why isn't 1/29th scale called An51?

1365 Views 39 Replies 20 Participants Last post by tacfoley, 5 d ago

NorthwestGarrattGuy

Discussion Starter · 3 mo ago

so obviously popular modeling scales have letters O, N, S, HO, etc and some large scales have there own letters for specific scale ratios like 1/20.3 F scale and 1/24 H scale, so why doesn't 1/29 and since the gauge is wrong make like Ow5 and assign An51 to it (A standing for either american or aristocraft and 51 standing for the number of scale inches)

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Tom Bowdler

· #21 · 3 mo ago

No! n denotes narrow gauge and 1:29 trains are standard gauge.
I had dinner several times with Lewis Polk and he thought the whole 1:29 vs 1:22.5 vs 1:32 thing was fun listening to the "debate".

largescale99

· #22 · 3 mo ago

Was nobody in this thread around when Aristo-Craft (or REA at that time) produced their first Large Scale boxcars in 1988?
There was no scale associated with those initially - just listed as compatible with gause 1 track.
The size chosen was to match the LGB narrow gauge boxcars to people would buy them to run with their LGB cars and the consist would look OK - just a good business decision.
That they were about scale 1:29 and advertized as such came later and that 1:29 scale just happened to be 3x HO scale even later.
Lewis latched onto that last fact and promoted it in their literature.

Pete Thornton

· #23 · 3 mo ago

NorthwestGarrattGuy said:
n51 denotes the off gauge since its 51 scale inches in 1/29th scale

I think you missed the definition - if you are modelling standard gauge (whatever your actual final track gauge) then the convention is that you don't use the 'n'.

tacfoley

· #24 · 3 mo ago

armorsmith said:
Food for thought ....

The majority of magazine articles,that include drawings, the drawings are frequently in HO scale (1:87). Has anyone noted that if you divide 87 by 3 it is 29? Coincidence or deliberate?

It was no doubt noted many moons ago by the late Mr Lewis Polk, who saw a way of using the many thousands of excellent locomotive drawings in Railroad Modeller as an easy way to drafting outlines drawings for his new scale. I wrote as much to Jonathon Polk about 30 years ago.....

Greg Elmassian

· #25 · 3 mo ago

Hard to tell the chronology, but the very first "Aristo" product was a scaled-up Lionel caboose.

So whether the "ah ha" of 1:29 was from this, or what largescale99 said, he picked a scale to match LGB, hard to know.

I believe it was upscaling of HO because his first product was upscaled.... the 1:24 stuff came later as he bought Delton, etc.

Greg

fredlub

· #26 · 3 mo ago (Edited)

2

largescale99 said:
Was nobody in this thread around when Aristo-Craft (or REA at that time) produced their first Large Scale boxcars in 1988?

Yes, I was around. I have an ASTER Bigboy which I bought in 1981. I had no track in the garden then and went to meets to run it and ran it with everything with wheels.

Train Motor vehicle Sunglasses Vehicle Goggles

Then the REA cars were introduced and a German distributor imported these in Europe, so I went to Germany to buy some. I always ran the flatcar as the first car after the locomotive since the boxcar was way too big. Then MTH came with his 1:32 line and I bought these and also found some other suitable cars like J&M and Row & Co. The REA cars went. The picture shows my Bigboy with the REA cars, the video shows it with the 1:32 cars.

Train Rolling stock Vehicle Track Railway

Regards
Fred (from Netherlands)

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SparkyJoe

· #27 · 3 mo ago

NorthwestGarrattGuy said:
i know but i like the idea of having letters for specific scale ratios

It's your railroad. Call it what ever you want. No one else will know what you are talking about or care, but if you are happy that's what counts. RIGHT?

Reactions: 2

edmonstoncleve

· #28 · 2 mo ago

So...I am running G gauge.(45mm track) with narrow gauge trains as in Bachmann Shay, Climax and LGB 2-6-6-2 Uintah. Question: What size should the figures be to look right? ie. How tall in inches/millimetres if you consider a man is 6 foot tall?

DetailsDetails

· #29 · 2 mo ago

Divide by 20.3 for Bachmann equipment and 22.5 for narrow gauge LGB

Reactions: 1

kormsen

· #30 · 2 mo ago

well a six foot man in 1:20.3 scale (F-scale) would be 92mm tall.
in scale 1:22.5 (two-scale/LGB-scale/G-scale) the same guy would reach 83mm.
for G-scale there are the pricey Preiser figures.
for big guys in G-scale, or smallish guys in F-scale you could try Schleich figures.

Reactions: 1

Pete Thornton

· #31 · 2 mo ago

kormsen said:
a six foot man in 1:20.3 scale (F-scale) would be 92mm tall.

Didn't someone say that is the size of a credit card? An easy way to check the height before a potential purchase!

kormsen

· #32 · 2 mo ago

Pete Thornton said:
Didn't someone say that is the size of a credit card? An easy way to check the height before a potential purchase!

i checked my credit card.
but it seems, that my credit isn't big enough for F-scale.
the card is only 87mm wide.

Ironton

· #33 · 2 mo ago

An 87mm height would make the figure 5ft 8in in 1:20.3 (assuming 92mm is 6 feet). Not a bad height. So a credit card does make a nice gauge for figures at that scale.

rwjenkins

· #34 · 26 d ago

Once upon a time I was thumbing through a book about British-built industrial locomotives, and stumbled across a picture of an 0-6-0T built for a cement works in India that was 4'3" gauge. So yes, 51" gauge was a thing, and it was considered narrow gauge (especially considering most Indian railways are 5'6" broad gauge). On 45mm track, you could model it accurately in 1:29 scale, and that would truly be "An51". It was an oddball industrial gauge though, so they weren't running any regauged Alco PAs or NYC Hudsons or UP Big Boys over there!

Doug C

· #35 · 7 d ago

Imho;

G-gauge; 1:20.3 ------ 1:32 scales (others inclusive)

K-i-S

Reactions: 1

fredlub

· #36 · 6 d ago

I just saw this 1:13 locomotive and car on 45 mm gauge. I am very happy that is is not given the name G gauge.

Train Wheel Plant Rolling stock Rolling

Regards
Fred

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tacfoley

· #37 · 6 d ago

edmonstoncleve said:
So...I am running G gauge.(45mm track) with narrow gauge trains as in Bachmann Shay, Climax and LGB 2-6-6-2 Uintah. Question: What size should the figures be to look right? ie. How tall in inches/millimetres if you consider a man is 6 foot tall?

Your Bachmann Shay and Climax are 1/20.3 scale. The LGB Uintah is ~1/22.5 but, at that scale, the track represents metre gauge.

tacfoley

· #38 · 6 d ago

Ironton said:
An 87mm height would make the figure 5ft 8in in 1:20.3 (assuming 92mm is 6 feet). Not a bad height. So a credit card does make a nice gauge for figures at that scale.

Here in UK we use the credit card standard for 16mm scale - IOW, 1/19th.

kormsen

· #39 · 5 d ago

tacfoley said:
Here in UK we use the credit card standard for 16mm scale - IOW, 1/19th.

here in paraguay we use them for paying.
hat, coat, door

tacfoley

· #40 · 5 d ago

kormsen said:
here in paraguay we use them for paying.hat, coat, door

Hah. Of course, I meant the main dimension of the card used as a height guide.

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