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| Left to right, Bing, Trix (Bakelite), Trix (fiber), Fleischmann, Tri-Ang, Atlas (brass). |
Make no mistake, I love very early H0 and 00 locomotives and rolling stock.
Years ago when I was considering building a massive H0 scale empire, I acquired a junk Rovex Princess Elizabeth Pacific. Its shell was warped, chassis missing a center driver wheel, and frankly I was unsure what to do with it. It really didn't fit in with the theme I was planning, that being an American Appalachian line with hefty American style locomotives and American style rolling stock.
Yet the trim little English locomotive had my attention.
Sadly, I discovered that attempts to run it on my track was for naught.
The oversized flanges were bottoming out on the molded plastic spikes on my track.
The model was sadly lost not quite a year later due to various misfortunes that befell me. I would love to have another.
Anyway, the problem is a duel betwixt accuracy and reliability, as well as nostalgia.
Accuracy demands rails that are closer to scale. Reliability demands wheels that won't derail. Nostalgia, well, that's another matter.
The early proponents of scale model railroading started pushing scale standards early in the hobby. This was particularly notable here in the United States. Most early American made H0 and 00 made an attempt to keep wheels closer to scale, within reason. Modelers elsewhere who were concerned with accuracy did pretty much the same.
Yet the manufacturers, especially European, continued to produce deep flanged equipment. This goes back to the hobby's tinplate roots.
Bing was the company that brought us the 16.5mm gauge standard for H0 and British 00 (as opposed to "scale" 00, which is a can of worms!). Their initial offerings included stamped metal track, which would later include a center rail for electric models. It is from those humble beginnings that our more common standards emerged.
Bing track had a rail depth of almost 1/10" (2.5mm). If this size seems familiar it's because it is the same as modern code 100 rail, which despite efforts to be pushed aside is still remarkably popular.
After Bing's bankruptcy, Trix, on both the Continent and in the UK, made Bakelite roadbed track that now used rails that were slightly higher, in fact closer to 1/8" (3.2mm). The next generation Trix track, which switched over to fiber ties, dropped back to what was essentially code 100, albeit still in tinplate. This was the standard that other European and Japanese manufacturers would use for some years, as well as Marx in the United States.
Rovex went in the other direction. Their initial offerings used deep track yet again, 1/8". This would be carried over to Tri-Ang and would persist for some time (I have no idea how Hornby fared).
Finally, with the advent of mass produced brass, and then nickel silver, rail, variously on fiber and plastic tie strips, the age of tinplate in 16.5mm gauge pretty much came to an end. The initial standard was again code 100, but other rails sizes were already being offered, such as code 83 (0.083" or about 2mm) and even lower.
The craftsmen side of the hobby had been using lower rails for a few years since the 1940's. The difference was hand laying versus mass produced.
Still code 100 still remains the most common.
Yet if code 100 hasn't really changed since the inception of the hobby with the Bing track, why do "toy" locomotives bottom out?
It's not the rails, it's the ties, specifically the spikes.
Tinplate rail is fastened to the tie strips with metal tabs. Sometimes these jut from the bottom of the rail, occasionally they are separate pieces, but either way, they are much lower than spike heads. The clearance is tight, to be sure, and frequently the rolling stock has problems with turnouts (points) and diamonds (level junctions or flat crossings). But the lack of perturbances is why deep flanges can ride on this rail even though it is still roughly the same height as code 100 (and how Rovex/Tri-Ang got around it by making their rail taller yet still featuring spikes to hold the rail down).
Since I have decided to change course on how I want to do my hobby, I have chosen to use Trix track, both the Bakelite and fiber variety, to allow me to run my older equipment in unmodified form.
And I wish I still had that Rovex Princess Elizabeth, warped shell and all.
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