The Glory Days of the Guild, by Richard Ough
As the token Welshman on the list, I thought you should all know that square wheels were invented by my Mother-in-Law's great, great, grandfather Llewellyn ap Ogg. He lived in a cave high up in the Great Orme near Llandudno, and made a living mining copper and slate. He found that the fitting of square wheels to the standard 2 ton slate wagon, which was then in vogue, negated the requirement for brakes. You could leave a complete train standing on an incline without fear of it rolling away.

Sadly the system fell from favor when overnight dew on the rails iced over. A small Hunslet tank nudged the up hill end of the stationary slate train, causing it to slide off towards the terminus at the bottom of the valley.

Llewellyn who happened to be asleep in the guards van at the time, awoke just in time to see the front of the train ploughing through the stop block and dive into the harbor. After an early and somewhat unexpected bath, he was summoned to see the General Manager who promptly sacked him for traveling without a valid ticket. He later made his fortune when he patented the bobsleigh......I often wonder where he got that idea from.

Modularization? Rules? Standards?
Good Grief! What's Next? These are ideas whose times have not yet come and maybe never will. If the online community of 7/8ers agrees on any single issue, it is everyone's right to do their own thing. But we do have three common standards, 7/8" scale, 45mm gauge is used for modeling 2' gauge and 32mm gauge is used for modeling either 18" or 15" gauge.

Modularization was discussed and surveyed at length on the email lists and, in the end, interest was lost as people realized that we will probably get together to assemble modules.

Standards keeps coming up on the email lists as new members join and ask about them. I created a simple FAQ online to answer some basic questions, which has been helpful. However, the real problem is that our 7/8´scale modeling goes in three or four different directions. These are Maine, industrial, estate, and European style railroads. In addition, 7/8" is a scratch builder's scale and most of us got involved because of this. But there are a few areas worth discussing which are:

Minimum Radius. Steve King recommends 12' to 15' for the larger Maine style steam engines. On the other end, many manufacturers of the small two axle critters advertised minimum radii as small as 15' which in 7/8" scale, is about 13 inches. So you are on your own. In cities and built up industrial areas, small radii are fine but you

must consider the overhang of the pilots and problems pushing and pulling cars around tight curves. To paraphrase a popular old saying, if it looks right, build it!

Wheels & Axles. Just about everyone agrees that Gary Watkins established "standards" when Sierra Valley started producing 7/8" wheel sets. Thanks to Gary for the following info from the Sierra Valley shops.
Back to Back (Gauge #1) 1.575" to 1.585"
Back to Back (Gauge O) 1.085" to 1.095"
Axle O.A. Length (Gauge #1) 2.724" +- .003"
Axle O.A. Length (Gauge O) 2.234" +- 003"
Wheel Width Including flange .330" +- .003"
Tire Width .254" +- .003"

Rail Size. I agree with Charlie Lix's thinking that smaller rail with realistically spaced ties improves eye appeal of our railroads. In the prototype world, 12# rail is advertised as supporting 5 tons or 5,000#/axle with ties on 2' centers. Here are the rail sizes:
Code 332 = 65 lb Code 197 = 25 lb Rail
Code 250 = 40 lb Rail Code 172 = 16 lb Rail
Code 215 = 30 lb Rail Code 148 = 12lb Rail

Track Spacing. For the larger Maine style equipment, there should be 8" between centers of parallel tracks. Industrial and estate railways should establish a minimum spacing that fits their equipment.

Coupler Height. 1 ¼" from the top of the rail to the center of the coupler seems to work in most cases.

Editor

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Kafuzalem - Rob Bennetts