Re: Now: O14 group birthday - started 28th November 2004 - Thursday, November 28, 2024 #cal-notice
开云体育I wonder how many of us got into O14 by accident, or nearly so?Back when the Greenwich show was still in Greenwich I bought one of Roy Link’s first batch of Rustons plus some skips (and a horse as back-up power to the loco!). The kit was for 14mm gauge, so for no better reason that’s what I built, together with a very small “skips with everything” diorama. This reached the operable-but-unscenicked stage before my butterfly mind switched to something else.? Fast forward a few years, and on a whim I picked up an unbuilt Peco Hunslet and Branchlines chassis from the 7mmNGA sales stand. I dithered over which gauge to build it to, but eventually decided on 14mm purely to match the Ruston. Forward a few more years, and I bought the Alan Gibson kit for “Lew”. The earlier locos dictated the choice of 14mm gauge, but I now discovered its benefits - it not only looks better, but gives far better clearances between the frames on outside-frame locos. A Wrightlines Baldwin showed similar clearance benefits on an inside-frame loco, both in the crucial areas behind the crossheads, and for bogie swing without clouting the back of the cylinders. ?More recent projects such as an NGG16 Garratt and L&B Lyn have likewise been no harder in O14 than in O16.5. I now tell people that I model in O14 because, in contrast to EM and P4, it’s actually easier than its commercial-gauge equivalent. It’s kind of true…. but inertia is the real reason! Allan On 1 Dec 2024, at 20:34, Peter Tarver via groups.io <peter_tarver@...> wrote:
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Allan Dare