Frateschi alternative

After a bit of development work, I’ve now adapted my DA class design to be able to be used with a Frateschi DA class chassis. The “kit” (which consists of three parts) is now available in the store. The kit is “OO” (i.e. 1:76 scale and 16.5mm gauge track), mainly because the Frateschi products are closer to 1:76 than the HO scale of 1:87. At 1:87 scale, 3 foot 6 gauge track is 12.26mm, while at 1:76 scale it’s 14.09mm. WIth standard gauge HO scale track at 16.5mm, it’s also more accurate to have 1:76 scale for 16.5mm gauge track than 1:87. Of course, the exact match to 16.5mm gauge track for narrow gauge is 1:64 scale or “S”, (at 16.67mm) which is why Sn3.5 or 3/16ths is the most popular scale for NZR modelling.