Hello everyone,
I was having thoughts on vehicle scales in HO. I have a few Athearn HO scale vehicle kits and have also recently purchased a few Classic Metal works HO scale vehicles as well. Why is there such a difference in size considering both are listed as HO scale? Which is correct? And in the same thought I also have an issue of Athearn RTR flatcars with semi trailers included instead of being able to hook the RTR trailer to asn Athearn kit semi tractor I`d have to purchase the newer semi truck release Am I correct? Please post your comments and thoughts on this scale descrepancy
Thank you,
Ed Carter
Since I don’t own the referenced vehicles, these are just a few general comments, one or more of which may apply:
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A lot of things have been marketed as, “Suitable for HO scale,” whose actual scale ranged from 1:72 to 1:100. If two models of the same vehicle, side by side, are obviously of different sizes, somebody (or a couple of somebodies) didn’t use the appropriate 1:87.1 scale for HO.
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Models of similar prototypes from different eras will be of different sizes, even if built to exact scale. Present-day semi-tractors are huge compared to those of the pre-interstate era. 4-passenger sedans of the muscle car era are huge compared to anything built before or since. Semi-trailers, especially, have grown steadily in length and height as highway size restrictions eased. (A present-day 10.5’ x 53’ trailer, legal on all Federal highways, would have been an oversize load during the transition era.)
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Models of different prototypes built to the same scale will reflect the size difference of their prototypes. A Chevy sedan will always be bigger than a Volkswagen bug.
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I don’t know how much fifth-wheel geometry has changed over the years, but I doubt that 50s-era tractors would be a good match for 21st century trailers. I seem to recall that the specialized tractors used in ‘circus train’ loading/unloading of early piggyback equipment had to have adjustable fifth wheels to handle the different geometries of trailer hitch arrangements in that pre-standardization era.
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How much mis-match is there between the older Athearn tractors and their flatcar-load boxes? If the carloads were never meant to be mated to tractors, the hitch mechanism might be amenable to some fairly straightforward after-market mods. In my personal modeling, if I want item X
What vehicles are you talking about? I have several of each brand and am not sure what you’re asking for?? mike h.