British N gauge

British N gauge is a model railway scale and gauge, rolling stock is to a scale of 1:148, track is width as with all other N gauges making track and rolling stock approximately 10% out of scale with respect to each other. The track width derives from a scale of 1:160 for  rails.

Background
When N gauge was developed it proved impossible to fit the then available motors into scale models of British prototype locomotives. British railways use a smaller loading gauge than those in Europe and America, resulting in smaller locomotives. A greater body size was required on the models to accommodate the motors, so instead of adopting the correct 1:160 scale, 1:148 was used. This allows larger models, but means that the gauge is not an accurate representation of standard gauge. A similar problem and solution was adopted with OO gauge and British TT gauge in Britain. However, since N scales to 1332 mm gauge, it is less out of scale than OO (1257 mm) or TT3 (1219 mm) in representing the standard gauge.

Manufacturers

 * Graham Farish is the most prolific manufacturer, producing British locomotives, rolling stock and buildings.
 * Peco manufactures track and British outlined buildings in kit form and rollingstock.
 * Dapol produces locomotives and rolling stock.
 * Revolution Trains produce British locomotives and rolling stock
 * Fleischmann produces track locomotives and rolling stock etc.
 * Other companies produce kits for buildings, rolling stock and other parts - including Metcalfe models, Ratio, P&D Marsh and others.
 * CJM Models produce hand built models of locomotives and other rolling stock.

Former manufacturers

 * Minitrix/Hornby - prior to being taken over by Märklin Minitrix produced British outline rolling stock and locomotives, which were sold in association with Hornby.
 * Lima - Produced some rolling stock and locomotives
 * Hornby produced British outline buildings in N gauge as part of its Lyddle End range.

Related scales
Finescale modellers modelling in this size use 2mm finescale, which has 9.42mm track and a scale of 1:152.