HOME





Protofour
Protofour or P4 is a set of standards for model railways allowing construction of models to a scale of 4 mm to (1:76.2), the predominant scale of model railways of the British prototype. For historical reasons almost all manufacturers of British prototype models use OO gauge (1:76.2 models running on gauge track). There are several finescale standards which have been developed to enable more accurate models than OO, and P4 is the most accurate in common use. The P4 standards specify a scale model track gauge of for standard gauge A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the ... railways. Joe Brook Smith was the first to propose use of an exact scale track gauge in July 1964, when also the term ''Protofour'' was invented by Malcolm Cross. The standards were later published ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

OO Gauge
OO gauge or OO scale (also, 00 gauge and 00 scale) is the most popular standard gauge model railway standard in the United Kingdom, outside of which it is virtually unknown. OO gauge is one of several 4 mm-scale standards (4 mm to , or 1:76.2), and the only one to be marketed by major manufacturers. The OO track gauge of (same as the 1:87 HO scale) corresponds to prototypical gauge of , rather than standard gauge. However, since the 1960s, other gauges in the same scale have arisen – 18.2 mm ( EM) and 18.83 mm ( Scalefour) — to reflect the desire of some modellers for greater scale accuracy. Origin Double-0 scale model railways were launched by Bing in 1921 as "The Table Railway", running on track and scaled at 4 mm to the foot. In 1922, the first models of British prototypes appeared. Initially all locomotives were powered by clockwork, but the first electric power appeared in 1923. "OO" describes models with a scale of 4 mm = 1 foot (1:76) ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


4 Mm Scale
4 mm scale is the most popular model railway scale used in the United Kingdom. The term refers to the use of 4 millimeters on the model equating to a distance of 1 foot (305 mm) on the prototype (1:76.2). It is also used for military modelling. For historical reasons, a number of different standards are employed. Standard gauge Three different gauges are used for modelling standard gauge railways in the United Kingdom. OO gauge OO gauge uses 4 mm scale with 16.5 mm gauge track, which is inaccurately narrow since it is correct for HO scale (1:87.1). It is the most popular standard in the UK for 4 mm scale trains and is produced by the two main manufacturers in the UK. The traditional standard for wheels and track is a very coarse one with extremely oversize rails and flanges; in recent years, some manufacturers have switched to using the American National Model Railroad Association HO standard S-4 instead. EM gauge EM was originally defined to use 18m ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Rail Transport Modelling Scales
Rail transport modelling uses a variety of scales (ratio between the real world and the model) to ensure scale models look correct when placed next to each other. Model railway scales are standardized worldwide by many organizations and hobbyist groups. Some of the scales are recognized globally, while others are less widespread and, in many cases, virtually unknown outside their circle of origin. Scales may be expressed as a numeric ratio (e.g. 1/87 or 1:87) or as letters defined in rail transport modelling standards (e.g. HO, OO, N, O, G, TT and Z.) The majority of commercial model railway equipment manufacturers base their offerings on '' Normen Europäischer Modellbahnen'' (NEM) or National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) standards in most popular scales. Terminology Although '' scale'' and '' gauge'' are often confused, ''scale'' means the ratio between a unit of measurement on a model compared with a unit of measurement in corresponding full size prototype, whi ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Model Railroad Scales
Rail transport modelling uses a variety of scales (ratio between the real world and the model) to ensure scale models look correct when placed next to each other. Model railway scales are standardized worldwide by many organizations and hobbyist groups. Some of the scales are recognized globally, while others are less widespread and, in many cases, virtually unknown outside their circle of origin. Scales may be expressed as a numeric ratio (e.g. 1/87 or 1:87) or as letters defined in rail transport modelling standards (e.g. HO, OO, N, O, G, TT and Z.) The majority of commercial model railway equipment manufacturers base their offerings on '' Normen Europäischer Modellbahnen'' (NEM) or National Model Railroad Association (NMRA) standards in most popular scales. Terminology Although '' scale'' and ''gauge'' are often confused, ''scale'' means the ratio between a unit of measurement on a model compared with a unit of measurement in corresponding full size prototype, while ' ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Finescale Standard
Finescale standards or Fine Standards are model railway standards that aim to be close to the prototype dimensions. Reduction in toylike, overscale flanges, pointwork, etc. In Britain it is particularly used because small British prototypes meant that track gauge is underscale. Modelling to finescale standards requires skill, so modellers usually start with the coarse standards applied to ready-to-run models suitable as toys. Standards are set by modellers' societies. Finescale model railway standards * ScaleSeven (7 mm scale, O gauge) * EM gauge (4 mm scale, 18.2 mm gauge) * P4 (4 mm scale, 18.83 mm gauge) * Proto:48 (1/4 inch scale) * Proto:87 (H0 scale HO or H0 is a rail transport modelling scale using a 1:87 scale (3.5 mm to 1 foot). It is the most popular scale of model railway in the world. The rails are spaced apart for modelling standard gauge tracks and trains in HO. The ...) * 3 mm finescale * 2 mm finescale * O14 (7 mm scale, 14 mm gauge ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


EM Gauge
EM gauge (named after the track gauge of a nominal Eighteen Millimetres) is a variant of 4 mm to a foot (1:76) scale used in model railways. EM was developed because OO gauge, favoured by manufacturers of British prototype models, utilised track that was too narrow. OO was developed in the UK in the 1930s as a response to manufacturers finding they were unable to fit the motors of the time into British prototype small boilered locomotives when scaled at the globally popular HO scale's 3.5 mm to a foot (1:87). As the scale was increased to 4 mm to the foot to make the locomotives larger, the track gauge was left at , and hence is too narrow (by a scale ) to correctly depict the prototype's track gauge of . EM gauge was founded in the 1950s, originally with gauge track and rolling stock wheelsets based upon the crude and massively out-of-scale products of the contemporary OO model manufacturers. 18 mm gauge was still undersize by almost a millimetre. With the limi ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Finescale Standard
Finescale standards or Fine Standards are model railway standards that aim to be close to the prototype dimensions. Reduction in toylike, overscale flanges, pointwork, etc. In Britain it is particularly used because small British prototypes meant that track gauge is underscale. Modelling to finescale standards requires skill, so modellers usually start with the coarse standards applied to ready-to-run models suitable as toys. Standards are set by modellers' societies. Finescale model railway standards * ScaleSeven (7 mm scale, O gauge) * EM gauge (4 mm scale, 18.2 mm gauge) * P4 (4 mm scale, 18.83 mm gauge) * Proto:48 (1/4 inch scale) * Proto:87 (H0 scale HO or H0 is a rail transport modelling scale using a 1:87 scale (3.5 mm to 1 foot). It is the most popular scale of model railway in the world. The rails are spaced apart for modelling standard gauge tracks and trains in HO. The ...) * 3 mm finescale * 2 mm finescale * O14 (7 mm scale, 14 mm gauge ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Standard Gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the most widely used track gauge around the world, with about 55% of the lines in the world using it. All high-speed rail lines use standard gauge except High-speed rail in Russia, those in Russia, High-speed rail in Finland, Finland, High-speed rail in Uzbekistan, Uzbekistan, and some line sections in High-speed rail in Spain, Spain. The distance between the inside edges of the heads of the rails is defined to be 1,435 mm except in the United States, Canada, and on some heritage British lines, where it is defined in Imperial and US customary measurement systems, U.S. customary/Imperial units, British Imperial units as exactly "four feet eight and one half inches", which is equivalent to 1,435.1mm. History As railways developed and expa ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Rail Transport Modelling
Railway modelling (UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland) or model railroading (US and Canada) is a hobby in which rail transport systems are Model building, modelled at a reduced Scale (ratio), scale. The scale models include locomotives, rolling stock, streetcars, rail tracks, tracks, Railway signal, signalling, Crane (machine), cranes, and landscapes including: countryside, roads, bridges, buildings, vehicles, harbors, urban landscape, model figures, lights, and features such as rivers, hills, tunnels, and canyons. The earliest model railways were the 'carpet railways' in the 1840s. The first documented model railway was the Railway of the Prince Imperial (French: Chemin de fer du Prince Impérial) built in 1859 by Emperor Napoleon III for his then 3-year-old son, also Louis-Napoléon, Prince Imperial, Napoleon, in the grounds of the Château de Saint-Cloud in Paris. It was powered by clockwork and ran in a figure-of-eight. Electric trains appeared around the start of t ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Standard Gauge
A standard-gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge of . The standard gauge is also called Stephenson gauge (after George Stephenson), international gauge, UIC gauge, uniform gauge, normal gauge in Europe, and SGR in East Africa. It is the most widely used track gauge around the world, with about 55% of the lines in the world using it. All high-speed rail lines use standard gauge except High-speed rail in Russia, those in Russia, High-speed rail in Finland, Finland, High-speed rail in Uzbekistan, Uzbekistan, and some line sections in High-speed rail in Spain, Spain. The distance between the inside edges of the heads of the rails is defined to be 1,435 mm except in the United States, Canada, and on some heritage British lines, where it is defined in Imperial and US customary measurement systems, U.S. customary/Imperial units, British Imperial units as exactly "four feet eight and one half inches", which is equivalent to 1,435.1mm. History As railways developed and expa ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Train Wheel
A train wheel or rail wheel is a type of wheel specially designed for use on railway tracks. The wheel acts as a rolling component, typically press fitted on to an axle and mounted directly on a railway carriage or locomotive, or indirectly on a bogie () or truck (). The powered wheels under the locomotive are called driving wheels. Wheels are initially cast or forged and then heat-treated to have a specific hardness. New wheels are machined using a lathe to a standardised shape, called a profile. All wheel profiles are regularly checked to ensure proper interaction between the wheel and the rail. Incorrectly profiled wheels and worn wheels can increase rolling resistance, reduce energy efficiency and may even cause a derailment. The International Union of Railways has defined a standard wheel diameter of , although smaller sizes are used in some rapid transit railway systems and on ro-ro carriages. Wheel geometry and flange The running surface ("tread" or "rim ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]