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Narrow Gauge - not Narrow Minded!

 

Let me tell you about one of the most confusing scales in the world. Every time I explain it to someone they just cannot wrap their heads around it! Let me introduce you to a scale called "O-16.5" scale." This scale was designed specifically for narrow gauge track and locos/rolling stock to fit in scale with O gauge locos/track/rolling stock. Take a look at this picture here. If you work in O Gauge and have a Lionel Thomas but wanted to make a custom narrow gauge engine that was in scale with Thomas, you would have to use O-16.5. 

What you see here is a custom Skarloey model in O-16.5. Notice how he sits and runs on HO/OO track... yet his is significantly taller and wider than literally any HO/OO model train on the market. O GAUGE NARROW GAUGE MODELING IS NOT HO SCALE. It just so happens the rail width between O-16.5 and HO/OO scale is exactly the same. But if I wanted this picture to look more accurate and realistic, I would have to swap out Bachmann's black EZ Track as shown in the picture with regular HO track, removing every other sleeper. 




I have two different "work in progress" custom builds of O-16.5 narrow gauge models: Talyllyn and Dolgoch. Or, respectively, Skarloey and Rheneas. These are not models I built. I found thes eon Ebay. All I did was begin the painting process. But these still very much remain 40% complete. Notice how some of their details are warped/caved in or missing. This is because these were assembled white metal kits, where every detailed was to be soldered or super glued. These are fragile little things. Because the original builder did such a good job with them, I did not want to paint them in bright orange or maroon like their TVS versions. I instead went for a red livery which resembles their appearance in "The Railway Series", the books from the 40's that the Thomas franchise is based upon.

These two are non-runners. For the time being, Skarloey is using a chopped up Hornby 0-4-0 chassis (not his correct wheel arrangement but this is just a doner) and Rheneas, while having a completed chassis, is not motorized. I am unsure if I will ever finish these models. They are quite daunting and expensive to complete. But, I am happy to have them for now just so Thomas has something else to interact with on the layout. Great little trains, indeed.

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