From: utzoo!decvax!harpo!ihnp4!houxz!hocsb!hocsd!jis
Newsgroups: net.railroad
Title: Re: HO scale query - (nf)
Article-I.D.: hocsd.198
Posted: Wed Dec  8 10:38:18 1982
Received: Fri Jan  7 01:50:42 1983

I have always been curious to know why the HO gauge is called HO in the
US and OO (or double-O) in UK. As far as I know the scaling factors and
everything else is the same in both. Then why the two different names?

The scales of model railroads are usually with reference to the standard
gauge (4'81/2"). Is there any convention for specifying scale factors with
respect to other gauges? I am interested in HO scale factors with respect
to broad gauge (5'6"). This is the predominant gauge in several countries
of the world: eg. India, Pakistan, Spain, and some others. Any info about
this would be much appreciated.

Jishnu Mukerji
BTL Holmdel 1B-425
UUCP address: harpo!hocsd!jis
ARPA address: jishnu at MIT-MC