I am considering purchasing a MTH locomotive, which is a 1:32. My question is do 1:29 rolling stock of Bachmann and USA look proper with it or do I need to purchase the 1:32 from MTH to make it look right.
I would appreciate any opinions or pictures of the 2 different scales side by side so I could be able to see the actual size difference. I’ve tried googling different search combos but have yet to get the proper combination of words to achieve what I am trying to get.
It seems to depend on what cars you are using. This photo is not mine and is from the internet, the locomotive and Piko reefer are 1:32, the LGB boxcar is 1:29, and they look perfectly fine together, as boxcar sizes and designes varied between railroads.
But on the other hand, comparing a MTH 1:32 reefer to 1:29 boxcars, it looks comically small. Although the 1:32 flatcar looks perfectly fine. (Also not my photo)
I would get a second opinion though, as my G gauge colection is mostly narrow gauge items, and I can’t say too much on size comparisons of things I don’t own. If someone can get this topic moved to Garden Railways, they can probably help you more.
Hi there and welcome to the forum. So you would be dealing with about a 10% difference. You would need new trucks and couplers. Check the math, it might not be worth it.
With respect to looks, if you are dealing with early steam, with small wooden cars, it could be fine because a lot of things were hand made. But modern era cars might look a bit out of place.
I moved it to Garden Railroading to see if additional answers come in.
It may help to know the MTH locomotive(s) in #1 gauge that you’re using. Some prototypes (like the Challenger pictured) work because few are familiar with the relative size of their tenders compared to following cars. You might also ‘stage’ the cars with one of two 1/32 cars and then 1:29 of increasing perceived size to make the transition less extreme (I suspect it would be perceived like forced perspective).
Some hood units or smaller locomotives, on the other hand, might just look too small or shrunken. That would be exacerbated by larger prototype cars, particularly auto rack or stack cars.
Yes, thanks for politely correcting me about that. Both use the same track. After further reading, I learned that only the couplers might need to be changed.
For nit-pickery pedantic reference, that is an Arabic ‘1’ in Gauge 1, not a Roman numeral ‘I’. Stix had a good post a few months ago about the historic numbered gauges (including ‘gauge 0’ vs 'O gauge) which was better than anything I could write on the subject.
Hello,
There is a noticeable size difference from 1:32 and 1:29. 1:32 is smaller, with the benefit that it is the accurate scale to represent standard gauge on gauge 1 track—- if that matters to you. 1:29 is noticeably larger, but many like the larger size. It’s all personal taste. Some 1:29 cars may be taller than some 1:32 locos, or cars. There have been many different scales manufactured to run on gauge 1 track. I think 1:29 was a compromise to match the proportions of existing LGB, Bachmann , and Delton proportions to operate cars in the same train, back in the early years of G.
Paul
