Narrow gauge doesn't just mean 36". For an example most people will at least have heard of, Maine two-footers. On a world scale, the gauge situation varies a lot. In many countries, meter gauge is used where US railroads used 3'. 42" gauge is found in many places. In some, it's used like metre or 3'; in others, it's the most common gauge. This leads to another point: in many non-North American countries, high-traffic mainlines were built to narrow gauges such as metre or 42". India under the British Raj, for example, had the odd case of four common gauges. There were almost equal-size networks of 5'6" and metre gauge, and also substantial quantities of 2' and 2'6" gauge used where we would have probably used 3'. Incidentally, Nn3 isn't actually Nn3. Z track is between metre and 42" in 1/160.
Hey Guys, Jumping in kinda late here. My big passion in Model Railroading is NN3 and that's how I found my way to Z at MTL. I have my own line, The Huevos Grande serving the remote villages and industries in a fictitious part of Central Mexico. Having worked with Disney for so long I am more than willing to admit my influences, Lane Stewart, John Olson, Tom York and a hundred other creative people that I had the honor of working with. Right now I have a modified MTL Steamer with lots of junk on it adorned with Moose Antlers, some scratch built, and a hand full of out of production plastic from the office scrap piles. My goal this year is to take one of those new 6mm Maxon Coreless Motors and scratch build Ward Kimball's Chloe and have it pull the SP Passenger Car, Caboose and Box Car I scratch built a few years ago. In my book Ward Kimball was "The" man as far as the railroading history of Disney is concerned. His Grizzly Flats Railroad only ran a few thousand feet in his back yard I believe, so it would be fun to give his legacy new life in miniature complete with some whimsey landscaping, a touch of John Allen and Malcom Furlow and I think he would be pleased. Cheers Joe MTL
I only have some Micro-Trains Nn3 stuff which has never seen a track yet. Biggest problem is getting affordable motive power. Since most of the narrow gauge motive power is small steamers... it is an expensive proposition. I already am heavily into N standard gauge so all the other 'side' interests such as Nn3, Z and HOn3 take a lesser role in my modeling preference.
with the GP35 chassis, you could build a Nn3 narrow gauge diesel loco. i don't know if the current Georgetown Loop railroad website shows the narrow gauge diesels they used to run, but they would not e difficult to bash -- and you'd have a SWEET and smooth running loco for Nn3 to use with all your "old" rolling stock. link: http://rides.webshots.com/photo/1183238373040229163vziEJz and: http://rides.webshots.com/photo/1183245044040229163sMhiMk or: http://rides.webshots.com/photo/1180543826040229163DCiDVv fyi. dave f.
