Time for standards?

(I've been reminded today of a night in Wellington during the Guild Jubilee when We could not get into any bars as some visitor thought that jandels and shorts that might work in Christchurch didn't fly in the capital.)

Many moons ago (December 1990 to be precise) It was proposed by Alec Salisbury that the NZMRG accept the same standards as those used by the 2mm association for wheels and track, amended from 9.42 to 9mm gauge (how have the British been allowed to stuff every scale/gauge relationship that they touched?).
fast forward 20 years (man nothing changes fast round here), and there seems to have been no uptake of this system. Modelers have been forced to make do with overseas imports with a variety of standards. While the US ones are not too bad most of the time, the British ones are rough (being very generous here too). The worst would have to be Peco, the most popular for 4 wheel wagon aficionado's. The flanges on these wheels remind me of the old Triang stuff from the 60's with the plastic cookie cutter wheels. While they have served us long and well (a rake of 30 Lc's can't be wrong) maybe its time to look at something a it more into the 1980's.

The 2mm wheel standards are here.
The most important ones for tonight's think are the flange depth, the wheel width and the flange width. these are 0.51mm, 1.3mm and 0.3mm.

Just for interest I wandered over to the NMRA page to see what the equivalent US thoughts are. The standard measurements are here, and the comparative numbers are 0.56mm, 1.8mm and a no result for the flange width.

OK, so the Brits win. Not so fast young grasshoppers, as there's more. Buried in another list on the page are standards for the proto movement, and low and behold, there is a set for N scale. The numbers here are 0.4mm, 1.3mm and 0.3mm.

So where does this leave us then? Personally I'd like to go with the NMRA finescale standards simply because they are widely supported by the American industry.

Does anyone else apart from the usual suspects have an opinion, or should I throw it open to the peanut gallery on the Yahoo group. And just where will all these wheels come from?