51. February 2009 - Interlude - Georgeous Shay!

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

Another logging engine - my real favourite.

Really good detail and it looks wonderful in motion......

Unfortunately I do not own it. Sniff.

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

By the way - anyone want to try guess the scale here?

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

No guesses yet. Derek?

[Craig Duckham]

HOn3

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

Craig - warm!

[Craig Duckham]

The is is the Bachmann On30 Shay

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

Spot on! And was considering giving you a hint! Clearly not required!

A great little model, especially when repainted and weathered.

[Kevin Wilson-Smith]

I know someone is going to ask - what are all these scales?

I get confused all the time......

Well, On30 uses the American O scale of 1/4" to the foot, (ratio 1:48) to operate trains on HO gauge (16.5 mm gauge) track.

The 30 indicates the scale/gauge combination is used to model 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) (30") narrow gauge prototypes, although it is often used to model 2 ft (610 mm) and 3 ft (914 mm) gauge prototypes as well.

Just to confuse matters, this scale/gauge combination is sometimes referred to as On2½.

HOn3 uses 10.5 mm gauge to reprisent 3 foot gauge railways.

I think HOn3 is a ratio of 1/87, while On30 is 1/48. Good news for modellers of the latter are the the current rage for 1/48 military scale models, which can provide a nice range of useful vehicles and people.

[John Ashworth]

What would they call using Z gauge track (6 mm) for N scale models? That might look good for South African models, although the track would be a little narrow, I think. It would be more exact for Kenyan metre-gauge.