"N Scale" Becoming Looser & Looser?

[brill27mcb]

The real issue is that Model Railroader has brainwashed all American modelers that "gauge" is an inappropriate descriptor, and "scale" is appropriate. That works fine as long as one is America-centric. In N, the rest of the world talks about "N Gauge" and not "N scale." In N, the gauge is more universal (after all, the "N" stands for neun, nine, etc.), but the scale is not as universal. The issue gets more notice in the U.S. in N than in other gauges or scales, since our production sources in N are more limited and we Americans then resort to buying more products from non-domestic sources.

Rich K.

[loyalton]

N scalers have often bought aircraft and vehicles in the "untrue" scales. You should be asking the seller if there's any doubt as to being 1/160, if it's a concern. 1/160 is not a popular and established collectors scale for aircraft and vehicles.

[jimmo]

The real issue is that Model Railroader has brainwashed all American modelers that "gauge" is an inappropriate descriptor, and "scale" is appropriate. That works fine as long as one is America-centric. In N, the rest of the world talks about "N Gauge" and not "N scale." In N, the gauge is more universal (after all, the "N" stands for neun, nine, etc.), but the scale is not as universal. The issue gets more notice in the U.S. in N than in other gauges or scales, since our production sources in N are more limited and we Americans then resort to buying more products from non-domestic sources.

Rich K.

Brainwashed? The scale vs gauge issue had very little to do with N-scale (or gauge) but more to do with the emergence of various gauges within the scale. This all started with the larger scales, since we didn't have much narrow gauge in N until Z-scale came along. If this hadn't happened then today N-gauge would be really confusing since gauge has absolutely nothing to do with the scale of something. According to your logic we would be calling every use of 9mm track and mechanisms N-gauge--which makes absolutely no sense. Those old meanings of N are about as relevant as HO still meaning half O.

I guess I really am brainwashed.

[peteski]

Brainwashed? The scale vs gauge issue had very little to do with N-scale (or gauge) but more to do with the emergence of various gauges within the scale.

Now you have me confused. As I understand, there is only one N-gauge (9mm between insides of the rail heads) and there are several N scales running on N gauge track. Even larger scale's models of narrow gauge equipment runs on N gauge track.

[sp org div]

Silly me, and I thought it was all about selling more products to a wider marketing base....
A more casual tactic would be marketing rolling stock without specifying it as any particular model, but implied as to possible prototype.... oh sorry, back on topic.
Jeff
http://espeeoregondivision.blogspot.com/

[jimmo]

Now you have me confused. As I understand, there is only one N-gauge (9mm between insides of the rail heads) and there are several N scales running on N gauge track. Even larger scale's models of narrow gauge equipment runs on N gauge track.

I wasn't disputing that Pete, we all agree that N-gauge is 9mm in any circumstance.

I suppose we could all learn to change our ways and refer to what we model is 1/87 HO-gauge and (uuh, do we have a gauge name for 1/87 three foot gauge yet?) If we model 1/160 N-gauge (or any of the other flavors) and if we happen to model narrow gauge we can refer to it as 1/160 Z-gauge (I'm going to have 1/160 T-gauge as well). If we model Z we call it 1/220 Z-gauge.

Yea, that's much clearer. Damn brainwashing. Curse you Model Railroader...

[Doug G.]

The real issue is that Model Railroader has brainwashed all American modelers that "gauge" is an inappropriate descriptor, and "scale" is appropriate. That works fine as long as one is America-centric. In N, the rest of the world talks about "N Gauge" and not "N scale." In N, the gauge is more universal (after all, the "N" stands for neun, nine, etc.), but the scale is not as universal. The issue gets more notice in the U.S. in N than in other gauges or scales, since our production sources in N are more limited and we Americans then resort to buying more products from non-domestic sources.

Rich K.

Don't be silly and stop with the anti America crap. N scale was started in Germany by the K. Arnold company.

Doug

[garethashenden]

I wasn't disputing that Pete, we all agree that N-gauge is 9mm in any circumstance.

I suppose we could all learn to change our ways and refer to what we model is 1/87 HO-gauge and (uuh, do we have a gauge name for 1/87 three foot gauge yet?) If we model 1/160 N-gauge (or any of the other flavors) and if we happen to model narrow gauge we can refer to it as 1/160 Z-gauge (I'm going to have 1/160 T-gauge as well). If we model Z we call it 1/220 Z-gauge.

Yea, that's much clearer. Damn brainwashing. Curse you Model Railroader...

3 foot gauge 1/87 is commonly called HOn3. Really it should be HOn10.5, as the gauge is 10.5mm. Then there can be HOn9 instead of HOn30, Nn6.5 instead of Nn3, Nn3 instead of NnT, Zn3 instead of ZnT, and so on.
Unfortunately, changing would just confuse things further.

[jimmo]

3 foot gauge 1/87 is commonly called HOn3. Really it should be HOn10.5, as the gauge is 10.5mm. Then there can be HOn9 instead of HOn30, Nn6.5 instead of Nn3, Nn3 instead of NnT, Zn3 instead of ZnT, and so on.
Unfortunately, changing would just confuse things further.

My point exactly.

[jimmo]

Getting back to the original question Russ posed, is "N Scale" Becoming Looser & Looser? It's been like this for quite a while and from what I've seen it's not getting any looser. I say learn the differences and carry on.

[engineshop]

I've mentioned this before when some 1/150 cars were starting to be advertised as N scale and now I'm seeing stuff ranging from 1/144 to 1/170. I'm not a fan of this seemingly-increasing trend but I can live with it IF the item is clearly marked as 1/144 scale, for example, and not just "N scale". Thoughts?

I use this to my advantage. Models that 1/170 go in the background and the one in 1/144 in the front. It really looks great when you look down a long urban street.

[peteski]

Roland, where did you find 1:170 scale models?  I have never heard of those.

[Kisatchie]

Roland, where did you find 1:170 scale models?  I have never heard of those.

I did a Google search and came up with this:

https://www.google.com/search?q=1%2F170+scale+models&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a


Hmm... ooh, ooh, a model
of the Half Moon...!

[christoph]

I think for some European models there might be some confusion about scale.  The GM-build "class 66" and "class 77" are used in Britain and on "the continent".  Kato offers these locomotives in 1/160 scale, but these engines (or similar ones) are also made by the British company Dapol in 1/148 scale, and they are also offered as models of central European railway companies.

Since these are too modern for my era, I have not followed this in detail, but I think if someone mixes these models, it might look a bit strange.

[jimmo]

I use this to my advantage. Models that 1/170 go in the background and the one in 1/144 in the front. It really looks great when you look down a long urban street.

So where did you find 1/170 vehicles? According to Kisatchie's search your choices wouldn't work well on any urban street I know.