1/18 train track and trucks question

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aferguson
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1/18 train track and trucks question

Post by aferguson » Thu Feb 09, 2012 3:11 pm

For anyone knowledgable about these things. I know there is nothing in 1/18 for trains and i believe that G gauge is the closest at 1/22.5.

I'm thinking of building a Leopold railway gun in 1/18-ish. I have a paper model kit i can scale up and use to make most of the gun. What i need are trucks (that is the train wheels the gun rests on) and track.

I think i found some reasonable track by LGB. They are 12 inch long sections and look to be about 3 inches wide? I'd need 8 of them. I also found some New Bright track that may be usable.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/8x-LGB-G-GAUGE- ... 23193d82f4

The bigger problem is the wheels to make the trucks or finding built up trucks themselves. Nothing seems to be very close to 1/18, which is not that surprising i guess given that it's all 1/22.5.

Any suggestions what i can use?
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Re: 1/18 train track and trucks question

Post by Ruger » Thu Feb 09, 2012 8:45 pm

I did some looking into the railroad thing a while back, and what I found was good news for me, but maybe not so much for you. As it turns out, 1 gauge track, that is, the track that "G" gauge trains use, is almost perfectly 1:32 scale, when compared to standard railroad track. In the real world, most railroads run on standard gauge, which is 4' 8.5" between the rails. Narrow gauge railroads, typically used in mountainous areas, logging, mining, or tourist/amusement applications are often 3' (in North America, 1 meter in Europe), though there are several other sizes used. As these railroads are usually isolated and not interconnected with other railroads, they can pretty much use whatever they want, as long as they are willing to make all of their equipment themselves, or have it custom made at higher prices. What this works out to is that 1 gauge track is suitable for modelling 1:32 scale normal trains, 1:22.5 scale European narrow gauge trains, or 1:20.3 North American trains.

Confused yet?

What does this mean for you? In a nutshell, it means you'd be better off modelling a rail gun in 1:32. To try to do it in 1:18 would be a disaster scalewise, as you'd basically have a 1:18 chassis on 1:32 trucks. You could try to explain that they were not 1:32 trucks, and that they were 1:22.5 scale European narrow gauge trucks, but then you'd need to come up with a reason why a rail gun would be built and used on, essentially, a logging railroad (as I'm sure your time period is before the construction of Disneyland Paris [which operates a narrow gauge railroad, though oddly enough I don't see it mentioned if it's 3' or meter gauge...]).

For reference, here's a list of some companies and their offerings/scales:
(list stolen from Wikipedia)

Wrightway Rolling Stock 1:32 and 10mm scale custom built British North American and European passenger stock.

Northern Fine Scale Stock in 10mm scale British only freight stock in kit form

Accucraft has five scales - Fn3 is 1:20.3, Gauge 1 is 1:32, their ½" scale is 1:24. They also build 1:29 scale North American models in live steam and electric under the AML brand, as well as British live steam and electric models in 1:19th scale [also called 16mm] and Isle of Man live steam and electric models in 1:20.3 scale - the Isle of Man uses three foot gauge track, the same width as the dominant US Colorado narrow gauge.

Aristo-Craft is 1:29, “Classic” series is 1:24

Aster is 1:32, 1:30 for Japanese prototypes and 1:22.5 for European and Japanese narrow gauge.

Bachmann's "Big Haulers" series is to 1:22.5, while their "Spectrum" Series is to 1:20.3 scale

Hartland Locomotive Works products are engineered to fit with 1:24 scale Narrow Gauge equipment and 1:29 Standard Gauge equipment.

LGB is 1:22.5

Märklin "MAXI" is 1:32

MTH Rail-King is 1:32

Piko is 1:27-1:29

USA Trains “Ultimate” Series is 1:29, “American” Series is 1:24

MV
"When I went into Kuwait I had 39 tanks, after six weeks of air bombardment, I had 32 left. After 20 minutes in action against the M1's, I had none." Iraqi BN Cdr, 1991
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PanzerArm
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Re: 1/18 train track and trucks question

Post by PanzerArm » Thu Feb 09, 2012 9:08 pm

Ruger wrote:I did some looking into the railroad thing a while back, and what I found was good news for me, but maybe not so much for you. As it turns out, 1 gauge track, that is, the track that "G" gauge trains use, is almost perfectly 1:32 scale, when compared to standard railroad track. In the real world, most railroads run on standard gauge, which is 4' 8.5" between the rails. Narrow gauge railroads, typically used in mountainous areas, logging, mining, or tourist/amusement applications are often 3' (in North America, 1 meter in Europe), though there are several other sizes used. As these railroads are usually isolated and not interconnected with other railroads, they can pretty much use whatever they want, as long as they are willing to make all of their equipment themselves, or have it custom made at higher prices. What this works out to is that 1 gauge track is suitable for modelling 1:32 scale normal trains, 1:22.5 scale European narrow gauge trains, or 1:20.3 North American trains.

Confused yet?

What does this mean for you? In a nutshell, it means you'd be better off modelling a rail gun in 1:32. To try to do it in 1:18 would be a disaster scalewise, as you'd basically have a 1:18 chassis on 1:32 trucks. You could try to explain that they were not 1:32 trucks, and that they were 1:22.5 scale European narrow gauge trucks, but then you'd need to come up with a reason why a rail gun would be built and used on, essentially, a logging railroad (as I'm sure your time period is before the construction of Disneyland Paris [which operates a narrow gauge railroad, though oddly enough I don't see it mentioned if it's 3' or meter gauge...]).

For reference, here's a list of some companies and their offerings/scales:
(list stolen from Wikipedia)

Wrightway Rolling Stock 1:32 and 10mm scale custom built British North American and European passenger stock.

Northern Fine Scale Stock in 10mm scale British only freight stock in kit form

Accucraft has five scales - Fn3 is 1:20.3, Gauge 1 is 1:32, their ½" scale is 1:24. They also build 1:29 scale North American models in live steam and electric under the AML brand, as well as British live steam and electric models in 1:19th scale [also called 16mm] and Isle of Man live steam and electric models in 1:20.3 scale - the Isle of Man uses three foot gauge track, the same width as the dominant US Colorado narrow gauge.

Aristo-Craft is 1:29, “Classic” series is 1:24

Aster is 1:32, 1:30 for Japanese prototypes and 1:22.5 for European and Japanese narrow gauge.

Bachmann's "Big Haulers" series is to 1:22.5, while their "Spectrum" Series is to 1:20.3 scale

Hartland Locomotive Works products are engineered to fit with 1:24 scale Narrow Gauge equipment and 1:29 Standard Gauge equipment.

LGB is 1:22.5

Märklin "MAXI" is 1:32

MTH Rail-King is 1:32

Piko is 1:27-1:29

USA Trains “Ultimate” Series is 1:29, “American” Series is 1:24

MV
Sorry to hijack for a second, but since Ruger knows so much about the subject of trains I have to ask him something. I have had this lingering curiosity floating around in my head wondering whether there are any 1/32 European trains out there. what I mean is, are there any trains, in 1/32 scale, that one would have come across in the ETO? Although i don't quite have the money for it now, at a later date I would like to explore the possibility of making a 1/32 kriegslokomotive with wartime cars; maybe with a 1/32 Jug making a pass on it :twisted:


-Kevin

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Re: 1/18 train track and trucks question

Post by Ruger » Thu Feb 09, 2012 9:29 pm

Panzer, I'm hardly an expert, I've just looked into it for my own desires a time or two. It's just that I prefer 1:32 modern, so I have my own struggles before me. Quick Googling revealed a British steam locomotive, wanna swap sides and have it strafed by some Germans?

British steam

Though it's actually steam powered, so I imagine quite pricey.

French, we're getting closer!

French steam

Here we go, German! Period too it would seem:

German

With "war gray" as a color option, and WWII stats

More German

You did say you were made of money, right?

MV
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Re: 1/18 train track and trucks question

Post by aferguson » Fri Feb 10, 2012 5:50 pm

ok so i found some bachmann G scale track which 1:20.3 scale trains run on. I measured the width and it appears to be a little over 2 inches, which is about 1/20.3 of 4 feet 8 inches. So, i could build my railway gun to 1/20 scale and have the track pretty much in scale with the gun. Correct? Or is the track overly narrow for 1/20.3 scale and the 1/20.3 scale trains that run on it have actually too narrow a stance for their wheels?

I guess what i want to know: is there any railroad track available that is about 3 inches wide, between the rails?

oh, and what about something like Lego train track? I've glanced at it before and it struck me as being wider than G gauge track. Know anything about it?
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Re: 1/18 train track and trucks question

Post by Ruger » Fri Feb 10, 2012 11:49 pm

When you say you measured it to be about 2", was that between the rails, or over all, ie; the ends of the ties?

"G" gauge track should be 1.772" between the rails, 1.765625 would be 1:32 scale, so you can see that those numbers are about spot on. The reason most LGB claims to be 1:20.3 scale, is because they model narrow gauge equipment, that is, trains that run on undersized track in real life. To my knowledge, there has never been a narrow gauged railgun (they would tend to be of little use, tactically or strategically).

I suppose one way to put it, is that by modelling oddly sized equipment, LGB can claim to be a different scale than it would first appear. Much like I could mix one of my 1:32 scale Jeeps in with your 1:18, and claim it was 1:18, it was just a 1:18 Jeep that the 1:18 Shriners used in parades.

Sorry, I can't speak to the Lego track, as I have no expeirence with it.

MV
"When I went into Kuwait I had 39 tanks, after six weeks of air bombardment, I had 32 left. After 20 minutes in action against the M1's, I had none." Iraqi BN Cdr, 1991
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Re: 1/18 train track and trucks question

Post by Ruger » Fri Feb 10, 2012 11:52 pm

Sorry, for got to add, it seems like what you'd want is track that is about 3.139" between the rails.

You know, for static display, you might be able to custom make your own... Make your own ties, and use "G" rails... Then find a way to widen some LGB trucks...

Hmmm....

MV
"When I went into Kuwait I had 39 tanks, after six weeks of air bombardment, I had 32 left. After 20 minutes in action against the M1's, I had none." Iraqi BN Cdr, 1991
[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v253/CanteenX/Blowing-Smoke-sig.jpg[/img]

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Re: 1/18 train track and trucks question

Post by aferguson » Sat Feb 11, 2012 6:26 am

that was actually my original thought....to just get rails and make my own ties, from popsicle sticks or something. But i haven't been able to find anywhere that i can just buy rail by itself. Only track.

Thanks for the explanation about 1/20.3....that clears alot up. New Bright also makes some train track that looks pretty large, i may check into that too.
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Re: 1/18 train track and trucks question

Post by pickelhaube » Sat Feb 11, 2012 7:26 am

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