Category:N gauge

The N Gauge model railway format uses 9mm-spaced track ("N" for "Nine"), and can use a range of scales for the railway superstructure. The modern format can be said to have appeared in around ~1960

Scale

N Gauge locos and rolling stock are produced in a range of sizes, from around 1:148 to 1:160, including "2mm to the foot" scale, which works out as ~1:152 (technically 1:152.4).

History

While various ~9mm-ish formats had been around for a while (the museum has an ancient Bing floor toy that seems to be 9mm), the closest commercial predecessor to N-gauge was probably 000-gauge (which one might expect to be one quarter of gauge 0, or around ~8.25mm track spacing).

Nominal 000-gauge was used for the Micromodels card railway model kits, and Lone Star produced push-along and electric 000-gauge sets in the 1950s, with the electric sets ("Treble-0-lectric", ~1960-) explicitly specified as using 9mm track spacing.

The first attempt to form an inter-manufacturer standard for 9mm gauge track seems to have come from Arnold in Germany, who introduced a 9mm system in 1960. Graham Farish were an early champion of the system, trying to capitalise on 9mm as their larger competitors focussed on the larger TT (Triang) system and the smaller Z scale (Märklin mini-club). Trix also produced a 9mm system (Minitrix) as a second scale to complement their existing 00-gauge Trix Twin Railway, and some of the Minitrix range was then sold by Hornby as Hornby Minitrix. Minitrix later became part of the Märklin range, in the 1990s.

Wrenn also sold an n-gauge sytem in the 1960s, manufactured by Lima.

External links

• N Gauge Forum (ngaugeforum.co.uk)
• N scale (wikipedia.org)

history:

• The History of N Gauge Train Sets (ngaugelayouts.com)
• N Scale History (dccwiki.com)

groups:

• N Gauge Society, NGS (newweb.ngaugesociety.com)
  • West Sussex 'N' Gauge MRC (wsng.co.uk)
• International N Gauge Show (ngaugeshow.co.uk)

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• "N Gauge Now" magazine (ngaugemodelling.co.uk)