Scale

A bit of an explanation of scale vs gauge.

New Zealand's railways are built to a "narrow" gauge (the space between the rails) known as Cape Gauge, as it was first used by the British in the Cape Colony of South Africa. Cape Gauge is 3 foot 6 inches, or 1067mm. Internationally, standard gauge (4 foot 8.5 inches or 1435.1mm) is standard so as a result most model trains use this as the basis of their models. 

Like standard gauge, HO gauge is the most popular gauge for model railways, at a ratio of 1:87. Standard gauge of 1435.1mm is divided by 87 to give a scale gauge of 16.49mm. HO gauge track is therefore 16.5mm.

TT scale is a ratio of 1:120. NZ120, which I use for modern-day modelling, uses this ratio, which happily translates to 9mm gauge - the same as N scale.

TT scale's track gauge is 12mm, which at 1:87 ratio is the same gauge as narrow-gauge (1067mm in real life = 12.6mm); 1:87 being "HO" scale, the most popular internationally recognised model railway gauge/scale combination.

HOn3.5 is HO scale with TT scale track (12mm), to represent the narrow gauge New Zealand uses.

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