Scale

[Bob Collins]

I'm curious about scale. I realize that HO, which is what I am arttempting to model, is identified as 1:87. That part registers with me as a comparison with other scales.

My question is, does the scale hold true in all demensions? For instance, if I lay a foot of track on my layout does that represent 87 feet of track in the real world? If that is true then if I lay 20 feet of HO track I am laying something in excess of 1700 feet in real life, correct?

Bob Collins

 

[Woodie]

scales

Bob,

What you say is correct. However I'm sure we need to compromise on distances etc. You know, towns etc are usually kilometres apart, and you can't really build a layout that represents that. Just like no real railroad would have the equivalent of a 20" radius. (145 feet), but that is exactly what a 20" radius represents.

 

[roryglasgow]

Yep! My layout has 0.57 scale miles of mainline track. I am 0.44375 inches tall in N-scale. There are 33 feet in one scale mile in N-scale. There are 60.7 feet per scale mile in HO-scale.

I read about an O-scale layout (1:48) that had a mainline length of 1,500 feet. That's like 13.6 miles!

-Rory

 

[Bob Collins]

I calculate that my mainline is about 80' long, which according to what I read here says my mainline is something over 1 scale mile. Am I saying that correctly?

 

[roryglasgow]

That's 1.32 scale miles.

-Rory (who has Microsoft(R) Calculator always handy)

 

[Bob Collins]

I guess that as Woodie said, the compromise is really in the placement of buildings, etc in relationship to the track and trains which are true to the scale, as the buildings, etc may be, but the buidling placement / disbursement are not really to scale, are they?

Which reminds me. I finally have come to the realization that I am not going to be able to visualize my own scenery placement without buying/building a couple of structures. I get out my measuring tape and say to myself, you can put a building that is 6" long here, it will fit, but without seeing something actually there, it all doesn't seem clear to me at all. Have about decided I want to have a small country elevator, which will help me with height as well as width and depth. Haven't decided on a second structure yet, maybe my roundhouse, if I can find the one I want



Bob