Narrow gauge next to oo gauge railway

[richrua]

Hello folks:

 

Considering adding a little Irish narrow gauge line to my oo gauge layout.

 

Is this right:

 

I need to use N gauge track for Irish 3' narrow gauge to use on a oo gauge layout?

 

 

Thanks.

[jhb171achill]

009 is the same 9mm gauge but with narrow gauge sleeper spacing might look a lot better?

[minister_for_hardship]

It would be too small (N is 9mm) which it just about 2' gauge.

The correct one for 3' is 00n3. (12mm)

Edited January 17, 2014 by minister_for_hardship

[Broithe]

H0 + N dual-gauge rail is available.

 

 

Dual-gauge railways do exist in real life.

 

[minister_for_hardship]

Dual gauge didn't happen a lot in Ireland, Ennis and the LP&HC lines in Derry are the only ones I can think of.

[Garfield]

The Minister is correct... it's OOn3. HOm track (metre gauge in HO scale) equates to 3ft in 4mm scale, and Peco and Tillig produce it, so you don't have to fiddle around with hand-built trackwork if you don't want to.

 

You can also use TT gauge track but the sleepers won't look right.

Edited January 17, 2014 by Garfield

[jhb171achill]

You're quite right, minister - I had forgotten that. 00n3 or TT is indeed what's needed.

 

There was a lot of dual gauge track in Larne Harbour station at one time. After the last remaining bit of the Ballymena & Larne closed in 1950, fragments remained about the yard almost until its removal in the early 1960s.

 

At Strabane, one might have expected the same, but it was nit so, other than a wagon turntable. The Derry docks had a lot, and the RPSI's 0.6.0T "R H Smyth" had a narrow gauge chopper coupling set off centre on each buffer beam so that it could haul CDR or LLSR stick as well as NCC or GNR stock around the quays.

[Mayner]

I think the first question is whether its worth the effort of modelling the narrow gauge to the correct 3' gauge, whie running Irish broad gauge models on 4'1" narrow gauge track.

 

9mm gauge using Roco or Liliput rtr locos and stock before moving on to kits or scratch building is probably a better option than the more correct 12mm gauge to get something running. While the public lines were built to 3'' gauge a number of 2' & 2'6" gauge industrial and forestry lines were built some of which used off the peg British and Continental locos and stock.

 

Parkside-Dundas, Peco and other manufacturers produce OO9 loco, coach and wagon kits some of which are based on or similar to Irish locos and stock. Most of the locos are relatively simple whitemetal body kits that fit on rtr N Scale chassis

 

There are limited rtr options or donor chassis suitable for 12mm gauge. Branchlines and Backwoods Miniatures produced a number of loco, railcar and coach kits about 20 years ago, these were fairly complex brass and whitemetal kits. Chassis assembly is best described as watchmaking. Bemo produce high quality Swiss & German HOm locos and stock best stored in a safety deposit box than under the layout.

Edited January 19, 2014 by Mayner

[Maitland]

Worsley Works do a lot of etched brass for Irish 3ft gauge, in several scales. Including, I think 3mm scale, where 16.5mm is 5'6" (just a touch wide), and 9mm is 3' exactly. Now if we can just persuade Murphy Models to do a bit of shrinking...

[jhb171achill]

Surely, with such emphasis on producing the superb Irish r-t-r and kit models, there might be a case to be made for at least the production of a limited amount of scale 5ft 3 track and points?

[Horsetan]

....Bemo produce high quality Swiss & German HOm locos and stock best stored in a safety deposit box than under the layout.

 

I think there's only one BEMO HOm engine that sells for under £200. Everything else they make is some way over the £200 mark.

 

Even the very few RhB steam outline models they occasionally make retail for £300+ .....I should know; I made the mistake of shelling out for one. I was living on baked beans for months afterwards.