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The LNER Encyclopedia • 000 Gauge
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000 Gauge

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2013 9:18 pm
by Iron Duke
Found this little book (90 pages) in my Fathers loft, does anyone still model in this scale?
Not knowing very much about the history of modelling myself, was this the forerunner of N?

ID

Re: 000 Gauge

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2013 9:21 pm
by 2512silverfox
I thought this had been replaced by 'N' gauge which is 2mm:ft. Have not heard it called 000 since the 50s?

Re: 000 Gauge

Posted: Sun Feb 03, 2013 9:22 pm
by Atso
Hi Iron Duke,

My understanding is that OOO was indeed the forerunner of N gauge. In fact, I believe that the basic standards are actually what was developed into what we now know as 2mm finescale. Don't quote me on that though!

Re: 000 Gauge

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 12:30 am
by Coboman
Lonestar stuff was OOO if I remember correctly

Re: 000 Gauge

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 1:00 am
by All thumbs
I had some Lone Star push-along bits in the early 1960s and remember it being called 000 or Treble-0. There was an A4 in garter blue among the various locomotive models available. I can also remember Treble-0-Lectric arriving but as I already had some Tri-ang 00, I wasn't tempted (and my pocket money wouldn't have stretched to it anyway).

BTW is that coin a sixpence or even a silver thrupenny? It's clearly George VI which surely dates Carter's booklet to 1953 or earlier...

Re: 000 Gauge

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 9:58 am
by StevieG
So did I. I also remember Lone Star push-alongs including an LMS Duchess/Princess class IIRC, and a 'jinty', and a single-cab N. American diesel, plus UK and N.Am. bogie express passenger coaches, and some four wheel goods wagons of one or two types.
Track came in grey, with straight and curve sections, plus Left & Right points, diamond crossings, all cast with their own ballast formation, and sand-filled timber stockade-type buffer stops. All parts just hooked together by an offset hook/lug and corresponding slot at each end, but needed a level surface to line up properly.

The coin in the picture is a bit dark but I reckon it's a sixpence, roughly 1/2-inch (13mm) in diameter, about the size of the old 1/2p coin.

Re: 000 Gauge

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 12:28 pm
by micknich2003
For some reason "000" gauge was dropped and it became "2mm". I asked a 2mm asoc member why, and I was given, what to me was a pointless answer or reason. If it's not broke don't fix it.
I presume the bloke on the cover of your book is E. F. Carter an incredable man who did a lot for the hobby. Note how the picture is cropped, I'm almost certain, he only had one arm. Mick.

Re: 000 Gauge

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 1:29 pm
by Horsetan
All thumbs wrote:I had some Lone Star push-along bits in the early 1960s and remember it being called 000 or Treble-0........
....and there was Treble-O-Lectric....

Re: 000 Gauge

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 1:56 pm
by strang steel
StevieG wrote:So did I. I also remember Lone Star push-alongs including an LMS Duchess/Princess class IIRC, and a 'jinty', and a single-cab N. American diesel, plus UK and N.Am. bogie express passenger coaches, and some four wheel goods wagons of one or two types.
Track came in grey, with straight and curve sections, plus Left & Right points, diamond crossings, all cast with their own ballast formation, and sand-filled timber stockade-type buffer stops. All parts just hooked together by an offset hook/lug and corresponding slot at each end, but needed a level surface to line up properly.

The coin in the picture is a bit dark but I reckon it's a sixpence, roughly 1/2-inch (13mm) in diameter, about the size of the old 1/2p coin.

I have still got some push along Lone Star railway bits and pieces, somewhere in a box up the darkest recesses of the loft.

It has not seen the light of day for well over 30 years, but I remember an A4 and a 2-6-2T and a diesel shunter not unlike an 08. There was even a representation of a Mk1 coach in sort of red/maroon colour. I used to lay out my track on the living room carpet and spend many hours pushing the trains along. The advantages were that it was easy to change the layout and run any combination of locos I liked.

I even used to have a "SR emu" day, when I just pushed the carriages to and from the station and only used locos for goods trains. How sad is that?

Re: 000 Gauge

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 2:27 pm
by Blink Bonny
Ay up!

I often wonder why it didn't take off. Maybe thee market was not ready for it at the time. Certainly N took off big time in the late 1960s.

Incidentally, OOO and N are different. N is a smidgeon over (GB) or under (ROW) than 2mm and runds on 9mm gauge track. 2mm FS runs on 9.42mm gauge. What was the gauge of OO?

There is a much modified Lone Star A4 running on Copenhagen Fields!

Re: 000 Gauge

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 2:43 pm
by DaveF
I think the term "n" gauge was adopted to bring us into line with European manufacturers, I am sure I remember an article by C J Freezer in Railway Modeller in the 60s (?) explaining the rationale, part of which that the track gauge was 9mm, in most languages the word for 9 begins with n. Remember at this time Minitrix and Peco were producing things for the British market along witrh a few kit manufacturers so it made sense to have one name for import/export reasons.

Commercially produced 000, for example the Lone Star range, including their electric models could not be described as 2mm scale. Just think of the wheel standards (and the track gauge).

000 was never really a synonym for n or 2 mm scale in general use..

David

Re: 000 Gauge

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 2:50 pm
by StevieG
Many thanks for the 'treble-O-Lectric' website Horsetan. A gem of a find! And what a range! - Amazing.
It's reminded me that I had other accessories that I'd forgotten about : the bridge and incline piers, signal box, signals, level crossing barriers.
strang steel wrote:
StevieG wrote:So did I. I also remember Lone Star push-alongs including an LMS Duchess/Princess class IIRC, and a 'jinty', and a single-cab N. American diesel, plus UK and N.Am. bogie express passenger coaches, and some four wheel goods wagons of one or two types.
Track came in grey, with straight and curve sections, plus Left & Right points, diamond crossings, all cast with their own ballast formation, and sand-filled timber stockade-type buffer stops. All parts just hooked together by an offset hook/lug and corresponding slot at each end, but needed a level surface to line up properly.

The coin in the picture is a bit dark but I reckon it's a sixpence, roughly 1/2-inch (13mm) in diameter, about the size of the old 1/2p coin.
I have still got some push along Lone Star railway bits and pieces, somewhere in a box up the darkest recesses of the loft.

It has not seen the light of day for well over 30 years, but I remember an A4 and a 2-6-2T and a diesel shunter not unlike an 08. There was even a representation of a Mk1 coach in sort of red/maroon colour. I used to lay out my track on the living room carpet and spend many hours pushing the trains along. The advantages were that it was easy to change the layout and run any combination of locos I liked.

I even used to have a "SR emu" day, when I just pushed the carriages to and from the station and only used locos for goods trains. How sad is that?
Thanks for that SS.
I'd forgotten that I also had the 2-6-2T and the '08'.
Sad? - I remember once setting up a layout that looked like the whole Metropolitan line as seen on the Underground map, but only single-track of course (with the the two routes at Whitechapel that are in reality on different levels, being just a diamond crossing :lol: ), and in the same way pushing passenger coaches on journeys such as to/from 'Amersham' to 'Aldgate', 'Hammersmith - 'Barking', and 'Shoreditch - (alternately) 'New Cross' & 'New Cross Gate'! Now that's sad!!

Re: 000 Gauge

Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 4:25 pm
by Beechwood
The layout on the cover is the Inversnecky and Drambuie, which still exists as a static exhibit in the NRM - in the warehouse part.

Re: 000 Gauge

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 9:19 pm
by PGBerrie
Beechwood wrote:The layout on the cover is the Inversnecky and Drambuie, which still exists as a static exhibit in the NRM - in the warehouse part.
More here http://www.2mm.org.uk/layouts/inversnec ... snecky.htm.

Peter

Re: 000 Gauge

Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 9:36 pm
by strang steel
StevieG wrote:Many thanks for the 'treble-O-Lectric' website Horsetan. A gem of a find! And what a range! - Amazing.
It's reminded me that I had other accessories that I'd forgotten about : the bridge and incline piers, signal box, signals, level crossing barriers.
Yes, me too. If I remember properly the piece of track used with the level crossing was also a useful re-railer.