Let me say up front that I am a fan of Hornby OO trains. My father loved Hornby OO trains and now my son loves them. It’s an unending love affair! The gauge is small enough to fit a decent sized track in a limited space, yet the scale of the locomotives is large enough to be easily handled and seen. Coupled with that is a range of trains and accessories that appeals to all ages and tastes. So, to me, the fact that the debate over the accuracy, or rather the inaccuracy, of the scale of OO trains has for nearly a century steamed on (excuse the pun!) seems a little strange…
Surely a slight difference in scale, almost unrecognizable to the untrained eye, cannot cast a shadow over the enjoyment of planning and building your own layout? Could such a minor anomaly really impact on the enjoyment of watching your LNER Class 8F take endless laps around your attic space? Or, on a personal level, darken the simple pleasure I take from watching my son play with the rolling stock I once shunted in my own childhood…?
However, in the passionate world of the model-train enthusiast the very viability and the veracity of the OO gauge has inspired a fierce debate for nearly 80 years and it is one that shows no sign of reaching a final destination.
Start of the gauge “wars”
How did the gauge “wars” come about? Well, Vorsprung durch Technik as they say in Germany. The OO gauge appeared soon after the arrival of the HO gauge, which was developed in Germany in the early 1920’s. The inventors of the HO gauge were aiming to capture the indoor or ‘table top’ model railway market and set out to challenge the predominance of the larger O scale models. (HO literally stands for ‘Half O’). Not surprisingly, the German innovations soon led to a demand for similar sized models in Britain, but there was a fundamental problem. The architects of Victorian railways had built far tighter tunnel, bridge and platform clearances than those in Continental Europe and subsequently British trains were smaller than those of most other countries. For the British model train manufacturers it was difficult to fit the motors of the time into the models of British trains when they were built on the HO scale. The logical solution was to increase the scale size of the trains and so, low and behold, the first OO trains were born! The OO trains were only slightly larger than their HO cousins, 1:76 rather than 1:87, and so the 16.5mm track gauge, on which HO trains ran, was retained.
And this is where the inaccuracies of OO trains lie: 16.5mm gauge track is only accurate for 1:76 or HO scale models and this remains the most widely used scale throughout Continental Europe and North America. Some would say OO trains are just plain wrong! As Ian Harrison sums up so succinctly in his insightful and richly illustrated book Hornby: The Official Illustrated History: ‘. . . all OO Gauge trains are inherently out of scale because their wheels are slightly closer together than they should be: if the track were made to the same scale as the trains, the gauge would be 18.83mm.’
It is perhaps something to do with the island mentality that the British have persevered with OO trains whilst just about everyone else has rejected them! Model railway clubs like The Double O Gauge Association will also argue vehemently that OO is a viable scale for serious modellers even whilst accepting that it’s fundamentally flawed. I’m sure our US cousins would have something to say about that.
Personally, I think that the satisfaction to be had from designing, constructing and operating your own miniature world of OO trains and rolling stock far outweighs the debates over the benefits of the respective gauges. OO trains are here to stay and no amount of sniping from the HO model army or attempts to introduce a British HO scale will ever change that!
OO Trains - next stop?
Over the years OO trains have come along way in the UK and our boundless enthusiasm for them has generated a huge and lucrative market for manufacturers such as Hornby, Bachmann and Peco. It’s also spurred technological advances and innovation, such as Hornby’s OO ‘Live Steam’ range, including The Hornby Flying Scotsman and The Hornby Mallard. These ‘Live Steam’ trains are actually steam-powered! To see these intricate, finely engineered locomotives in action illustrates just how far OO trains have travelled since the first clockwork prototypes pulled out of the platform.
If you are a novice or experienced modeller looking for ideas and “how tos”, I would thoroughly recommend The Model Railway Design Manual: How to Plan and Build a Successful Layout by Cyril Freezer. Cyril is a well respected author and model-train enthusiast and his book is packed with great ideas and advice. A whole new, miniaturized world awaits you!
Posted under OO Trains
This post was written by Express_Dave on September 21, 2008
Nice blog. I didn’t realise that my hornby trains weren’t completely to scale! Learn something new every day. Looking forward to some new posts.