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#21 ·
Howdy. 99% of my equipment is Aristo or USAT. So I have nothing constructive to advise you on.

But I want to say WELCOME TO MLS. You have hooked up with a bunch of great people Ask a lot of questions. Your question may have been asked a million times before but don't worry you will still get answerers. Good answeres

Eventually you will be able to wade trough the vast input and pick out what pertains to your RR
 
#22 ·
An HO friend always claimed "G is the gauge for people who don't care anything about scale."

Then he discovered that my 40 ft box car was 40 scale feet long, but his was only 30 scale feet long.
 
#23 ·
Now that we have had a lively discussion of the merits/faults of 1:29 versus 1:32 versus 1:22.3 versus 1:20.5 now let's talk acout rail code. Which is better Code 320, Code 250, or what.....

Only kidding about the discussion of rail code, I think
 
#25 ·
Posted By Greg Elmassian on 01/20/2009 12:43 PM
Yes, it's safe to say that for standard gauge on 45mm track, 1:29 will be the most common, to answer a simple question simply.

If you have lots of $$ you could go 1:32, between Aster, Accucraft, and MTH, you can find almost everything you would want, but you might not believe how much some of the 1:32 stuff costs, and the "museum quality" stuff often is not really good outdoors on less than PERFECT (and I do mean PERFECT) track.

If you run narrow gauge, you use the same gauge track and then the scale changes to 1:20.3, and the stuff does not look right side by side. No one makes 1:29 narrow gauge, locos or track. There is some 1:20.3 standard gauge, but $$ again and no track.

Regards, Greg













ummm... how about this... Focus on a quality track laydown... Focus on a true quality 1:32 loco "line" and collector variations for "special occasions" (true to scale) and keep the beginner's set with prostitute ebay specials / kit bashes for "fun running" / kids / grandkids and people with too many beer in them?

Just an idea... this is what my plan is. Secret is to get the track laydown right. Rome needs a proper foundation.


Room for all concepts


Gavin
 
#28 ·
Posted By Semper Vaporo on 01/20/2009 1:22 PM
I am going to be a lone voice crying in the wilderness, but 1:29 scale is STUPID. It is WRONG, It is a sign of MEDIOCRITY, It is a off in scale VOLUME by THIRTY PERCENT (not just 10%... but 10% too wide, 10% too tall, and 10% too long... a difference of 30 PERCENT in VOLUME). It is a sorry state of affairs that 1:29 is the most common scale for Standard Gauge.

There I said it, and I'm proud!



Yer, but it sure do LOOK good, don't it?
Image


tac
www.ovgrs.org
 
#29 ·
Posted By John J on 01/21/2009 6:09 AM
Howdy. 99% of my equipment is Aristo or USAT. So I have nothing constructive to advise you on.

But I want to say WELCOME TO MLS. You have hooked up with a bunch of great people Ask a lot of questions. Your question may have been asked a million times before but don't worry you will still get answerers. Good answeres

Eventually you will be able to wade trough the vast input and pick out what pertains to your RR



Well, 99% of MY stuff is Aristo-Craft, USA Trains, Accucraft, LGB, Aster and Marklin.

The rest is mixed...
Image


tac
www.ovgrs.org
 
#31 ·
Posted By Greg Elmassian on 01/20/2009 12:43 PM
Yes, it's safe to say that for standard gauge on 45mm track, 1:29 will be the most common, to answer a simple question simply.
...snip....
If you run narrow gauge, you use the same gauge track and then the scale changes to 1:20.3, and the stuff does not look right side by side. No one makes 1:29 narrow gauge, locos or track. There is some 1:20.3 standard gauge, but $$ again and no track.
....snip....
Greg likes words but I like a picture. To show the above difference in his words.[/b]

Image


But I will play with my trains without regards to SCALE/SIZE/POWER
since I am resisting GROWING UP!
Image
[/b]
 
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#32 ·
That picture really helps.

My LGB New Orleans Street Car appears to be similar in size to the cars on the left (I can't find anywhere that actually says what the scale really is).

I was originally figuring on running MTH with its built in digital controller for the mainline ... partially because the dealer up in Birmingham spoke highly of the locomotives and the DCS control system and he services what he sells.

I need to find another dealer within driving range that has a few examples to look at and hold before I start buying more rolling stock.

Tom Bray
 
#33 ·
The complicating thing about scale--actually, there are a lot of complicating things--is that narrow gage rolling stock was typically quite a bit smaller than standard gage, so in some cases a 30 foot boxcar in 1:20 looks sort of right next to a 40 ft boxcar in 1:29, unless you look closely at the details like the ladders or the brake wheels etc. And some premade stuff is kind of casual about gage. Bachann's big hauler line of cars looks reasonable in 1:29, size wise. Reasonable but not quite right.

Also if you look at photos of typical branch line operations, there was a remarkable mix of sizes of rolling stock in daily operation.


I've settled on not mixing scales, for the most part. It used to look ok to me, now it looks odd
 
Discussion starter · #34 ·
Thanks for all of your help! There are some good examples in here that make it really clear and obvious. It really helped with my first engine buying descision. I'm sure i'll have many more questions to come. since i'm literally just starting out. Thanks again for all of yalls help and the excellent pictures.
 
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