What Gauge / Scale Is It?
This photo, one of the Redwood Valley s steam engines, is 15 gauge (fifteen inches between the rails) and 5/12 scale (commonly called 5-inch scale because the ratio is that 5 on the model equals 1 foot in real world) (click to enlarge). 5 scale was made popular years ago by Erich Thomsen, founder of the Redwood Valley Railway. He wanted the largest realistic train he could fit on 15 gauge track. Instead of modeling the larger standard gauge trains, he decided to model narrow gauge. (Though many other excellent Grand Scale RR s do model standard gauge equipment.) How can you get a larger model from a smaller prototype? It s because it doesn t need to be reduced as far. And while the narrow gauge equipment was smaller overall, it was pretty hefty in relation to the distance between the rails. The illustration demonstrates this relationship (click to enlarge).
