Surely this is Gauge One I hear you say - well not exactly. For reasons lost in the mists of time, and in true British style, Gauge One has grown up as a "hybrid" with a scale of 10mm to the foot running on 1.75" (44.45mm) gauge track, equivalent to a gauge of 4 feet 5.3 inches.

The standard which I have adopted for all my gauge one modelling is the new ScaleOne32 standards, developed by Simon Dunkley and myself.

Hitherto, there have been two sets of track and wheel standards within Gauge One, "Standard" and "Fine". 45mm is the gauge defined for "fine" standards, which also has a more prototypical set of dimensions for wheel back to back and tread width etc. At 1/32nd scale 45mm gauge scales up to 4 feet 8.7 inches, which is a mere two tenths of an inch over prototype gauge, being four feet eight and one half inches.

Gauge One is represented by the most excellent Gauge One Association, but it is fair to say that members of this group are predominantly 10mm modellers or collectors, and most of these are built using the "standard" track/wheel standards. A minority of members use the "fine" wheel/track standards (gauge 45mm), although there is a widely held belief that this is unsuitable for garden running.

It is also true to say that most members of Gauge One Association are building or running live steam models, a fascinating and impressive proposition as anyone who has seen Gauge One in action will testify. Gauge One, in any of its interpretations, is a highly satisfying scale which truly sits at the "crossroads" between Model engineering and small scale "scenic" modelling. Aster Hobbies models, a superb range of Live steam locomotives in Gauge One, are all produced to 1/32nd scale albeit with "standard" wheel dimensions to facilitate running on the majority of Gauge One tracks.

Of course, as many of a certain generation will remember, 1/32nd is also the scale of "Scalextric" and Airfix car kits, not to mention "Britains" farm series and cowboys and indians - remember "swoppets"? Over recent years, it has developed as a popular scale for aero modelling and historic military modelling, and in addition a large number of cheaply made but realistic toys have been manufactured in this scale, mostly coming from China and selling under various brands and labels, such as "New Ray" and "Britains" again.

All of which makes a convincing case for "doing" Gauge One at 1/32nd scale using ScaleOne32 standards in my opinion. The combination of the models' physical presence and mass together with accurately modelled details and track yields the ultimate model railway in a size which can still be entertained by people living in normal houses with normal hobby budgets.

Ruston 48DS in 1/32nd scale

Here is my first venture into modelling in 1/32nd scale, an eventual realisation of a long held (minor) ambition to build a model of Ruston's smallest standard gauge shunter

The sharp eyed may notice that the wheels are not to the "fine" profile, my excuse is that I was still thinking about it all at the time and only had to hand a set of Tenmille "lowmac" wheels which the model sits on.

These should shortly be replaced by new wheels to ScaleOne32 standards.

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