Information for Model Railroaders

Information for Model Railroaders

Updated: March 26, 2005

Railroad and Model Railroad Terms
Measurements, Standards and Practices
Important or Interesting Railroading Dates

Terms*

* as used in North America

Gauge

the distance between the rails; this word has a complex usage in modelling and in the prototype.

Standard Gauge refers to track that is 4'8.5" between the railheads.

Narrow Gauge refers to track that is narrower between the rails than this. For example, a number of minng railroads and lumber railroads laid track that was 3' or less between the rails, typically because it was cheaper to build, requiring a narrower roadbed

"in gauge" refers to the wheels of model railroad equipment being correctly adjusted to the proper distance between the wheels

a "gauge" usually refers to a device used to ensure trackage and wheels are "in gauge". One such device is made by the NMRA.

NMRA

National Model Railroaders Association

Prototype

the real object in the real world, e.g., a prototype locomotive is a full-sized, actual locomotive, not a model

Scale

indicates how large a model is in relation to the prototype, for example, N scale is 1:160. This means that an object 160 feet long in real life would be modelled as 1 foot long in N scale.

Scale	Proportion
O	1:48
S
HO	1:87
TT
N	1:160
Z	1:220

Note that scales are different in different places, for example, British N scale is 1:148 and Japanese N scale is 1:150 while Continental Europe and American N scale is :160

Measurements, Standards & Practices

Weighting freight cars for N Scale: a. Inches multiply car length in inches by 0.15 oz per inch then add 0.5 oz
e.g., for a 3" boxcar -> (3 x 0.15) + 0.5 = 0.95 oz; b. Metric multiply car length in mm by 0.17 g per mm then add 14 g
e.g., for a 75 mm boxcar -> (75 x 0.17) + 14 = 26.75 g; c. Prototype length

Prototype length (feet)	Metric (g)	US (oz)
25	22	0.80
33	25	0.85
40	27	0.95
50	30	1.10
57	32	1.15
85	41	1.45

Important or Interesting Dates

Year	Event
1956	PGE reaches Vancouver from Squamish on June 11, 1956
1970	Chicago, Burlington & Quincy (CB&Q), Great Northern (GN), Northern Pacific (NP), and Seattle Portland & Spokane (SP&S) railroads became Burlington Northern (BN) on March 10, 1970
1972	Pacfic Great Eastern (PGE) became British Columbia Railway (BCR) on April 1, 1972
1975?	Conrail formed 1976?: AMTRAK formed from ....
1982	Western Pacific became part of Union Pacific (UP)
1986	Milwaukee Road became part of Soo Line
1993	Chicago North Western (CNW) became part of Union Pacific (UP)
1997	Southern Pacific(SP) became part of Union Pacific (UP)
1997?	Burlington Northern (BN) and Santa Fe (SF) became BNSF
1998	Conrail split up by Norfolk Southern and CSX in August 1998

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