3 mm scale, also known as 3 mm finescale, is a model railway scale of 3 mm : used for British prototypes. Introduced as British

TT gauge TT scale (from "table top") is a model railroading scale at 1:120 scale with a track gauge of 12mm between the rails. It is placed between HO scale (1:87) and N scale (1:160). Its original purpose, as the name suggests, was to make a train set ...

, it sits approximately halfway between British

N gauge N scale is a popular model railway scale. Depending upon the manufacturer (or country), the scale ranges from 1:148 to 1:160. Effectively the scale is 1:159, 9 mm to , which is the width of standard gauge railway. However the scale may ...

and

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: ...

but is not as popular as either and there is no longer any mass manufacturer ready-to-run support. When

model railways were developed for British prototypes, in order to fit the small British prototypes, the scale was enlarged but without altering the 12mm gauge. The result,

British TT gauge 3 mm scale, also known as 3 mm finescale, is a model railway scale of 3 mm : used for British prototypes. Introduced as British TT gauge, it sits approximately halfway between British N gauge and OO gauge but is not as popular as ...

, is too narrow. This led to the development of gauge 3mm finescale. Thus two

finescale 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 mean ...

standards were developed. By far the more common of these is 14.2 mm gauge track, which is accurate. Some modellers choose to use slightly narrower 13.5 mm track due to the necessary oversize motion of outside-

cylinder A cylinder () has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an infinite ...

ed steam locomotives. British TT, also known as TT3, was pioneered by Triang Railways as ready-to-run models. Other gauges are also used to model other prototypes ( Irish broad gauge,

Brunel gauge Isambard Kingdom Brunel ( ; 9 April 1806 – 15 September 1859) was an English civil engineer and mechanical engineer who is considered "one of the most ingenious and prolific figures in engineering history", "one of the 19th-century engi ...

). For narrow gauges,

9 mm track represents gauge;

Z gauge Z scale is one of the smallest commercially available model railway scales (1:220), with a track gauge of . Introduced by Märklin in 1972, Z scale trains operate on 0–10 volts DC and offer the same operating characteristics as all other ...

track represents to {{RailGauge, 2ft2in gauge. The ''3mm Society'' caters for all modellers of 3 mm scale.

References

External links

3mm Society

3mm Supplier

See also

References

External links