Finescale

Temporary page for "experimentation"... more...

Home
Catalogues & Magazines
Finescale
G Gauge
HO Gauge
N Gauge
O Gauge
OO Gauge
Other Trains/ Railway Models
TT Gauge (3mm Scale)
Trains/ Railway Models
Z Gauge

...

Scale Standards

NEM

MOROP (The European federation of national model railway associations) is a European organisation which publishes NEM-standards. NEM-standards are used by model railway industry and hobbyists in Europe. The standards are published in French and German and both versions have an official status. Unofficial translations in English from third parties exist for certain NEM-standard sheets.

Model railway scales and gauges are standardized in NEM 010, which covers several gauges for each scale. Narrow gauges are indicated by an additional letter added after the base scale as follows:

no letter = standard gauge (prototype: 1250 - 1700 mm); m = metric gauge (prototype: 850 - 1250 mm); e = narrow gauge (prototype: 650 - 850 mm); i = industrial (prototype: 400 - 650 mm);

For instance, a metric gauge model railway in H0-scale would be designated H0m. In German text letter 'f' (stands for Feldbahn) is sometimes used instead of 'i'. Letter 'e' is derived from the French word 'étroit' which translates to 'narrow'.

NMRA

NMRA (National Model Railroad Association) standardized the first model railway scales in the 1940's. NMRA standards are used widely in North America and by certain special interest groups all over the world. To some extent NMRA and NEM standards are compatible, but in many areas, the two standards specify certain model railway details in somewhat incompatible ways for the same scale.

There are two NMRA standard sheets where the scales have been defined. NMRA standard S-1.2 covers the popular model railway scales and S-1.3 defines scales with deep flanges for model railways with very sharp curves or other garden railway specific design features.

In certain NMRA scales an alternative designation is sometimes used corresponding the length of one prototype foot in scale either in millimetres or in inches. For instance, 3.5 mm scale is the same as HO. It should be noted that for HO and O -scales, NMRA uses letter 'O' whereas NEM uses number zero ( H0 instead of HO ).

NMRA has defined alternative, more prototypical, track and wheel system standards in standard sheet S-1.1 for the purposes of reproducing the prototype proportions in scale model more realistically. These model railway standards are based on the full size prototype standards and the scale model operational reliability is therefore reduced in comparison to the models conforming to the normal NMRA standards. Proto and Finescale rails and wheels are generally not compatible with the normal scale model railway material with the same scale ratio.

Read more at Wikipedia.org