Scale  more  

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What Scale is your railway?

Probably the hardest question we get asked.

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Modelling Scale and Gauge

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At Butterley Garden Railway we attempt to model a Narrow Gauge Railway in a garden setting.

Gauge

Gauge is the distance between the rails. We use 32mm and 45mm gauge track.

Standard Gauge (like the Midland Railway) is 4 feet 8 1⁄2 inches (1.435 m) wide.

We don’t model this scale but the track would need to be 75mm wide. This might be used for a 'sit on' miniature railway

Three foot or 1 metre gauge is quite common especially around the world.

This would be using our 45mm track

Most Narrow Gauge in the UK is around 2 feet (610mm) wide.

This would be using our 32mm track used on our top and bottom tracks

Our main tracks are 32mm wide and is the same width as 'O' Gauge.

Our 45mm wide track, on the upper circuit, is normally called Garden Scale, G Scale or Gauge One.

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Scale

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Anyone who is paying attention will realise that if a 32mm model track represents 2 feet in the real world, then the scale of our layout is actually....

16mm to the foot.

So a model of a 6 foot tall person should be 96mm tall (6 x 16).

All clear to everyone? Maybe not.

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