Hi again everyone, I am thinking of purchasing a tank for a HO scale flat car load. However, the tank I am interested in is not 1/87 or HO as we know it scale. The tank is 1/76 scale. Will this look awkard as a load for my HO scale flat car? I would get a 1/87 tank but they do not make this certain tank that I want in 1/87 scale. Thanks.
Critical things are width and height. If its a modern, low, wide tank then it could foul other tracks on curves, if its a tall tank like an M48, M60 or Sherman then it could have vertical clearance problems depending on the height of the flat car deck. If its a not well known tank then the average viewer won’t have a framework to know how big it is vs how big is should be. Unless you mix it with other scale vehicles it won’t look too out of place. If you mix 1/76 models with 1/87 models the difference in size (especially details) will be more obvious.
I’ll generally agree with Dave on this.
That said, depends very much on the tank. A Sherman wouldn’t look that much bigger in width than in HO, but it may be so tall that clearance under bridges is an issue. Almost any modern main battle tank will be too big in 1:76 in every direction. They’re awfully big to begin with and the change in scale will make them huge. A Sheridan or other small armored vehicle may work OK.
This will look OK to the naive observer – a tank’s a tank – but for anyone who is familiar with the actual prototype will definitely feel something’s just wrong about mixing 1:87 and 1:76.
If It’s a heavy tank, it would look better on a depressed center flat car, then you not need to worry about, height issue’s. Just width. I was in heavy arty, with 8’’ Self-Propelled Howitzers, and you did not ship those on any ol’e flat car.
Frank
Frank,
Yeah, but what he’s talking about will be a lot like taking one of those Atomic Annies and trying to load it. It just doesn’t fit without taking it apart when it’s in a larger scale.
Anything that barely fits on the prototype will not fit if it’s 1:76 operating in an HO scale world, everything else being equal. Not sure how much slack there is around an 8" SP but I doubt it was enough to do something like what the OP wants to do. Think small to make this work, which is why I receommended a Sheridan.
Gidday,
1/76 vs. 1/87 scale Tank Dimension Comparison.
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Sherman |
Abrams |
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1/76 |
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As a general rule, 1:76 scale stuff looks OK on an HO layout. In the specific case of tanks used as loads, it may look OK, but the 1:76 model may be a little too wide as a flat car load, and hits things, station platforms, bridge abutments, structures.
In full scale real life, tank designers found the size of their tank was limited by the railroad loading gauge. Tanks had to be narrow enough to move by rail. This limited their width to the Berne International Railrway Gauge of 10 foot 4 inches. It also limits their length, for a tracked vehicle to be steerable, it cannot be too long relative to its width. When this limit is exceeded, one track won’t have the leverage and/or the traction to slew the other track sideways thru dirt.
The result, real life tanks even back in WWII, were just as wide as a flatcar would except. With a 1:76 model, 10 pecent oversize, you may have clearance problems. Check your 1:76 tank with the NMRA gauge to see if it clears. Or, your layout may have more clearance than the NMRA minimum and an over sized load doesn’t hit anything. Or your tank laden flat car is really static display, parked on a siding.