TF This is ideal info for me - just knowing the more well tried and tested engines is all I need to start looking at whats on offer.
Garden railway 32mm could be the better gauge for me but if they convert then that or 45mm I can consider, I guess the size dictates the price?
Roundhouse have some nice little loco's as well as the Silver Lady I notice!
Nord.
No they are the same locos with the wheels set at different spacing - some you can adjust but others need new wheel sets.
Obviously bigger or more detailed locos tend to cost more than smaller simpler ones within the same gauge.
32mm is the traditional UK narrow gauge scale - it is O Gauge Track. The small wagon etc suppliers concentrate on 32mm.
45mm is the LGB, Aristocraft, USA Trains etc electric gauge that can also of course be used for narrow gauge. It is Gauge 1 in scale track gauge terms. I have used 45mm in the garden & would recommend that if you want to look at that you convert your locos to battery & radio control. Electric pick up in garden conditions is a whole different thing to nicely protected inside & our climate does not help.
As I said go to Peterborough. The whole 32mm industry turns up & you will come away so much the wiser. There is no substitute. You can get there by train for the day & there is a shuttle bus from Peterborough railway station if you do not want to drive. I would see it as a great day out & a real investment.
I am assuming that you have come across the dedicated "Garden Rail" magazine which Smiths (amongst other) sells?
https://www.world-of-railways.co.uk/garden-rail/