Broad Gauge in N?

Meiriongwril

Member
Mar 1, 2006
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Lafayette, Lousiana
Has anyone tried modeling broad gauge in N?
There are a range of possibles: 5'3", 5'6", 7'0.25" etc.
The last of these (e.g. Brunel's 7 foot broad gauge in England) would look most impressive...!
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pgandw

Active Member
Jul 9, 2005
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Modeling broad gauge in almost any common scale requires building just about every critical item for an operational model railroad from scratch - locomotive mechanisms, track, trucks and wheel sets. That's why most folks going after an unusual prototype gauge will pick a functional gauge, and actually adapt the scale to suit the gauge.

The best example of this practice is G. The G gauge is the common track gauge for a number of different scales to represent various prototype gauges using the same model gauge. At 1/32, G gauge is correct for standard gauge track. LBG used 1/22.5 on the same track to represent European meter gauge. And a sizeable contingent (including Bachmann) uses 1/20.3 to use G track to correctly represent 3ft gauge. Interestingly enough, G track would be just about spot on for your 7ft broad gauge in O (1/4") scale.

The closest bigger track gauge to N with any commercial support is HOn3 at 10.5mm gauge. At 1/160 scale, 10.5mm represents 5ft 6" gauge quite accurately. The HOn3 wheels would probably not be too grossly oversize for N scale broad gauge, so this might be a workable combination. I don't see any other viable combinations in N scale. Sn3 track, the next commercial gauge up, would be 90" or 7.5ft. And the Sn3 wheel sets would be huge in N scale.

my thoughts, your choices