I wish to place a football field on my layout which is HO. I keep coming up with a measurement of about 41 in. X 20.5 in. Does this sound correct? It seems to large. Maybe I am converting to scale wrong.
Thanks Wally
You are correct on your deminisions… Take the football field is 300 foot long and miltiply by 12 to get inches, then divide by 87 (HO scale) to get the length in HO scale. I built a grain elevator in HO , the proto type was 240 foot tall which would have been about 32 inches tall and that would be way to tall so I scaled it down to about 12 inches. You might want to try something like that, hope this is helpful. Mike
Your math is correct, but you forgot the end zones @ 10 yards a piece. Where do you expect your linemen-behemoths to dance?
I measure things in 40-foot boxcars. 120 yards would be 360 feet, or 9 boxcars. Put 9 boxcars together and imagine how long that comes out. It’s just shy of 50 inches, a bit over 4 feet.
And don’t forget to add a siding for John Madden’s train. He hates to fly, you know.
Thank you both for the info. It gets even worse as it is really going to be a RUGBY field which is even larger. I guess I will scale it down a bit. Thanks again
If you have the space you could set it back someplace, do it in N scale and do the “forced Perspective” bit. I am just starting to experment with this and wonder why there is not a lot more. Maybe some who have done this can post some pics.
Art - The reason you don’t see more of that sort of thing is that it usually doesn’t look very convincing in person. One can have a lone N-scale house or barn half lost in the trees at the rear of an HO scene or perhaps smaller-scale urban structures situated behind a couple of rows of proper sized buildings in a relatively deep city scene and get away with it fairly well. However, attempts to portray large, general scenes (football stadiums, airports, dockyards, etc.) almost always fail visually because binocular vision immediately tells you everything is way out of kilter. I’ve personally seen a several highly convincing photographs of HO scenes with forced perspective that, when viewed in person, totally failed. I expect you’ll find this too, after experimenting a little.
CNJ831
I was at a train show and saw a layout which featured a convincing soccer field. It was so well done that it took me a while to realize that the center line was actually a mirror, and only half a field had been modelled. This was a great space saver, and so it fit nicely (on a 45-degree angle) in a corner module.
I was thinking of that for American football, but I think that you would have to do something different, because you can’t exploit the inherent end-to-end symmetry of soccer. Instead, the mirror would go lengthwise, from end zone to end zone, halfway between the in-bound markers. You would have a long, thin field, but it would look twice as deep. And the Longest Yard would still be just as long.
Unfortunately, such a split field reflection could only be accomplished effectively employing a first surface mirror (which would show no gap between the real and reflected image of the field). Done to scale, the mirror would need to be at least four feet long, perhaps a foot high, and with a price so prohibitive as to prevent anyone in their right mind from attempting such a project!
CNJ831
At one time I was toying with the idea of a PRR railroad that ran south from 30th St. Station in Philly. Both the passenger mains and the freight highline go right past the University of Pennsylvania Franklin Field. That is the site of the Penn Relays and used to be the home of the Eagles. The end facing the tracks was a horseshoe and would have been a unique addition. I ws planning to put a portion of the Horseshoe in a corner with sufficient building flats so that only a small portion of it would be visible. So how woudl I do a lesser field? I’d move the background flats out a little and place some field lights behind them (N gauge?) to give the illusion of a field back there. Some taped recording of a crowd at a game could make why they were there obvious.
An alternative might be a football/rugby field for kids, I would assume just as Little League baseball fields are about 1/3rd smaller than standard, kids could use a smaller football field??
Have you thought of only modeliing a part of the field on eht edge of your layout. Could still be full scale, with opnly a portion of the field and stands modeled.
Good Luck,
FWIW a railroad line ran thru the middle of my high school’s campus, between the main building and the football field. The railroad ran along the backside of the stands, you could easily model the back of the stands with the big school sign and the lights etc. facing away from the tracks with little more than a one or two inch series of flats.