Why O Gauge is fast becoming the railway modellers' choice
- modelrailwayquest
- Jan 5
- 3 min read
I'm not sure what's been in the water these past few months but it seems every model railway show I've been to, in my comments, on my social media - there seems to be a new buzz around O gauge.
I've seen some meticulously modelled O gauge layouts over the past year - and two layouts made it to my Top Ten Model Railway Layouts of 2025. Bowaters Paper Mill by the St Neots model railway club which I saw at the Chatham model railway show...
And also Love Lane Stabling Point - built by Andy Floyd but now under new ownership (Grumpy Camera Man's choice, and for once I'm not arguing with him!)
But they're just the tip of the iceberg - or should we call it the O-berg!
The biggest obstacle I've heard people mention when it comes to making the leap to building with O gauge is the misconception that O scale layouts need to be huge. Well, not necessarily. Dark Lane by Kelvin Barnes is a diminutive 6 ft x 20 inches (smaller than almost all exhibition layouts I've seen).
Andy Pannett's Castlebank Sidings 1977 is just 8 ft long.
Of course, smaller O gauge layouts do tend to just lend themselves to shunting operations, but there's still a huge amount of interest that can be added to the more compact size. Mike Perry's wonderful The Tar Works is a case in point.
And of course, narrow gauge layouts like On30 and O-16.5mm for example, mean model railway builders are able to pack a lot more into a small space. Take a look at Bayou Scie by Andy and Simon Chant, a new addition to the exhibition circuit, and also Gamma Silo Rotary by Scott Macey.
I'm also hearing that many former dyed-in-the-wool - or should it be static grass - OO and N scale modellers are being tempted over to the larger gauge.
Janice and Myles McGregor of Studio Tour fame, have just built a new 28 ft O scale layout - Ja'ness Yards which will be at the Perth show this year (and others). I'm eagerly awaiting photos but for now you'll have to make do with this sneak peek.
And as you'll have noticed at the top of the page, I had the opportunity to catch up with Ellis Clark at GETs last year - you can see what he had to say about all things O gauge in the video.
I'll be talking more about O gauge in our livestream this week.
The Wednesday Express (Not Stopping at Peterborough!) returns this Wednesday, 7th January at 7:30 pm.
Here's the link - hope to see you there!
Do you model in O scale? Are you tempted to make the switch from OO or N? Leave your comments below - I'd love to hear from you.
Dawn x
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