Comparing RailKing "people" and true O scale figures

Pre McDonalds Big Mac. Post McDonalds Big Mac.

close enough....

  In my world most of you people are Railking size !

Haha, I guess like in real life, people come in all kinds of shapes and sizes....

They're both too short for me @ 6'-4".

Where do the Lionel Polar Express people fit in?

Of course you wouldn't try fitting the guy with a hammer in your O Scale SP Daylight passenger car - maybe on the station platform (if you're lucky enough to have one).

I support short people although I don't count myself as one of them; the Railking figures are the best for passenger car interiors.

Although the RailKing people may be a bit small, the sitting figures work the best of all brands in passenger cars. A study a forum member did a few years ago showed every makers 6' man was a different size.

Railking people are a bit small yes, but I usethem for children, and a lot of them for folks who fit in passenger cars, 1:43 buses and buses easily: not easy to get the full size figures in.   

Its funny but when I purchase O gauge people, sometimes the ones on the smaller end look good and at other times the larger figures look better. I believe that it depends on the setting and how the perspective looks to the eyes.

My experience with passenger cars is the smaller ones pretty universally look better in the cars.  All of the true 1:48 scale people sit so tall in the seats that you see their chest through the windows.

I must admit that my first reaction was, so what! From more than 3 feet away, who cal tell the difference, when your layout has various people standing, and/or working all over the place?

I can tell the difference between seeing the passenger's heads or their chest through the windows.  I guess I just have sharp eyes.

I believe that MTH's people and Artista's figures are both way undersized.  As well done as they are, they only look good, in my eyes at least, if they are grouped together by themselves with no true-sized figures around them.

I don't buy either for just that reason.

- walt

Looks like the RailKing figures might work well for S scale....

Mark in Oregon

He could also work with AF and Marx 3/16" on O-Gauge trains! That makes him an O-Gauge figure. Maybe not an O-Scale one, but he could be an O-Gauge guy!  LOL

John, where do you get your passengers?  I have 6 MTH streamlined cars to fill.  oO

I've used some of the Chinese 1:75 figures and just touched them up to give some facial features for many of them.  I also had some S-scale ones that fit perfectly, but I haven't found any more of those recently.  I think the MTH Railking figures are about the right size, but I don't want to have to paint them totally.

I find that ALL 'O' scale people are different sizes.....from really small to really big. I just do as lee does......either place like size together or use as appropriate.  Just like in real life.....many different size people and ages. Yet to be REALLY disappointed with any I've bought.

So based on Kim Kars pictures today, she's Railking on top and True O scale below?

Where would railroads be without road side tramps.

Gentlemen,

   In my Tin Plate child like layouts I have many different size people, animals, tractors and other vehicles, I have never counted rivets on my layouts so exacting size means little. 

PCRR/Dave

After all original Tin comes in different sizes, even the engines, tenders and rolling stock.

But proportionally speaking O-27/RailKing is like 30 percent smaller than scale

They're ALL better than the Lemax/Dept. 56 ogres I have lumbering around my layout at the moment...

I have avoided buying the value packs of 100 people or so (mostly from China) on the Bay for this very same reason.

I have notice at my LHS that the Rail King folk are undersized.

The painted folk that sell for $33 a set of 6 (German) are BEAUTIFUL but way out of my price range.

unless you are modelling a specific person than scale is irrelevant. For adults that could range from 5' to 6'  that would give you people from 1.25" to 1.5 inches

If the people are really out of this range why not just place  them further away so the size is not so relevant

Steve

There are a number of RailKing accessory items that are actually 'S'. They are made with tooling MTH picked up when Flyer was selling it to try and stay afloat before they finally went under. Most of it has been shifted from RailKing 'O' to the new MTH 'S' catalog.

The Gilbert Gallery has pictures of the originals if you want to compare to the MTH 'S' catalog.

So if Marvin is an inch and a quarter tall,  my O gauge handcar is really a narrow gauge G scale car?

Sorry, didn't mean to imply Mike purchased the tooling directly from Flyer, just MTH had some of the old tooling.

Flyer was selling off some tooling to raise cash before the Lionel takeover. My understanding is Mike got some of that tooling 2nd or 3rd hand from the folks that got it from Flyer, or from people who got it from them. I believe the Hobby Surplus folks got a pile of original Flyer parts in a similar fashion.