He chose to run these hand-built trolley models on 15 inch gauge track, which the quickest calculation will show is not exactly to scale, the prototype standard track gauge of 56.5 inches divided by 4 actually working out to 14.125 inch gauge (exact) Fine Scale OR 14 inch Coarse Scale (OR 15 inch Gordon Hatch's personal convention).
Here are 14 reasons to venture into GH Scale : Trolleys / Trams in one-fourth full size.
1. It's large enough so that older modelers, with classic over-40 presbyopia (in which, when in one of nature's many ruthless jokes, you suddenly find that you can't see all the fine detail you had planned to put into that H0 gauge --- or worse, N gauge--- scale model) can now indulge themselves .
2. By putting the layout, if we dare call it that, if we're only going to portray one city street a few blocks long, up at a height of (say) 3½ feet above the ground, we obtain a true perspective of what the street might have looked like in 1925.
3. It's still possible to cut ¾" plywood for the sides into pieces light enough to carry.
4. We can put seamstresses to work sewing new clothing --- I hesitate to call them costumes for those 18 inch male figures and 14-16 inch female dolls --- that accurately resembles the normal street clothing of the historical past, instead of the fancy-dress-ball gowns of the usual doll.
5. An entire new cottage industry is now possible for small custom metal-work shops to create all the many accessories, roof-top details, trolley poles, trackside and roadway signals, etc. to be sold to one-fourth scale participants. We needn't wait for ideas to be purloined by workshops in other countries, as our local businesses can run these detasils up for us quickly and easily... unless they sit on their hands and wait for instructions from heaven, or mess up the marketing by waiting for the annual Trolley Show to display them.
6. We can assure you that there will be a WOW Factor, courtesy of the basis of the giant size alone.
7. As neither adults nor children will be able to ride on the roof of the model, you can really go to town detailing the roof. Visitors will be able to see and appreciate the fine rooftop detail that seemed so irrelevant in H0 or 0 Scale.
8. With realistic passengers (see (4.) above), you have created a scene that makes sense.
9. The use of Forced Perspective allows you to model backdrops for scenery that looks realistically far away. You might be amazed at the way that scenery designers for movie sets have used that trick from the beginning of theater (unless you think that they really burned Rome to the ground in Ben Hur).
10. Large, but lightweight, models don't require enormous amounts of power to propel them because there's no longer that 200-pound owner perched on top. Small powerful electric motors powered by batteries ensure that power is readily available, and does not depend on the vagaries of drawing it from the live overhead.
11. You will probably be a pioneer (The First One on your Block) to venture into this scale --- an exciting prospect.
12. If you are persuasive, and if you have access to people in retirement communities, you've got --- simultaneously --- a ready-made audience and a group of craftsmen and women looking for projects of just about that size. Look for the woodworking shop and the Craft Group.
13. Easy to stow in the trunk, back seat, or hatchback of your car. Readily breaks down into body, trucks, and interior details .
14. At this stage in the development of this scale, you will be able to engage in a new Battle of the Gauges (14¼ inches vs. 14 inches vs. 15 inches), or contribute your "Handy-Dandy Hints to the Helpless" columns to hobby magazines.
*** for Gordon Hatch, of British Columbia in Canada, a pioneer in the field
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