I bought a Wisconsin State Patrol car a few years ago. The case it came in was never opened and said it was an HO car. Well I opened it up and I have a hard time believing it is. I also have a depot that came with a baggage car. Seeing this baggage car up against the state patrol car got me questioning the scale of the sp car. The baggage car is taller than the vehicle. Also, the vehicle doesn’t even come up to the walk way’s around the locomotives. The lights on top of the car are just a touch lower if not level with the walk ways. Are all vehicles this size or did I buy the wrong scale car?
I have a picture of the state patrol car up against the locomotive included.
Looks like HO to me. How long is it? Multiply by 87, and see if it comes out about the length of a standard sedan. Or put an HO scale figure up next to it.
I guess I’m not realizing what hte whole scale thing is like, after being in the hobby for 4 years. The doors on the depot are huge too. I still can’t believe that the baggage car is bigger than the actually vehicle. I’m not used to seeing the depot doors and stuff being so much bigger than a car. Whatever, I’ll live I guess.
The car is the right size. I drive a Buick Century, which while a mid sized car, is not small. The fire dept light bar on the roof doesn’t come up to the walkways on a SD40-2.
Don’t you have an HO scale ruler? It looks scale to me. Next time you are around a yard or industry take a good look at how big the recent road engines really are…does “humongus” fit? And folks wonder why they will lose if they take a chance at a crossing? To answer your question I understand Wally’s* has HO scale (1:87scale) vehicles, now. jc5729 John Colley, Port Townsend, WA
I have found a great place for HO scale cars…your local Walmart. A couple of Christmas’s ago they started a line of cars in 1:87 scale and cost about $3.00 a piece. They are finely detailed and for the price i scarfed up on a whole lot of them…chuck
If that’s the Busch Ford Crown Victoria, it’s within a couple of scale inches of exact HO for all major dimensions.
Be careful of the cheap cars at Wal-Mart; the majority are good, but there are a few that are not HO scale. The Malibu 1955 Chevy is a very good model in terms of scale accuracy; much better than the CMW model which is actually closer to 1/90. The 1969 Camaro is good, too, except the track (distance between wheels) is too narrow. The Motormax cars are also a bit distorted; they are slightly oversize in length but generally much too tall.
The new Reel Rides are a mixed bag. The Firebird and GTO are very close to exact HO, but the Plymouth GTX is way undersized. The Chevrolet C-10 is seriously distorted (the cab is way out of scale and the hood and bed are too short). Malibu promises the next batch will be closer to exact 1/87 scale.
I have the exact same wisconsin Crown Vic (my grandfather’s from Wisconsin). When i got the car it did look small next to a locomotive…But then I compared them visually in real life. They’re HUGE cars, but even in real life they are tiny compared to a locomotive… And scalewise, I’d say it’s correct. my model power Vic has the same wheelbase and roughly the same track, which is pretty good for a 3 dollar HO scale car…
The Model Power Crown Victoria is another good model that scales out very well compared to exact HO scale.
A lot of people who switch from Hot Wheels/Matchbox vehicles to actual scale models find themselves thinking the scale models are too small. But look at it this way: they make your locomotives look as large on your layout as they do in real life!
