Can someone tell me how to determine the scale of railroad cars, etc.? I have inherited a bunch of trains of different sizes and I find no markings to tell me the scale. Feeling dumb here!!!
If they are around 2-3" they are N scale. If they are 6-9" they are HO if they are 12-18" they are O.
There are a couple of other ways to tell. One way is to see if there is dimensional data on the side giving the length of the car (this will be the protoype length), then you can divide the actual length by this protoype length to get the scale ratio. Another way is to measure the distance between the wheels on one axle. This page http://www.nmra.org/standards/S-4_2ScaleWheels.html will give you the dimensions for the different scales. This page http://www.nmra.org/standards/S-4_3DeepFlangeWheels.html covers HiRail/toy train scales. The biggest difference between the two is the depth of the flange.
Enjoy
Paul
I think you are talking about lenght right chip? For height about an inch for n scale, 2-3 inches for HO and 4-4.5 inches for O.
cheese3,
I know this is off the topic, but that is a beautiful loco in your signature. I haven’t seen that on before in your pics. Is it new? (I noticed no numbers on the boards)
First of all welcome to YOUR forum,
As with the above info, if there is hobby shop close by you might visit it.
Warren there is absolutly nothing to feel dumb about, none of us were born with any knowledge, except the want of milk and one’s diaper being changed. LOL. T^here is no stupid question, the only stupid question is the one that isnt asked. However I have been know to give bazarrrrly stupid ansers in my lifetime.
Hope you get into model railroading as its a very enjoyable pastime…John
If anybody feels stupid, it oughtta be me. Here I am getting back into the hobby only to find out most of the locomotives I have are crap. At least that seems to be the general concensus. Don’t ever feel stupid. You’ll never know unless you ask.
Thank you. It is still farely new I guess I picked it up at a train show last month and have posted pics of it but I decided to use it in my signiture. It is an IHC 4-8-2 mountain. It is a great runner. I payed $50 for it but it was marked at $100 so I got a deal. I have wanted to add numbers to the number boards but I have not gotten around to making the decals.
[#welcome]
there is aboslutely no need to feel stupid!
you now have three great ways to tell what scale it is
soon, it will be natural
Another way is to measure how wide the wheels treads are apart.
If the wheels are about 9mm apart, its N gauge.
If the wheels are about 16 mm or 5/8 in apart, its HO gauge.
If the wheels are 13/16 in apart, its S gauge.
If the wheels are close to 1 1/4 in apart its O gauge.
Dave H.
Even tinier than N is Z, and even bigger than O is G.
Scroll back to that fine steam engine that Cheese3 got for 50 bucks. Seems like a clever acquisition for a 15-year-old, which goes along with my theory that model railroading makes you smarter.
z/n/tt/ho/oo/s/o/standard/g
thats from small to big
Welcome to the forum–and it didn’t take you long to get an answer, did it, LOL?[:D] You’ll find that this is pretty much the way the forum works–believe me, I’ve found out that everyone here is ready, willing and able to help each other with advice and opinions. Good group of people here, take my word for it. They’ve certainly helped THIS old fart on many occasions.
Tom
PS: Cheese–what a GREAT signature pic! Cheers![bow]
You’ve recieved some good information here. I don’t really have anything to add.