About us
Following concern about the availability of plans,
castings and tracks on which locomotives could be run, Paul Wiese
arranged for a meeting in May 1975 to which all interested parties
were invited. The result was the founding of the Association, the
stated aims of which were to promote interest in the gauge.
- Drawings and construction details of most of the published designs are held in our library.
- Hundreds of different castings (including a very large range of wheels) are now available,
enabling almost all of the existing loco designs to be constructed.
- Drawings for a number of new locomotives have been designed, including
an easy to build beginner's type (called Toby).
- Locomotive rallies and meetings are held regularly in various regions of the UK.
- Members have received a newsletter every other month and a journal three times a year, but this is about to change to single publication in colour 4 times a year.
The Association now looks forward to the future knowing that the interests
in this historic scale are safe.
About 2½" gauge
Sometime around 1900 a set of track gauge standards was formulated. Thus tracks with
a dimension of 2.500 inches between the inner rail edges was designated "GAUGE 3".
At that time, this gauge was fairly popular for garden or scenic model railways, with the
engines using clockwork or meths powered. Certainly none of them were capable of hauling
the driver, let alone a driver and passengers ! Such capabilities arose from the work
of (arguably) one man, Lilian (Curly) Lawrence, who wrote under the pen name of LBSC.
Initially, the scale used for standard gauge locomoltives was half inch, but this was changed to 17/32-ins. (about 13mm) very early on. A typical loco and tender is 3ft long, and looks very large when stood next to OO or O gauge models. Narrow gauge locomotives are beginning to become popular and drawings for such designs as the Lynton & Barnstaple Manning Wardles, the Leek & Manifold and Hunslet Quarry engines are in preparation.
