Narrow Gauge Model Locomotive Reviews

Our thoughts on some of the narrow gauge railway models we have purchased, built and used. These are personal opinions and are not intended to be a definitive guide to the models, more of a sharing experience. We have tried to be as objective as possible and have not been influenced by the manufacturers or retailers and we have not been paid to write these reviews. Your opinions may well differ! Do have a look through the books section too!

Narrow gauge locomotives

Locomotives are one of the most important features of a narrow gauge model railway. There were some horse drawn railways in the early days but these were soon superseded with motive power when it became available. I have seen one or two models of horse drawn railways but these are not common!

There are freelance locomotives available built to look like they would have been built by any one of the manufacturers as many had component parts the would use on different models and make them distinctive. However most models are based on locomotives that existed, either from published plans or measurements that have been taken.

Ready to run locomotives or kits?

Narrow gauge modelling has traditionally been a kit building and scratch building hobby rather then a collecting hobby. There are many kits available and some are very good but most have been produced by hobbyists or small companies - a lot are out of production or hard to obtain. There are also some excellent ready to run models available with several of the big manufacturers now producing models. With advent of 3d printing many more kits have been produced and the hobby has been thriving. Also the 3D prototyping has allowed a variety of ready to run variants of the same class of locomotive to be developed and issued.