HO and OO gauge.

[julesbhx]

Hi,
I am looking to purchase a Bachmann set as a Christmas present.I live in the UK but the present is for family in SLC.
I am correct in assuming that the HO gauge in the US is of a similar scale to the OO gauge in the UK?
This is just to give me an idea of the scale so I can visulize the initial set up required etc.
Many thanks.

[Tim]

Jules

U.S. Ho is 3.5 mm per foot 00 is 4.0 mm per foot.

Track gauge is 16.5 mm for both.

Tim L. Anders
Souderton, PA

[Jim Banner]

To expand slightly on Tim's answer,
scale is the ratio between the model size and the full size.
gauge is the actual distance between the rail heads.

So H0 gauge is the same as 00 gauge.

H0 scale is 12.5% smaller than 00 scale.

[glennk28]

Yes and No.  In Britain, OO Scale runs on the same track as HO  in the US.  There is a small number of people who collect and operate US OO Scale, which properly runs on 19mm or 3/4" gauge track--same as On3.  In reecent years little if any models have been made in this scale, but enough shows up on eBay to be aware of what it is.   It came out in the mid 1930's and made a small comeback after WWII, but it was too claos in size to HO and gradually died out.  Lionel and Scale Craft were two of the major builders. Kemtron made it in the 1950's.  gj

[ebtnut]

Jules:  It all the fault of your guys  .  Back in the very early days (1930's), "O Gauge" had become popular in Europe as an alternative to the larger toy trains as people's houses got smaller.  The continental scale for O was 7mm/ft.  Some really enterprising types in the UK decided they wanted really small trains, at half the size of O, or "HO" (Half-O).  The normal scale would be 3.5mm/ft.  However, for the relatively small prototype sizes of UK motive power, there were no available motors smalle enough to fit inside the locos.  So, they ratcheted up the scale to 4mm, which gave room for the motors, but for some reason they kept the track gauge at 16.5mm.  As noted, when US OO came on the scene, they kept the track gauge consistent with the scale, which in turn gave the even hardier modelers an inside track on modeling in On3 using US OO track and wheel standards, which we still use today.