As far as I know 1:34 scale is used mainly for vintage collector model trucks. It was established in the 1990s by a company called "First Gear"
1:34 would be much too large for use with any O scale or gauge layouts. Back in the 1960's, we used to race 1:32 scale slot cars.... Boxcab E50
G scale is 1:24. I've never heard of 1:34. I can't see a meaningful conversion for the number 34 either. O scale's 1:48 is 1/4 inch = 1 foot and G scale's 1:24 is 1/2 inch = 1 foot. S scale, at 1:64, is 3/16 inch = 1 foot. 1:34 doesn't turn up on Google except as a Biblical quotation from Deuteronomy. Perhaps it is a typo, for 1:24 G scale.
According to the model scale guide 1:34th was created in the early 1990s by a specific company for their product which was collectable model trucks. As far as I can find out this is the ONLY application of this scale known.
This illustrates a problem, with doing something which is proprietary. You may have the product area all to yourself. But you can also limit possibilities. Too much. Perhaps why most of us have never heard of this 1:34 effort. Seems to me there'd still be plenty of opportunities to fill gaps in 1:48. Boxcab E50
I agree. Yet...Bachmann's On30 has been quite proprietary though successful. I guess the trick is to find a scale niche and then really exploit it so you get more folks onboard. Frankly, I would love to see more major manufacturers hop into On30 (how about some On30 from Atlas???).
True. But, they did not create a completely new scale for marketing. On2&1/2 had been around for many years. Albeit mostly a scratchbuilders niche, they merely expanded upon an existing medium. 1:48 was already there. And the gauge, essentially HO, had been around for many decades. So it's not a completely new arena, such as 1:34. Boxcab E50
You do excellent research, doctor! I didn't look beyond model railroads. 1:36th would be 1/3 of an inch to the foot if my math is right. That makes 1:34th approximately 0.35" to the foot... weird number to work with.
Boxcab is right on target. On30 is 1:48th scale... O scale. On3 uses track gauged to accurate at 1:48 for 3 foot narrow gauge. Bachmann achieved economies in production by making the wheel gauge of On30 out of scale so they could use HO gauge track for narrow gauge O scale trains. On30 using HO track is more out of scale for narrow gauge O than N scale track is for TTn3 and Z scale track is for Nn3. Of course, when you start using track from the next scale down your ties get out-of-scale. In the picture below the bottom track is Elmer McKay's hand-made dual gauge switch. The upper track is his hand made wye where narrow and wide come together or separate. This is TT track. Notice how in the upper track the ties look awkward; I believe he connected N scale track to the wye. Or did they really use two sizes of ties? The picture is found on TT Scale; Photo's, Collection 3 And the site's home page is TT Scale on the Web
No typo, I said in the realm of G gauge, not that it is. The problem is the same track is used for different scale ratios in G. Some equipment is for models of standard gauge and other is for narrow gauge but they all run on the same track. Since I don't try to model in the garden size, I'm not familiar with all the ratios. 1:34 is way oversized for O. Some times people mix 1:43 vehicles or 1:50 vehicles with their 1:48 trains. Greg
Greg... I didn't mean to imply that you had made a typo, but that the source might have been a typo. Though its hard to find sources that corroborate each other on the web, I've pieced together that there is a F or Fn3 scale at 1:20.5. This scale uses the same gauge track as G scale for modeling narrow gauge railroads. One source I found refers to F as a narrow gauge scale. I can't find any references to an F standard gauge using its own track; that would make Fn3's use of G track logical in light of the same practice in other scales.
Hi Lownen, Ok, I mis-understood you. Sorry. Anyway MTH sells their Gauge 1 which can run on LGB track and their web page states it's 1:32 scale. Almost 1:34 . RailKing One Gauge by MTH Electric Trains Then one of the other large train companies, name escapes me at the moment, sell their trains which are 1:28 IIRC. Since I don't have the will to take on another scale I don't worry about matching those trains up to anything. Greg
Greg; In my research I always skipped over 1 gauge because it wasn't of particular interest to me. I was surprised when you posted that MTH is making 1 gauge trains. I went back to the wiki scales page, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rail_transport_modelling_scales, and according to that 1 gauge is making a comeback. Very interesting. I think you've identified a market for those 1:34 trucks.
G is 1:22.5. It was sized so standard gauge track for 1:32 (Gauge 1) would scale to meter gauge. I don't know of anyone modelling G standard gauge. Since meter gauge wasn't used in North America that I know of, Bachmann made their G 1:20.3, so the Gauge 1 track would represent 3' gauge. This scale was later termed Fn3, but not by the manufacturer.
Interesting. I have seen 1:22.5 and 1:24 on the web. Ironically, LGB, who created G scale, doesn't have the scale proportion anywhere that I can find on their web site. The NMRA doesn't list G on its standards table, it lists F and Fn3 both as 1:20.3.
