What is Gn15?
Gn15 depicts minimum gauge and miniature railways of fifteen inch gauge and thereabouts. (Most Gn15 modellers model minimum gauge.) It uses 16.5mm gauge track and a scale of between 1:22.5 (13.5mm to the foot) and 1:24 (12mm to the foot) which is round about the original G scale used by LGB (not the scales of 1:29 or 1:20.3 which also get called G scale but IMHO are really closer to Gauge One and sixteen mil).
Gn15 layouts employ track, loco and rolling stock chassis, and electrical equipment made for 00 and 0n30/016.5 together with G scale scenic items.
Gn15 layouts employ track, loco and rolling stock chassis, and electrical equipment made for 00 and 0n30/016.5 together with G scale scenic items.
What is it like to model in Gn15?
1. You need to be able to build rolling stock kits as no RTR is available.
2. You need to be able to scratch build buildings as there are hardly any suitable kits available.
3. There are no rules as to what specifications your railway should have. Loading gauge, rail code, minimum radius, passing loop length, coupling type and height, etc., are all up to you, so you can choose whatever suits your requirements best.
4. Scratchbuilding and kit building are both pretty easy because of the size of the parts.
5. There are still many unexplored possibilities, so this is still a scale in which you can be the first modeller ever to model a particular concept.
6. Modelling greenery is more difficult as at this scale you are getting to the point where, on many plants and trees, individual leaves should be discernible rather than a general mass of green.
7. The running qualities of the equipment are the same as those of 00/0-16.5 equipment.
8. It is easy to super-detail models and the detailing parts are not excessively vulnerable.
9. You can invent any kind of equipment you like and as long as it follows the universal basic rules of railway equipment design then it will probably look plausible.
10. There is a certain gear change required from modelling larger railways. You will have to think differently about how railway equipment functions and how the railway interacts with its surroundings.
2. You need to be able to scratch build buildings as there are hardly any suitable kits available.
3. There are no rules as to what specifications your railway should have. Loading gauge, rail code, minimum radius, passing loop length, coupling type and height, etc., are all up to you, so you can choose whatever suits your requirements best.
4. Scratchbuilding and kit building are both pretty easy because of the size of the parts.
5. There are still many unexplored possibilities, so this is still a scale in which you can be the first modeller ever to model a particular concept.
6. Modelling greenery is more difficult as at this scale you are getting to the point where, on many plants and trees, individual leaves should be discernible rather than a general mass of green.
7. The running qualities of the equipment are the same as those of 00/0-16.5 equipment.
8. It is easy to super-detail models and the detailing parts are not excessively vulnerable.
9. You can invent any kind of equipment you like and as long as it follows the universal basic rules of railway equipment design then it will probably look plausible.
10. There is a certain gear change required from modelling larger railways. You will have to think differently about how railway equipment functions and how the railway interacts with its surroundings.
What is minimum gauge?
A minimum gauge railway is a railway with a track gauge narrower than nominal 2 foot gauge (which in practice ranges from 1'11.5'' to 2'3'') which is a serious railway in its own right for real and purposeful transportation purposes. The same track gauges are often used by miniature railways but these are different. The main differences between minimum gauge and miniature railways are that:
1. Miniature railways equipment and structures are made to look like scaled-down versions/big models of the equipment and structures of bigger railways such as standard gauge main lines. Minimum gauge railway equipment is entirely functional and utilitarian and designed entirely to do a job of work effectively with little consideration for how it looks (except perhaps for generalised aesthetics) and no pretences to be anything else. It is serious railway equipment in its own right that just happens to be smaller than most.
2. Miniature railways usually only transport passengers and usually take them on a circular or out-and-back ride entirely for pleasure. Minimum gauge railways transport passengers on a journey from A to B. They are usually focused on transporting freight from A to B, real revenue-earning freight, in smaller quantities than on most railways.
3. Miniature railways are built to entertain their owners or those who pay to visit them. Minimum gauge railways generally are built where there is a need to transport smallish quantities of goods or passengers between two or more places not very far apart on a very regular basis. Some minimum gauge railways today run as pleasure railways in terms of the traffic they carry but still follow the ethos of utilitarian equipment and going from one place to another rather than round in circles.
The division between miniature and minimum gauge is not absolute and there are some railways which are both. For instance, the Ranvenglass and Eskdale Railway uses miniature trains and some miniature style buildings, and markets its train services as a tourist attraction, but provides real transportation between several places miles apart and used to be used for revenue-earning goods transportation as well as tourist passenger transport.
To see some pictures of prototype minimum gauge railways, go to the Prototype Pictures page.
1. Miniature railways equipment and structures are made to look like scaled-down versions/big models of the equipment and structures of bigger railways such as standard gauge main lines. Minimum gauge railway equipment is entirely functional and utilitarian and designed entirely to do a job of work effectively with little consideration for how it looks (except perhaps for generalised aesthetics) and no pretences to be anything else. It is serious railway equipment in its own right that just happens to be smaller than most.
2. Miniature railways usually only transport passengers and usually take them on a circular or out-and-back ride entirely for pleasure. Minimum gauge railways transport passengers on a journey from A to B. They are usually focused on transporting freight from A to B, real revenue-earning freight, in smaller quantities than on most railways.
3. Miniature railways are built to entertain their owners or those who pay to visit them. Minimum gauge railways generally are built where there is a need to transport smallish quantities of goods or passengers between two or more places not very far apart on a very regular basis. Some minimum gauge railways today run as pleasure railways in terms of the traffic they carry but still follow the ethos of utilitarian equipment and going from one place to another rather than round in circles.
The division between miniature and minimum gauge is not absolute and there are some railways which are both. For instance, the Ranvenglass and Eskdale Railway uses miniature trains and some miniature style buildings, and markets its train services as a tourist attraction, but provides real transportation between several places miles apart and used to be used for revenue-earning goods transportation as well as tourist passenger transport.
To see some pictures of prototype minimum gauge railways, go to the Prototype Pictures page.