1/50 OR 1/43? WHAT IS TRUE O-SCALE

1:50 is a bit closer than 1:43 but you can use either with O scale trains. Just try to keep cars of the same scale together with the larger scale cars in the foreground to create forced perspective.

Neither, its 1/4 inch to the foot or 1:48 scale.  Having said that it doesn't matter if the only hearse you can get is in 1/50 then . . . . . . .  Remember the smaller the number (1/43) the bigger they get and the closer to the front of the layout they go.  The bigger (1/50) the number the smaller they get and the further to the back of the layout they go.  Its called forced perspective.  I have all kinds of vehicles and they all seem somehow to make the scene.  I would suggest though that you try and keep like sizes together such as vehicles and figures.  A 1/43 guy next to a 1/50 vehicle looks like a Japanese monster movie!    Have fun is the important part.  Russ

I believe 1:43 is close to O scale in the European context.  But around here, 1:48 is the name of the game.

Russ has it right in terms of utilization of the sizes on your layout.  Works for me....it'll work for you!

KD

BTW...we often ask ourselves 'Why do the diecasters DO that?  Why don't they cater to our 1:48 world of choo-choos?'

Simple: The world of diecast autos/trucks/etc. is a whole hobby/industry unto itself and its own market paradigms.  I'm sure some hobby historian with a fiction&fact almanac at their disposal can shed some PhD light on this conundrum.....if I could stay awake long enough to digest it!!

So it goes...

And to make things even more interesting. "O" track is about 1:45.

IT would have been nice of Tonkin Replicas did 1/48 scale or even a 1/47 or a 1/49 scale instead of the 1/53 scale in the truck line! They would have been that much more sucessful for sure!

It is true that a 1:43 vehicle is 11.6% oversize in one dimension.  However when viewed as a solid object in 3 dimensions, that vehicle is 39% too large in volume compared to true 1:48.  Trucks in particular begin to look like earth moving equipment.  Vehicles in 1:50 are 4% undersize in one dimension and just under 12% too small in volume vs. true 1:48.  I try to seek out 1:50 vehicles whenever I can find them.

It's relative.  How large was an International Farmall M tractor (Red) compared to ???  Or a John Deere B model (Green)???    Which is 1/43 and which is 1/50?

Everything is different!  Three manufacturers that make the Dash 9 and claim its "scale", but they are all different lengths!  (Two of them, or maybe all three, have to be lying.)

There are no standards in this segment of model railroading

Not sure where scale confusion comes from. 1/48 scale is 1/48 scale. Because we use and manufactures sell 1/50 - 1/43 as 'O' scale does not mean the scale actually 'changes'. Maybe it's my scale plastic model background or years in N and HO scales where we do not have near the confusion with scale.  But the same can be said over the confusion of what 'scale' On30 is.........it's O scale 1/48......but there are some that insist it's a different 'scale'. These are both O scale......

I mean to tell ya! I love it when topics like this come up. Folks now days really get heated when it comes to this scale thing. The bottom line is one that most do not want to think about. No matter what....It's always about Toy Trains.

Ah, at last we have the requisite "They're only toys" post!  Pappy's happy when he's complaining about something (anything)... 

Typical non-1/48 scale vehicles

Construction equipment - 1/50 sometimes 1/48

Most cars 1/43

Trucks and Trailers 1/53 - (Tonkin)

WHY?  because none of the above manufacturers were making vehicles for Lionel Trains. Since even LNL was not scale so why should they??

I have 1/43, 1/48, 1/50 and a section of 1/53's. A lot of detail in the 1/53 as long as there separated from the other sizes.

https://ogrforum.com/t...53-diecast-on-layout

To clarify some definitions:

1/48 is 0 scale as used in the United States. 

1/43.5 is 0 scale in Great Britain. This is also the origin of HO scale (1:87="Half 0"). The reason most automobiles for 0 gauge are 1:43 is that the Brits were the early leaders in producing autos of this size and they built them in 1:43. Miniature car collectors collect 1:43, which is why there aren't any 1:48 cars.

1/45 is 0 scale in Continental Europe. MTH makes its European trains to 1/45 scale for that market, not 1/48. Although slightly oversized, they don't look bad next to U.S.-market trains because European prototypes are typically smaller. 

I wish somebody would makes some 1/48 cars so that we could have an Evans Auto Loader with correct cars. K-Line made a near-scale Auto Loader several years ago and had to fill it with Corvettes, T-Birds, or Volkswagens to make the cars fit. I've got Corvairs on mine. 

As Spence has said  the 1/53 Tonkin details are great especially the ones with the opening trailer doors (opening doors again!).

However, they look funny next to 1/43 cars when you look at the wheel sizes of the 1/53 trucks that by comparison are way too small.

However, if you place the trucks by themselves then it's ok.

If I remember my commercial drivers license exam single trailers in the 1970's maxed out at 40 feet.  And 36-32 were common for intercity delivery. So a O scale highway trailer of 36 foot should 'look' fine but is still large.  

Thank you, SwH!  I knew I could count on someone to correct my feeble attempt to reference the folks on the east side of the pond. 

Maybe their throwing out any inclusion of American contributions to classic literature in their educational system is retaliation for our changing the paradigm of O scale trains to 1:48???

Nah.....too petty.

I like to practice a bit of "dynamic compression" of scale with cars and trucks on the layout.  Cars - particularly small ones like sports cars, I much prefer to be 1:43 - the roughly 10% increase in size compared to the scale 1:48 trains and buildings around them helps the little shrimps.  

Big trucks, particularly big rigs, I prefer in 1:50 - I'd take 1:48 but frankly most good ones are 1:50 and the 4% difference is unimportant.  New Ray makes a 1:43 Kenworth tractor with various trailers, and it is just too big for me.  These are three favorites: all converted to 'Streets.  Left to right: Speccast 1:50: trailer is 8 3/8 inches long (35 feet at 1:50), Corgi tractor with 9 inch scratch-built trailer (that is a 1:50 38 feet - it looked just a tad too long at a scale 40 feet), and Corgi 1:50 at the right: trailer is 7.75 inches (1:50 32 feet).  

Britain also also has 7 mm to the foot "true" O-scale in which the track gauge works out to be exactly 4 feet 8.5 inches, so if you want to know what is "true O-scale" that is it. 

In United States O-scale which is 1/4 inch scale (1:48), the track gauge works out to be 5 feet 0 inches. This makes the wheel base too wide for all US O-Scale. There is something called Proto 48 which narrows the gauge of track from 1 1/4 inch which is what we use by ~3/32 inch to make the gauge closer to 4 feet 8.5 inches. In US O-Scale the trucks on all diesels are too wide and hence wider than the frame of the locomotive. The consequence of this is that you can see such items on the trucks such a leaf springs and brake shoes when looking from directly the top of the locomotive. When I stand at the King Street Station overpass and look directly down at locomotives pass underneath no part of the trucks of a diesel locomotive is visible. Steam chests, drivers, drive rods, trucks and other parts of a steam locomotive all too wide by just a bit because of the gauge being too wide.  With exception the proto 48 folks, all this does not matter to the majority of us. Even the most rivet counting among us I have never seen complain about steam chests being or drive rods being off because of the too wide gauge because of the 1:48 proportions of US -O Scale. 

Lionel when it first started making "scale" trains they used 17/64 inch scale. Go back to the mid 1930's before calculators and by long hand multiply all dimensions of a locomotive by 17 and then divide by 64 and you will find out why Lionel did not do that for too long. Lionel's M10000 was built to 17/64 and is quite a bit larger than the "copies" today. At 17/64 inch scale (which works out to be ~1:45.7) the track gauge is 4 feet 8.45 inches which is much closer to the prototype 4 feet 8.5 inches. A Big Boy built to 17/64 inch scale is about 3 inches longer than a Big Boy built to 1/4 inch US O-scale so that 1/64th inch makes a big difference.  But with 17/64th scale all dimensions of a locomotive can be built as true to the prototype as one desires and diesel trucks and steams drives and chests can all be implemented as accurately as possible. 

Going larger (1:48; 1.43.5, 1:43) the models become progressively larger and the track gauge becomes progressively more and more too narrow versus that of the prototype 4 feet 8.5 inches.

  It is surprising how often this subject is discussed on this forum. Maybe we should define "O-gauge compatable".

Douglas

When I run my Marx 1/64 scale O-gauge trains the 1/43 vehicles on the layout make the trains seem about the right size for O narrow gauge despite the fact the tracks are 5 (1/48) scale feet wide!

Oh man, I'm so confused.  lol

And talk about TONS of great cheap vehicles for the layout too!!!!!!

The only real rule on my layout is: it it looks good, it's the right scale.  

Unfortunately, all too often that seems to mean the cars and trucks cost  alot.  

THANK YOU ALL,FOR YOUR INPUT,SO BASICALLY.IF IT LOOKS GOOD,GO WITH IT.JUST POSITION THEM RIGHT.

Next stop... TURN THE CAPS LOCK OFF... 

NO.......

Really enjoyed this post, Folks. My thought upon seeing this topic was 'Aha! All the

"enguyneers" are gonna have a field day wit dis hear one!'

And you certainly did.

WELL DONE !!!

pps.: caps lock on drives some folks crazy but at least one can read it. Go easy on CCRider!!

If someone always uses CAPS and it's an issue.....enable the 'ignore this user' this forum offers.

I would go easy on CCrider if this were his first time, but he's always been doing it.

ALL CAPS not only makes it harder on average to read, especially with long sentences and paragraphs,  in online parlance it's also considered SHOUTING.

If people type in all uppercase just because they have difficulty reading their own words, you can adjust the font size in your web browser to take care of that problem.  Easy.

If you do it because your CAPS LOCK key is stuck, go out and buy a new keyboard; the average USB keyboard will set you back only about 14 bucks or so and usually include a PS/2 adapter (for whoever still uses those).  Easy.

Extend a little common courtesy to other people who are reading what you say and make it easier for them, not harder.  Easy.

I'm with John K on the caps lock. ALL CAPS IS RUDE. As he said, it's easy to adjust the screen font size so that those with vision issues (like me) can see. 

I too am sensitive to caps as shouting, but I would counsel tolerance.  Not everybody perceives things the same.

I just graded a paper - rather poorly done - that used strings of bold, underlined type to emphasize the student's belief that drawing a conclusion before any analysis was best.  It was very difficult for me to not further lower the student's grade for shouting, when his/her statements deserved no emphasis at all.

Back to the topic - I model in 17/64 scale, and prefer it.  I mix my models with standard O Scale with very little ill effect.  The giant Cab Forwards really are bigger!

(I also have a loop of 1 1/8" gauge O scale, which is another way of solving the scale/gauge problem.)

HOW EMPTY MUST YOUR LIFE BE,TO WORRY ABOUT CAP LETTERS.I AM NOT SHOUTING.YOUR PERCEPTION IS NOT THE WORLDS.IN A AMERICA WE ALL HAVE FREEDOM.WRITING IN CAPS IS NOT THE END OF THE WORLD.YOU WILL STILL LIVE AFTERWARDS.OUT OF ROUGHLY 30 PEOPLE.YOU WAS THE ONLY ONE CRYING.TODAY CAPS, TOMORROW SPELING AND GRAMAR..............HA HA

 
Nope, got a nice, full life, thanks for the assumption.  Nice deflection too by the way; that's usually indicative of when one is unable to formulate a valid or perspicacious response.

Not the world's perception, but most certainly not mine alone.

Have a good day.

BTW:  Stop shouting.

It's just etiquette.  Being a hippie and a child of the 60's (sorta) I have to tell you I do not care if folks breach etiquette, so long as they avoid personal attacks.

I find it very difficult to read "all caps" or Professor Fleming's bold underlined technique for emphasis on law school exams, but what I do is skip it if I can.