Saturday 7 April 2012

Alexander Scriabin

I'm aware that some readers will have come across this blog only recently and will have no background knowledge of model railways let alone French model railways.

Since I cannot do much with my layout over the next few days I thought I would reprise some of the general issues involved.

Firstly, N scale vs HO scale.

Or, in French, echelle N vs echelle HO.

HO scale is equivalent (more or less) to the British OO scale of Hornby and Triang fame.

"The name HO is derived from the fact that its 1:87 scale is approximately half that of O scale which was the smallest of the series of older and larger 0, 1, 2 and 3 scales introduced by Märklin around 1900. In most English-speaking markets it is pronounced "aitch-oh" and written with the letters HO today, but in German it is pronounced "hah-null", and still written with the letter H and numeral 0."
Wikipedia.

I didn't know that; perhaps, when I look up HO related items on the internet I should also search for H0 (aitch zero).
N scale is the much smaller 1:148.

Here is an HO scale and an N scale French carriage.


The advantage of N scale is that one can run 8, 9 or 10 coach passenger trains on a layout at home whereas space usually prohibits doing the same for HO scale.

The disadvantage of N scale is (in my opinion) that it is far too small and finicky.







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Alexander Scriabin 1872 to 1915

Apparently, Boris Pasternak, called the early years of the 20th Century, "the era of Scriabin".

In an earlier blog I stated my intention to explore Scriabin's music.

Today, I have taken the plunge and downloaded Ollie Mustonen's recently released album of Scriabin piano pieces.


A photograph of the eccentric Russian, Scriabin.


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Easter Saturday

Did absolutely no fasting this Lenten period.



2 comments:

  1. The title of your blog caught my eye, both as a musician and a railway modeller. But I should note one small error. While it is true that British N scale is 1:148, in France - and the rest of Europe and North America - N scale is 1:160 scale. And, to make things more interesting, the Asians (Japan and Taiwan models) use 1:150 scale, except for models of their high speed lines (Shinkansen), which are 1:160. Are we confused yet?
    Paul Ingraham, modeling Scotland, Canada and Taiwan in all three different N scales!

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    1. Thanks for that info, Paul. That's an impressive array of nations. The Taiwan layout (I presume it's a layout) sounds fascinating. Wouldn't mind a look at some photos of it. I'm afraid I'm a bit of a dilettante in both the fields of music and model railways. Tony

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