Show and tell

A particular fascination of mine is the Minimum Gauge Railway as developed by Sir Arthur Heywood and his 15" gauge lines at Duffield Bank and Eaton Hall. The Sand Hutton Light Railway at 18" gauge also falls into this class as does the Vitacress or Sylvaspring railway in Bere Regis, Dorset.

In the past, I've modelled these lines in Gn15 (1/2" scale an 16.5mm track) with a fair amount of success, and when I recently found some of my books on the works of Sir Arthur, the desire to model his works again was still there. But our recent house move left me with less space for a layout than before. It was then I discovered 6.5 minimum gauge or 006.5. This uses 4mm scale and Z scale track (6.5mm gauge) to model 18" gauge railways. 

A special range of locomotives, stock and track work is made by Busch under the HOf designation, f standing for Feldbahn, the German field railway system of approximately two foot gauge. 

6.5 Minimum Gauge is the name of a range of kits designed by James Hilton using these Busch mechanisms for locomotives as well as a range of kits for a varied range of rolling stock.

I have some of these kits and I'm really impressed with the way they look and I can't wait to assemble them. 

I've just placed an order for this type of Busch Feldbahn set. I look forward to receiving it, getting a feel for the size, and more importantly seeing how well it fits into the drawer!