How do you figure miles in Ho scale, I know that HO scale is equilavant to 1/87th scale?
Thanks
Chris
Okay, then you would divide 5280 feet by 87 to get the equivalent HO feet needed to make that scale mile.
Comes to just over 60 feet.
1 (english) mile is 5280 feet.
In 1:87.1 scale, that is 5280 / 87.1 = 60 feet.
Smile,
Stein
Other types of miles include nautical miles which are 1852 meters or 6,076.12 ft
Enjoy
Paul
A lot of modellers use what has been coined as “S-miles” (simulated miles). Obviously, for a lot of modellers, their entire mainline may not even be an actual scale mile in length ! - hardly even a shortline.
By using S-miles, we can create our own version of what a mile is. If we determine that, let’s say every ten feet is a mile. Then it would be feasable to say we are running “mile long trains”, or the distance between towns is maybe three miles instead of 1/2 mile.
Some things just don’t scale down well for our modelling purposes … mileage is definitely one of them.
Mark.
OK, now for the Engineer’s answer.
HO scale is the equivilent of 3.5 milimeters to the foot. There are 39.37 inches in a meter.
Thus, 39.37 divided by 1000 = 0…03937 inches (1 mm).
0.03937 X 3.5 = 0.137795 inches in one HO scale foot.
5280 X 0.137795 = 727.5576 inches in one HO scale mile.
727.5576 divided by 12 = 60.6298 feet in one HO scale mile.
Also note that 12 divided by 0.137795 results in the true HO scale proportion value of 87.08588846.
Thus, 5280 divided by 87.08588846 = 60.6298.
Sorry for the over analysis, I am just a numbers kind of guy. And this is scale railroading after all!
I am a firm believer that if the Good Lord had meant us to work in “sillimeters”, He would not have let someone invent “Imperial Measurements” (English Measurements for the uninformed) in the first place.
As far as I am concerned, I was taught in REAL measurements in schools in both England and Canada from the '30’s through to the '60’s and that is what I will continue to use until they throw my Five Foot, Eleven Inch frame into that SIX FOOT deep hole and pat me in the face with a shovel. Until then, all my thermostats and thermometers are in Fahrenheit, my speedometer and odometer in the car are in Miles and I continue to order my meat and produce in Pounds and Ounces and I let whoever is serving me figure out the mess 'cause I am just to old to go back to school and learn everything all over again. LOL.
Blue Flamer. (A confirmed Imperial Measurement lover.)[soapbox][(-D]
Sure.
An English mile is 1609 meters (can also be given as 8 furlongs, some number of chains or 5280 feet).
A Nautical mile is 1852 meters.
A Norwegian or Swedish mile (Norwegian spelling: mil) is 10 000 meters (or 10 kilometers) - about 6.2 English miles.
A Roman mile is 1000 (mille) double steps - about 1480 meters. A Dutch mile (way back) was about one kilometer. A German mile was about 6.4 kilometers. I think the Poles and the Irish also had their own miles. But most of the world has gone metric by now.
But in an American context “mile” is of course clear enough without the specifying “English” or “imperial” mile 
Smile,
Stein
80 chains to the mile. It makes a huge amount of sense if you study it.
Time dose not scale well either but if you use fast clocks you can set your mileage that way, say 12 to 1 fast clock is a factor of 5, so divided 60’ by 5 and you get 12’ , much more believable spacing for large layouts but it can only adjust so far.,
Do you still pay in guineas, crowns, and shillings? [swg]
Enjoy
Paul
Nah. Up here in the Great White North, we use the good old Canadian Loonie and the Toonie.
The Loon
Blue Flamer. (A confirmed Imperial Measurement lover.)
Me too Blue Flamer, me too.
[:D][Y][B]
HAPPY NEW YEAR [B][<:o)] [<:o)]
Well, actually, He provided us with bodies, and our ancestors figured out many of these common measurements based on their body parts, or their observed surroundings, or whatever. Before we got around to standardizing them during the Renaissance.
Observe the following “standard” measurments
Cubit – not used since biblical times, but the distance between the elbow and the fingertips
Foot – the length of a grown man’s foot
Inch – the length of the end of the thumb
Yard – the distance from the center of the chest to the outstretched fingers; a convenient way to measure cloth.
Fathom – the distance between a man’s outstretched arms, or a convenient way to measure rope.
Gallon – a convenient bucket size that could be carried in one hand
Stone – the weight of said bucket when full of water
Furlong – the length of a furrow in a 1 acre medieval field (also derived from Roman measures)
League – the distance a man can walk in 1 hour.
And so on.
The metric system was an 18th century attempt to put some logic into the whole thing.
Well C T, in my humble opinion the “standard” measurements seemed to have worked just fine for many years once they were standardized to the “Imperial System”. I
Is this some kind of “Imperial math”?
I don´t see what the factor of 5 has to do with anything, if you have a 12 to 1 fast clock; then you have sped up the time 12 X.
Then a “Smile”, or scale mile, would be 60´ divided by 12, wich equals to 5 feet!
John Allen wrote about it some 40 years ago…
BTW: Metric systems is for precision, and makes it so much easier to convert measurements in scale. Otherwise you in the US wouldn´t have a decimal system for your money either…
I would think it was on the same level of “How much does a pound of feathers weigh?”
A mile in HO is the same as a mile in real world. It just takes an HO loco 87 times longer to travel it. [:-^]
Not quite following that observation, HB. It only takes it longer if it is traveling 1/87th as fast as the real world locomotive in scale. If the mile is the same in scale, and it is doing the same scale speed, it would take as long, not longer, to cover the same distance.
Maybe it is your use of the word “longer” that is confounding me. [:)]
Crandell