geoff_nicholls
Western Thunderer
I first started talking about modelling Great Western broad gauge mainly to tease Unklian, but it appears I've been hoist with my own Petard, and can't stop thinking about it myself. What made it worse was having to walk past North Star every time I wanted a cup of tea, at the Swindon show, and the presence of Alma Street Quay and Chalfont.
So, I've been thinking through how one would go about producing a broad gauge micro layout, while I carry out the more menial tasks on my proper layout Aldeburgh Wharf.
I checked the Broad Gauge Society technical standards:
BGS - Standards
and found they take a pragmatic approach: using finescale standard gauge standards (EM, P4 and S7) and just increase the back-to-back by the difference in the gauges.
For gauge 3, if we assume 7' 01/4" equals 95mm then using the G3 soc standards:
Gauge 3 Society
The back-to-back is (95-63.5) + 58 or 89.5.
The current G3 flangeway standard is 3.5mm, which some think is a bit generous.
My own limited space, modelling indoors, means my curve radius is only 3 metres, which limits how much I could reduce the flangeway myself, perhaps it could be 3mm?
Has anyone else had any similar thoughts? And a question for existing BG modellers in other scales: is it just the same as standard gauge, but with longer axles, or is there some part of the geometry that makes it fundamentally different?
None of the above commits me to doing anything about actually producing any models, although I do have two 4 foot by 2 foot grainge and hodder boards sitting idle until GRS begin selling W and U carriages again.
So, I've been thinking through how one would go about producing a broad gauge micro layout, while I carry out the more menial tasks on my proper layout Aldeburgh Wharf.
I checked the Broad Gauge Society technical standards:
BGS - Standards
and found they take a pragmatic approach: using finescale standard gauge standards (EM, P4 and S7) and just increase the back-to-back by the difference in the gauges.
For gauge 3, if we assume 7' 01/4" equals 95mm then using the G3 soc standards:
Gauge 3 Society
The back-to-back is (95-63.5) + 58 or 89.5.
The current G3 flangeway standard is 3.5mm, which some think is a bit generous.
My own limited space, modelling indoors, means my curve radius is only 3 metres, which limits how much I could reduce the flangeway myself, perhaps it could be 3mm?
Has anyone else had any similar thoughts? And a question for existing BG modellers in other scales: is it just the same as standard gauge, but with longer axles, or is there some part of the geometry that makes it fundamentally different?
None of the above commits me to doing anything about actually producing any models, although I do have two 4 foot by 2 foot grainge and hodder boards sitting idle until GRS begin selling W and U carriages again.