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What is EM gauge?
Posted in: Tracks
6th May 2024
The EM gauge refers to a specific track gauge that falls between the standard OO gauge and P4 standards. The term...
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What are the common DCC decoders formats?
Posted in: Power and control
19th September 2019
As the DCC standard is still evolving, there are several different sizes and formats for DCC decoders.To give you...
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What is a slip?
Posted in: Model Railway, Tracks
7th May 2020
Slips are often used in the real world on the approach to stations where space is limited but there is a necessity...
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How can I easily clean track in a tunnel?
Posted in: Tracks
23rd April 2023
Cleaning tracks in a tunnel on a model railway can be challenging due to the limited access and confined space....
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Why are there so many different types of mileposts?
Posted in: Model Railway
17th March 2021
In 1845, legislation was passed resulting in the mandatory introduction of mileposts on our railways. The new posts...
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Christmas and New Year

We are dispatching orders every weekday apart from Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day.

If you order is time critical, select next day delivery at checkout.

The shop in Sandown is closed from 25th December, reopening on 30th December.

What coarseness of ballast should I use for an O gauge layout?

For O gauge the best ballast would have to be coarse as this has much larger stone chips than fine or medium grade ballast and would be more in keeping with the scale of your layout.

Keep in mind that O gauge is 1/43 scale in the UK and 1/48 outside the UK. So if you were to measure the size of a ballast stone from the real thing, you would have to reduce the size by 48 to have the scale size.

Posted in: Design and Planning, Tracks, Best practices

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