In a resent issue of MRR, there was an article on a guy in Canada with a large 1’ scale layout on his property. Does anyone else have a huge extinsive layout like this? I’d love to have one with a Big Boy steamer (extreamly huge, costly, and time consuming). But hey, that’s about as close as you can get to the size of a real locomotive (though there are bigger scales than 1’ I think). So, does anyone else have a layout like this?
that was a great article.
though I do not know the comparison for “1 foot scale”, I recently visited (in the past 12 months) two ride-on garden railways near my home (interior of British Columbia)
- the first one was larger than the 1 foot scale represented, it that two people could ride beside each other and the locomotive pulled approx 8-10 cars (similar size to an amusement ride car)… this railroad covered severaal acres, had tunnels, a tressel, and a train station.
- the other one was equally nice and more in line with the “1 foot scale” size. The engine and cars were original design and construction, based on prototypes… a 5 hp (?) lawnmower engine was one source of power. But what was really facinating was that the tanker car held approx 80 gallons of water and the engineer would water his garden as the train travelled down the track, through the property. Terrific idea with great purpose.
One foot scale? That would be running prototype equipment → 1 foot = 1 foot . While possible for someone to have, it would be very expensive, and the equipment very heavy.
I have worked with a one foot gauge railway (Live Steam).
This works out to about 2 5/8 inch scale (12 1/4" gauge track).
The smaller size is much easier to handle. The equipment is still heavy, but in hundreds of pounds, not tons. And unlike my HO scale trains, I can ride it!!
Dale B.
[:D] I thought that was a bit out… I re-read the article “Four Acres of Fun” (MR Oct 2003) and it notes 1" scale (one inch scale). guess I was [|)][|)][|)] the other day… the ones that I visited were nice railroads with garden scenery (actual life scale ???).
The railway in MR is Rod Johnston’s in North Bay, Ontario. His web site is http://www.ridingrailkits.com/ . It is 1" scale or 1/12.
Also check out http://www.trainweb.org/ovlsme for more large scale/ride-on stuff from eastern Ontario.
Andrew