Rich, Bear in mind that I am coming into model engineering from a background of building models in 7mm and 10mm to the foot, in which I tried to get the details as near to scale size as the Mark 1 eyeball could achieve. In considering 3½ inch gauge, i had anticipated that this approach would be easier, BUT, as LBSC stated "You cannot scale steam", so the working bits and bobs have to accomodate steam & water & oil. In my observations of 3½-inch gauge locomotives....not that I have seen many, perhaps half a dozen....boiler fittings and pipework have appeared to be overscale. To me, that does not matter, providing that those components are out of sight, but when driving a 3½ inch gauge loco, the backhead has to be one of the main focus points of one's attention, therefore I would like the fixtures to at least capture the essence of the prototype. It seems to me that this would be a much more practical proposition in 5-inch gauge. One of our club's members has recently finished a Simplex (his first loco). His next project is a 3½ Britannia. The reason he gave for downsizing was the issue of weight. Best wishes, Jem ----- Original Message ----- From: "R.L. Roebuck" <rlr20@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <modeleng@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2005 2:15 PM Subject: [modeleng] Re: 3½ versus 5 > On the whole issue of 3.5" gauge versus 5" gauge, I've heard several > people comment that they tried building a 3.5" gauge loco, then tried a 5" > gauge loc and found it easier - but might this not be because of the > experience gained in building the 3.5" gauge loco? > > Has anyone out there started in 5" gauge and then gone to 3.5" gauge, and > if so, what are your opinions? > > Yours (working in 3.5" gauge and finding it just fine), > > Rich. > PS You commented that you had looked at the Sweet Pea design, but this is > available in 3.5, and 7.25" gauge as well as Sweet Violet and Sweet > William. > > MODEL ENGINEERING DISCUSSION LIST. > > To UNSUBSCRIBE from this list, send a blank email to, > modeleng-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject > line. > MODEL ENGINEERING DISCUSSION LIST. To UNSUBSCRIBE from this list, send a blank email to, modeleng-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with the word "unsubscribe" in the subject line.