Fast Tracks

Greetings,

I just read the discussion about c70 and c83 rail dimensions. That got me to thinking ( I have been warned no to do that but...) about what other surprises might be out there. Does anyone have a table of the various codes and the critical dimensions for each. For instance, to me at least, the thickness of the web would not be a critical dimension. The whole code - scale thing is bewildering.

Lew

on

http://www.nmra.org

and in particular on

http://www.nmra.org/standards/

you should find all the needed answers.[/url]

Thanks Gian. My new NMRA cd does not contain reference to H0n3. Tim Warris of FastTracks tells me that the NMRA website does have the information. Thanks again. - Lew

Remember. Code, Scale, and Guage are three seperate terms used in model railroading.

Code refers to the actual height of the model rail (ie code 70 = .070 inches high) Real rail is measured in pounds per yard in the U. S. (see NMRA RP-15.1 RAIL)

Scale is the ratio of the model size to prototype size (ie HO= 1:87 so 1 foot equals 87 feet)

Guage is the distance between the rails (standard, narrow)and the the numbers equals the inch measurement of the real thing (HOn3 equals three feet guage) Therefore, Nn3,HOn3, Sn3, and On3 are all the same guage in the different scales

Hope this help clear it up

Thanks The lionwiz.
The whole thing is much more clear now. Let's see if there is a mathematician among us that can calculate the permutations of the known scales, codes and gauges. I hesitate to mention my recent readings about kit bashing to make the body of a car "look better" using narrow gauge scale wheels on minute code rail. Wow; I guess I'll go back to just having fun with trains by building what ever comes to mind with what ever is at hand.

This has been fun; even, possibly informative to newbees.

Lew