I am building my train layout to duplicate the years of the late 1950’s - early 1960’s. What I’d like to know is where can I find “O” or 1:43 scale vehicles of this era? I am looking for a 1955 Chevy wagon and a 1958 Ford mercury. Any help is a godsend! Thanks!
You can probably find what you need here:
Saq,
There is also the ubiquitous Ebay as a source. I have obtained a number of vehicles in both “O” and “S” gauge on Ebay. True “O” gauge is supposed to be 1:48, but finding vehicles in that size is difficult. Manufacturers make them in 1:43 or 1:50. Beats me why. Either size will work unless you are a true diehard scaler.
Bill
Atlas has just announced their own line of 1:48 diecast autos, I have bought from www.3000toys.com and happy with the service & pricing.
Bill, 1/43.5 is the British O scale. I think 1/50 is just a round number.
Sometimes you can find nice size vehicles at Cumberland Farms conveniance stores or at Dollar General store, even Wal-Mart from time to time has a couple of vehicles. Trying to help you beet shipping cost.
Lee F.
Atlas-O has announced a line of 1/48 die-cast vehicles. These should really fill a niche in our world of 1/48 trains filled with 1/43 vehicles!
Jon [8D]
Actually, Atlas has annouced their intention to produce a 1:48 1950 Ford sometime in the future. It will be plastic, not diecast, and I THINK it will be sold for around $15. Since they seem to be only making about 6 “HO” size autos, I think it will be a long time until we see a “line” of 1:48 cars from them. I saw the prototype at York. It had silver paint for the chrome, at least on this prototype. I’ll happily be sticking with 1:43. The $6. cars that YatMing makes are outstanding.
I’ve found several 1950’s - 1960’s era vechicles on a front-end display at my local Rite-Aid Drug store for $3.49 - 3.99. Some are 1:43, others may be bigger or smaller. They are diecast with doors and hoods that open with plactic grilles, bumpers, etc. Some are pretty nice. If you don’t have a Rite-Aid they recently merged with Eckhard and Brooks, so they might be there as well.
Good luck.
Mike
Slightly off topic, but does anyone have information on putting lights in the cheap diecast cars/trucks? Even some of the offerings from Diecast Direct as I have plenty of them.
Thanks,
Dennis
Dennis,
I’ve used white reflective tape for headlights. Cheap easy and looks OK in the right light
Jim
The model shown at the York show was a one-off, handmade prototype that was produced to gauge reaction to a true 1/48 scale vehicle model. There is no real estimate of pricing at this time as there are lots of questions to be answered. An actual production model would most likely have the appropriate parts chromed. And Atlas isn’t limited to the vehicle models it has produced.
1/50 is a popular scale for models of construction equipment. As far as I know, it originated in Germany where it is a convenient scale to use with the metric system. It has nothing to do with model railroading so it isn’t referenced to track gauge. When Athearn decided to make larger scale models of some of their existing HO vehicles, 1/50 was chosen because it is just 4% smaller than finescale O and there was an existing diecast market for the scale.
1/43 is about 11.6% too large. For example, the real 1950 Ford Custom Deluxe Fordor sedan was 197.3 inches long, 76.4 inches wide and 60.3 inches high according to factory specs. A true 1/48 O scale model would be 4.11 inches long, 1.59 inches wide and 1.26 inches high. A 1/50 version would differ by less than 1/6 inch in length and less than 1/16 inch in width and height. A 1/43 replica, on the other hand, would be almost a half-inch too long, nearly a fifth of an inch too wide and just under a sixth of an inch too tall. To use another example, a six-foot-tall man would be 1.5 inches