Choobacca Posted June 18, 2011 Share Posted June 18, 2011 Hi. I've just been looking around a model railway shop in Sheffield and noticed a very nice Bassett Lowke J39 'O' gauge locomotive. It reminded me of an 'O' gauge Lima LMS loco I had as a child over 30 years ago!So I was thinking, will 'O' gauge ever make a comeback? It might look big and bulky compared to 'OO' gauge, though there's something about this scale that looks very right.I think the tinplate wagons would probably only appeal to toy collectors, though plastic wagons could look just as realistic (if not more so) than 'OO' gauge rolling stock. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buz Posted June 18, 2011 Share Posted June 18, 2011 Hi Choobacca"O"scale hasn't gone away.Basset Lowke (Spelling) who are owned by Hornby make it RTR There are a number of brands of kit available for "O" scale wagons and coaches as well as locomotives also track.You can even buy brand new tinplate.It's less popular than it once was because of the space required for a decent layout.eg 16' X 8' will get you the same as 8' X 4' in OO scaleIt is also very expensive per unit which puts people off even though a practical layoutdoesn't cost any more in "O" to build a good layout.It will however require some scratch building at some point in layout constructionWhich in OO provided you like the same as every body else can be avoided.A well done "O" layout looks very realistic and you can see the smaller detailswhich in OO would be hard to see.In "O" you have to have all the small details or it looks toy like regards John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poliss Posted June 18, 2011 Share Posted June 18, 2011 Pete Waterman liked O Gauge so much he started his own company as aquick Google will tell you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bocaj Posted June 18, 2011 Share Posted June 18, 2011 I quite like it as th locomotives have alot of detail. The NRM York have a large, O Gauge layout that looks just as good as OO, still like OO the best though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FinnerZ Posted June 18, 2011 Share Posted June 18, 2011 While I remain an OO follower, I was very impressed by an O gauge layout belonging to a club member at my model railway club's Golden Jubilee exhibition. It showed a station (it turned into a fiddle yard giving the impression of a much longer station) and then a post sorting yard and building in 70's BR blue. There were DMUs, shunters and larger deisel locos, but the thing about using O gauge was that the DCC features were used to their maximum - exhaust fumes, very realistic sound, and even lights along the side of a breakdown train. It was built up above ground level and the larger scale allowed for more detail in things like badly parked cars and advertisments. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coolow Posted June 18, 2011 Share Posted June 18, 2011 I think O Gauge stock looks good handbuilt, but for that you need a steady hand (something I haven't got!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkyCube Posted June 18, 2011 Share Posted June 18, 2011 The Basset Lowke stuff only really does appeal to toy collectors I think, or people who collect/run old-school tinplate trains at any rate. Most modern O gauge isn't like that though, being very realistic, and only really indulged in by serious modellers. Like the others have said, it never went away, but is for "proper" modellers only. To build a decent-sized layout you will need large amounts of money, space and modelling/kit-building skills (either that or even larger amounts of money to have someone do the model-making for you).While most O gauge is kit based, there is more RTR stuff appearing on the market these days. Heljan have been putting out O scale RTR diesel locos and Mk1 coaches for a while now, but as you might imagine they're not cheap (something like £250 a coach). There are also a few small-time firms like Skytrex, L.H. Loveless and Golden-Age who make small ranges of even more expensive RTR stuff (An O scale Golden-Age A4 is about £2500).I don't think O gauge will ever "make a comeback" because it will always be more expensive than 00, at least in comparable levels of detail (which are higher for O, due to the larger size). Plus the space needed that most people simply do not have, and the extra modelling skills required to make the most of it.You're right that detailed O looks more realistic than 00, but it's also far more costly, in more ways than one! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bocaj Posted June 18, 2011 Share Posted June 18, 2011 As Skycube pointed out, O gauge is very exspensive and should be only modeled if you have enough space and money. It would probly be cheaper to build a small live steam layout than a O Gauge one Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Choobacca Posted June 19, 2011 Author Share Posted June 19, 2011 Sounds like O gauge is something of an acquired taste. I think I'll stick with OO and G. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cornish Triang Paul Posted June 19, 2011 Share Posted June 19, 2011 Dont write it off just because of cost or space. It depends upon what YOU want. Dont forget the garden too. I have just put some SM32 track in our allotment and whilst this restricts methods of power, i intend to use Live Steam and battery. Triang Big Big can get you started for less than £50 for a battery loco. You can have finescale or coarse or both, narrow or standard gauge etc etc. My most wanted will be a Heljan 26 in blue with Highland twin lights but thats a while away in release so it gives me time to save ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FinnerZ Posted June 19, 2011 Share Posted June 19, 2011 This is the layout I was talking about. It really is amazing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKQojJf0vgY Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LCDR Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Wise words CTP.I am rebuilding my garden railway this summer and would be out there now if it wasn't raining. Mine is Course Scale Three rail, and despite what was said earlier the Bassett Lowke models look very good in a garden setting. I bought some Lima mineral wagons the other day, perhaps if Hornby still had the moulds they could bring these back in the B-L range? Yes it can be expensive but you do get a lot of 'bangs for your bucks'. An 'O' gauge loco is 8 times bigger than a 'OO' one!Cornish Triang Paul said:Dont write it off just because of cost or space. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poliss Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Eight time bigger LC&DR? Are you sure? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkingthedog Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 O gauge won't make a comeback. It doesn't need to, it hasn't been away! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LCDR Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Yep, twice as wide, twice as long and twice as high. 2 x 2 x 2 = 8.poliss said:Eight time bigger LC&DR? Are you sure? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkingthedog Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 I think it's 4 times bigger than OO and 8 times bigger than N Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poliss Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Don't get all technicackle with me young man!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poliss Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Trust WTD to post between my posts. PP will be doing it next! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkingthedog Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 'young man' If you're referring to me poliss, I like your style. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
poliss Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Has the forum background been changed? Mine looks wishy washy now and the red reply button has moved to the bottom left of the box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LCDR Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 The volume is a cubic increase, and thus the weight and size of a three dimensional object increases in proportion as the product of multiplying each dimension. Actually as 'OO' is 4mm scale and 'O' is 7mm scale I will concede 5.36 times! It is however considerably chunkier! walkingthedog said:I think it's 4 times bigger than OO and 8 times bigger than N Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walkingthedog Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 I was thinking about height and length, forgot about the width. Must start thinking in 3D. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FinnerZ Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Correct - having just done my maths GCSE a few weeks ago, I can verify that as the track width is a linear dimention and volume is a volume dimention (as one would expect), the ratio has to be cubed - here OO:O is about 1:2 in track width so the loco volumes would be 1 cubed: 2 cubed = 1:8. If they are made of the same materials, then the density would remain the same and as density links to mass and voume, the mass of materials used would be 8 times as much.LC&DR said:The volume is a cubic increase, and thus the weight and size of a three dimensional object increases in proportion as the product of multiplying each dimension. Actually as 'OO' is 4mm scale and 'O' is 7mm scale I will concede 5.36 times! It is however considerably chunkier! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tamworth Stuart Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 The things that put me off are price and size. Your errors show up more in "O" gauge. OO all the way for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ozexpatriate Posted June 22, 2011 Share Posted June 22, 2011 /pedantic_mode=on/Ignoring irregularities caused by non-linear gauge and scale ratios, a more precise difference in size between 0 scale and 00 scale is ( 76.2 / 43.5 ) cubed = 5.375And of course we are really talking about 0 (zero) and 00 scales rather than O (Oh) and OO (Double-Oh). If you look closely you will see that Hornby uses 00 on the packaging.And, in anycase what exactly is either "0" or "O" scale?UK: 1/43.5 (7mm/')Europe: 1/45North America: 1/48/pedantic_mode=off/What a mess scales and gauges are! At least the North American O is a sensible quarter inch to the foot. This notion of mm per foot is such a bizzare invention, but it is what it is and we shall have to put up with it.British outline H0 anyone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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