N Scale - Variants

Variants

In the United States and Europe, models of standard gauge (1,435 mm/4 ft 8 1⁄₂ in) trains are built to 1:160 scale and made so that they run on N gauge track, but in some other countries changes are made. Finescale modellers also use variants of normal N scale.

In the United Kingdom a scale of 1:148 is used for commercially produced models. In Japan, a scale of 1:150 is used for the models of 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) and 4 ft 6 in (1,372 mm) in gauge trains, while a scale of 1:160 is used for models of standard gauge Shinkansen (Bullet Train) models. In the U.S. and Europe, a scale of 1:160 is used for models of trains, irrespective of the gauge of the real trains they are scaled from. All of these scales run on the same 9 mm (0.354 in) track gauge (N gauge). This means the track is a little too narrow for 1:148/1:150 but the difference is usually considered too small to matter. Strict 2 mm fine scale modellers use slightly wider and usually hand built track.

In Britain, some N scale models are built to "2 mm scale" for "2 mm to the foot" which calculates to a 1:152 proportion. Early N scale was also known as "OOO" or "Treble-O" in reference to O and OO and was also 1:152, though for an entirely different reason.