a wide price range. There are pull trains for toddlers, clockwork wind-up trains, even large "live-steam" trains, usually for out-door layouts. But we are concerned here with the great majority of model trains sold and used today—electric trains.

Even in this field there is wide variety, but the point that will probably concern you first is size. The basic factor in determining the size of model trains is their gauge, or the distance between the inside edges of the track rails. The gauge on most real railroads is four feet, eight and a half inches, although the early days of rail-roading saw a wide variety of gauges before this standard was accepted. Where did this measurement come from?

Nobody really knows, but it is very ancient. Ruts worn into the stone highways of ancient Rome prove that the distance between the wheels of Roman carriages was four feet, eight and a half inches. And the Romans took the measurement from a civilization older than theirs.

In model trains, the first gauges were decided upon just because a manufacturer thought a particular measurement was convenient. Several gauges soon became standardized, but in the early days of model  railroading—which began just after real railroading began—most of the gauges were quite large, judging by present-day trains. The chief gauges were given numbers: O gauge meant 1 1/4inches between the rails, Number One gauge 1 3/4 inches, Number Two gauge 2 inches. One of the most commonly used was Standard gauge, 2 1/8 inches between rails. Some trains had tracks even larger than this.

In time the large gauges became increasingly unwieldy. Track layouts, locomotives, cars, and other equipment took up so much room that only people with big unused barns could use them, unless they constructed outdoor pikes. As real railroads lengthened and lowered their cars, the manufacturers of the big-gauge models could not keep pace. They could not make their trains look anything like real trains without making locomotives and cars ridicu- lously long. If a manufacturer of Standard gauge (there are none any more) should try to produce an accurate model of a new Santa Fe three-unit diesel, he would have to make it seven and a half feet long!

One by one the larger gauges were abandoned and smaller gauges started. O gauge, which was once the small- est, is now the largest regularly manufactured. A smaller gauge that met with favor for some time was called OO, although this designation was given to several different sizes at one time or another. In America, OO gauge came to mean 94 of an inch between the rails, but it is no longer manufactured. Its place has been taken by two gauges, one slightly smaller, one slightly larger. These are HO (mean-ing Half O) with a gauge measured originally in millimeters but called % inch in this country, and S, standing for Scale because it was well adapted for accurate scale mod-
eling. S gauge is one-half of the old Number One gauge and measures % inch between rails. Finally, the smallest gauge of all being made today is called TT  (for Table Top) and measures one-half inch between the rails. Thus the battle of the gauges has settled down to the four pre- dominant sizes shown in Fig. 2—O, S, HO, and TT, with O losing ground because of its size and TT still such a new- comer that it has made little headway.

There are minor variations in these four gauges. Some model railroaders go in for oldfashioned narrow-gauge railroading; some standard gauges offer variety in the curvature of the tracks. But these are minor points that will not be considered by most hobbyists, who prefer a size for which they can get plenty of standard parts and accessories.

It is obvious that the larger the gauge the more space a layout takes up. Or, to put it another way, the smaller the gauge the more trackage you can lay out in a small area.

In these days of limited space this would seem to lead us immediately to the smallest gauge. But here we encounter several problems. One involves accuracy in scale model-ing. Scale is another way of measuring trains and is, or should be, closely related to gauge. Since O gauge, for example, is 1 1/4 inches between rails, which is   approximately 1/48of real train gauge, then everything else in a model train should be 1/48 of the original, or prototype. The cars and locomotives should be 1/48as long and 1/48as high as real cars and locomotives. Stations, billboards, bridges, and figures of people, should all be 1/48 of the size of their prototypes. Thus, 1/4inch in O-gauge
items should represent one foot of the original.

In S gauge, the scale is 8/16inch per foot, so everything is 1/64 of prototype size. HO gauge has a scale of 1/8inch per foot and equipment about 1/96the size of real equipment. TT's scale is 1/10inch per foot, making its locomotives, cars, etc., about 1/120the size of prototypes.

Here you can see the difficulties clearly. In TT, for instance, a locomotive only 1/120the size of a real locomotive is a real midget. A typical switch engine would be about eight inches long, and a caboose a little more than three inches long, barely over an inch high. While things are very cute in this miniature size, they are so tiny that they can hardly be handled. There is room for only a little detail work on locomotives and cars, and a good deal of this must be done under magnifying glasses. Therefore, although the smallest gauge has the advantage of taking up the least space, many people find it too small.

On the other hand, look at O gauge. A big, three-unit diesel loco would have to be almost five feet long to be in accurate scale—without its cars. With cars attached, if they were in perfect scale, too, the engine would be nudg- ing the caboose on an ordinary oval of track. That's why the manufacturers of O gauge had to compromise, had to foreshorten their locomotives and cars until they had a boxy, sawed-off look, as shown in Fig. 3. Until ten or fifteen years ago, not many people seemed to care, because they looked upon electric trains as toys and nothing more. But model trains were proving themselves far more than toys, as thousands of men and boys made them into a fascinating hobby of great potentialities. These potentialities could not be realized, however, with trains that were so badly proportioned that they scarcely resembled real railroad trains. With trains out of scale, people were not stimulated to build realistic layouts, buildings, and scenery. Their imaginations were not fired to undertake those tasks that, because they required care and precision, gave all the more pleasure in the accomplishment.

At this point, HO-gauge trains and equipment came along, caught on immediately, and grew in popularity, chiefly with adult hobbyists of some skill with tools and detail work. HO offered accuracy, proper proportions, realism—qualities that more and more people demanded. It gave realistic two-rail track instead of the old toy-train three-rail track, unlike any real railroad. And it gave people a chance to make extensive and interesting layouts in a moderate amount of space.

There were problems connected with HO, however. Most of its locomotives, cars, and other equipment were put out in kit form and had to be assembled by the owner.

Ties and track had to be laid separately, switches made. All this required a fair degree of experience and skill, plus a good supply of special tools. One current book begins by listing forty separate items that an HO hobbyist should own.

In spite of these drawbacks for the ordinary person, HO filled an  important need among hobbyists and gave im- petus to the demand for accuracy in model railroads. This demand from the buying public was part of a general movement toward realism and proper proportions in toys and miniatures. People insisted that cars, trucks, planes, and miniatures of old-time autos be accurate as to scaling, color, and detail. Even youngsters became highly critical and were scornful of reproductions that were false, out of proportion—distorted replicas of the originals.

Thus, along with the demand for model trains that took up less space came the demand for greater accuracy. Ob- viously people could not get both in O gauge for normal home use. A few elaborate layouts in large homes and model railroad clubs used O gauge in accurate scale, but the owners also laid their own two-rail track and made their own locomotives and cars, which was out of the ques- tion for most people. Model railroaders could get both accuracy and space saving in HO, but here they needed skills and equipment not possessed by the majority of those wanting to enjoy the hobby without making a business of it. This situation called for the creation of a new gauge, between O and HO. It was called S, and was small enough to allow for accurate scale modeling without taking up too much space, large enough to handle easily. It was made into complete train sets like O-gauge trains, so that the owner could put together his track and get a train running in a few minutes. It had two-rail track for realism, ran on alternating current for convenience. In addition to a complete line of parts and accessories, kits were soon being manufactured by different companies for the skilled hobbyist who liked to make many of his own cars and other items of equipment. The popularity of S-gauge trains began to increase considerably.

This brings us to another distinction between trains— the difference between complete trains and their equipment and the trains made up from kits containing the parts that must be put together. The common terms for these two types are tinplate and scale, but those words no longer convey the meanings they used to. The first, and for many
years the only, model trains were called tinplate because the rails and many metal parts were made of thin steel plated with tin to keep it from rusting. The trains were completely finished by the manufacturer, with locomotives, cars of different types, and sections of track that could be fitted together.

For many years these tinplate trains were reasonably accurate as to scaling. So long as real locomotives and cars were short and stubby, the makers of O-gauge tinplate could reproduce them. When real trains were stream- lined, long and low, O-gaugers could not match these changes. That is why, during the 1920's and 1930's, tinplate trains acquired their sawed-off look. That's when the demand for accuracy grew loud and HO kits appeared, with two-rail track and direct-current motors. Naturally, such trains were called scale trains because the emphasis was on the accuracy of scale proportion and detail, on realism, on fidelity to prototype.

Just as irons to press clothes are no longer made of iron, and ivories on piano keys are now usually made of plastic, but both original names have been retained, so the terms tinplate and scale are still used to refer to two different kinds of model trains. But since many tinplate trains are as accurately scaled as so-called scale trains, a new term is coming into use which distinguishes between the two types by describing the one feature which actually is different—the height of the rail. Thus hi-rail is fast replacing tinplate to describe most complete trains using sectional track and alternating current.

Hi-railers, or tinplaters, outnumber scale modelers about five to one because of the convenience in portability and changeability of sectional track, the possibility of buying completed trains and enjoying them without long hours of preliminary work, plus the accurate scaling to be found in the smaller tinplate trains.

Recently one of the country's largest manufacturers of electric trains has introduced a line of HO trains, com- plete rather than in kit form, using sectional track and direct current. Thus the advantages of HO's small size has been brought to model railroaders who do not want the tedious work of assembling cars and locomotives before enjoying operations on their pikes. An automatic rerailer has eliminated another handicap of HO—the difficulty of fitting the tiny wheels on the track, especially troublesome for children.

The same manufacturer has for many years produced accurate S-gauge trains, faithfully scaled and with the realism of flat-top two-rail track like that on real rail-roads. For anyone interested in making his model pike realistic in appearance, this is a most important consider- ation. As the magazine Model Railroader wrote as far back as 1949: Twelve years ago three-rail power distribu- tion and control was THE standard for model railroaders all over the country. . .. Today, very few three-rail layouts are in existence. Manufacturers have standardized on two- rail for their kits. . . . Two-rail has been so simplified that even the amateur can understand it.

When you look at the different sizes and makes of model trains, as you should before buying your first train, you will probably agree that two-rail track and accurate scaling are important for your future enjoyment and im- provement of your model pike. Take into consideration, also, the amount of space you may have available, your skill and equipment in tools, and whether you want to enjoy running your trains from the very beginning, while you are building up your railroad system. Most people will then select finished trains with sectional track, either S gauge or HO.

Since S gauge is of moderate size, between O gauge and HO, it seems to meet most of the requirements for the greatest number of beginners. For that reason, this book uses S-gauge hi-rail trains as the standard in giving measurements. Most of what it discusses about table building, landscaping, accessories, and operations applies just as well to trains of other sizes. You can translate the measure- ments given here to those of other gauges; for instance, for HO, take 3/4of an S-gauge measurement and you will be all right.

When you have decided what size and make of train to buy, there are still other choices confronting you. Will your locomotive be steam or diesel? Will your first cars make up a passenger train or a freight?

These are personal selections, and no one can decide for you. Some people prefer diesel locos (Fig. 4) because most real locos today are diesels. On the other hand, many model railroaders will have nothing but steam engines (Fig. 5) because they show more moving parts, more ac- tion, with rods, drivers, smoke, sound. And as for authenticity, steam engines made the railroads great. All the glamour and romance of railroading are associated with steam locomotives. There are good reasons for both types, and manufacturers offer each kind in many sizes and prices. It's up to you and your personal taste. In time, of course, you may have both, as some railroads still do.

Passenger or freight? For many years passenger trains led in popularity, but recently freight trains have taken the lead, probably because of the variety offered in shapes, sizes, and colors of freight cars. A good deal of action is possible with freight cars, too—loading and unloading coal, logs, automobiles, cattle, scrap iron. Hobbyists who enjoy complicated train operations on a big layout often prefer freights because they are so busy and bustling, picking up cars, dropping them, shunting others from siding to siding. On the other hand, there is nothing much more exciting than the long, sleek passenger train that sends all freights scurrying for sidings as it flashes through to the big city.

Whatever your first choice, passenger or freight, don't feel that you have to stick to them exclusively. When you buy additional cars, go in for variety, and don't hesitate to mix them up. Real railroads do. The famous passenger trains would not dream of associating with a freight car, of course, but most of the trains of the country are more sociable, doing the work that needs to be done along with other working cars. On locals and short-line railroads, you'll see one coach, a baggage car, and two or three box-cars. You will see shiny, streamlined Pullmans in line with the older-type passenger car in dark green or maroon. If the railroads can do it, so can you. Buy the train you want and add the cars and accessories that will give you the most pleasure.

Anyway, you have your first train. Let's set it up, get it running, and learn a few more details about how it works.

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