O scale automobiles

EBay is a good place to get affordable vehicles.

I usually put the scale and era ( i.e.1950 etc)into the search options and the set it for lowest price first.

Then scroll as the price increases and see what you find.

My nicest  most detailed vehicles were found this way and purchased for 9$ or $10.

There are many more 1:43 scale vehicles than 1:50 models, especially common stuff like cars.  Not sure why that is, but that's the way the market moves.

As long as you can accept 1/43 there are TONS of decent looking affordable cars. 

ebay has been mentioned. I just got a nice Chrysler 50's era sedan for $15 shipped. 

Modern sports cars are easy. But 50's and 60's are not to hard. 

Have a Rite Aid nearby?? They have a good collection of 1/43 in the $5 range. And watch for them to go on sale 'buy one get one' too!!! 

Dollar General has a line of 1/43 too. Mostly sports cars but I picked up a nice Packard for $4. 

Big box stores often have 1/43 cars. I picked up a few 32 fords, 34 Fords, 49 Mercury, 55 Chevy and 50 Buick....all around $5 each. These can be used as is....but I rework them into very nice looking vehicles. 

Bottom line...lots of options out there. 

How about the old K Line cars? There were a bunch of those, and they were usually around $5 or $6 each. Somebody is still selling them, maybe MTH? There are usually stacks of them at Greenberg shows. I have a bunch of them on my Christmas layout.

Most of the K-Line cars were common Hong Kong 1/43 that are still sold today by others....so don't pay big bucks just for K-Line. 

Diecast Direct is the best source - by far. Huge selection of vehicles across all price points. Widest selection of cars along with small trucks is in 1:43 scale. Largest selection in larger trucks, as well as busses, is in 1:50 scale. Had great stuff at the recent York Show.

Sometimes you can find some cheapo trucks at the Dollar Store.

I haven't been on the Diecast Direct website for a while, but they used to have lots of 1:43 vehicles in the $5-$10 range. Nice quality for the price and nice looking too. ModelTrainStuff used to have a good selection as well, I believe they were the Yat Ming brand. American Models also has some less expensive 1:43 models in addition to their high end stuff.

As others have said the dollar stores and drug stores also have some at very reasonable prices. Watch the size at some of the drug stores though, some are more like 1:35 or maybe 1:38 and a bit large for our O gauge layouts. Amazon and eBay also have quite a few offerings of the lower priced vehicles.

Menards has 16 1:48 cars for $39, here.

Cvs drug stores have 1/43 & 1/25 cars & trucks. My wife bought a 1950 Chevy suburban for my layout.

ebay listing 381734177577 has smaller quantity for a little over $2 per car.

1/43 is O scale in Europe.  Many MTH trains for across the pond models are 1/43.  

If you are looking for more modern vehicles do a search on the bay for Neo 1:43.  Not necessarily cheap but a large selection and great detail

Not all Neo is modern..recent offering is a nice, resin, 1937 La Salle coupe, long sought by me. Not much cheaper than Brooklin, but l can't use modern.

colorado hirailer posted:

Not all Neo is modern..recent offering is a nice, resin, 1937 La Salle coupe, long sought by me. Not much cheaper than Brooklin, but l can't use modern.

 

No sure what you are looking to pay for the 37' La Salle Coupe but there are at least 10 of them on the bay ranging from $70-80.

I just bought 2 die-cast 1:43 Studebakers from

https://www.diecastmodelswholesale.com

and they are fantastic, about $8 each.  For those who want something closer to 1:48, because I am fitting both with a 1:48 scale slot car chassis, they seem to be closer to 1:48 to me.   Some of the 1:43 cars I have seen from drug stores and WalMart look a little too big for our O scale, especially next to an O scale figure.

I am looking for just any type of car to fillup parking lots/whatnot.

I found road champs C5 corvettes that I think will be the ticket for my used car dealer..

I've gotten so used to the incorrect scale for model cars that it just doesn't bother me anymore.  I realize that the cars are in 1/43 scale:  The trains are in 1/48 scale.  One thing that helps me correct the visual discrepancy is that none of my cars represent newer models than 1950.  That was the era that I selected when I started building my layout over 20 years ago.  Of course, the reason  I chose this was that I could represent the last years of steam but also the first years of diesels.  Also,another advantage to choosing 1950 is that you limit yourself on cars that you buy for the layout.  In spite of their comparative rarety, I still have managed to accumulate over two hundred different vehicles for the layout.  (You limit the number of trains that you can buy. using 1950 as a standard as well, saving yourself the  painful decision of where and when to buy.)

The reason I say that this helps my image is that cars made during the 1930's and 1940's were smaller than the behemoths that followed in the next two decades.  And, interestingly enough, combining trucks and construction equipment at 1/50 with the 1/43 scale doesn't seem to bother the authenticity of the scene, to my eye.

Paul Fischer

Dominic Mazoch posted:

1/43 is O scale in Europe.  Many MTH trains for across the pond models are 1/43.  

Correct - mostly.

When first defined (by Marklin, I believe) the scale ratio was 1:43.5 and was called "O". From there HO was created, meaning Half-O, which turned into 1/2 of 1/43.5 or 1/87! And that's "The rest of the story ." *

Alex

* Anyone remember Paul Harvey?

John H posted:

Menards has 16 1:48 cars for $39, here.

Forgot that one in my post above, but that's a great buy and the cars are nice too.

I ordered a set of those when first released and just totally forgot all about them. I'm blaming it on age...senior moments.

1/43 is one of the standard scales of the car collecting hobby, a hobby that is many times larger than the O gauge railroading hobby. Hence most cars are made in 1/43 scale not 1/48.  For the most part construction seems to be made in 1/50 scale for what reason i haven't verified, but suspect that scale is driven (No pun intended) by the collectors in that hobby and not the model train hobby.

Ingeniero No1 posted:

Dominic Mazoch posted:

1/43 is O scale in Europe.  Many MTH trains for across the pond models are 1/43.  

Correct - mostly.

When first defined (by Marklin, I believe) the scale ratio was 1:43.5 and was called "O". From there HO was created, meaning Half-O, which turned into 1/2 of 1/43.5 or 1/87! And that's "The rest of the story ." *

Alex

* Anyone remember Paul Harvey?

Old Paul Harvey always had something to say, and a lot of it was interesting to say the most!

Try Toys R Us - they carry Greenlight vehicles. They're 1/43 and have several versions of Jeeps, some late model and classics. They usually un no more than $12-$15

Here's a couple I just acquired....

I model Sept. 1940, so no later (or generic) vehicles are allowed (not the cheapest way to go!) But this was the beginning of the EMD E's in brilliant colors, and well into the Zephyr period, so l could roster diesels if l wanted them, more than a year before Pearl Harbor.

Right now there doesn't seem to be much of 1:48 scale cars, trucks or such. That needs to change, but who is going to make the change?

Another popular vehicle scale, of course, is 1/64.  Since S scale is 1/64, and American Flyer is  nominally S scale, I have aquired a wealth of 1/64 vehicles.  Many produced in this scale represent race cars.  Ironically, some 1/64 die cast  race cars are even marketed under the Lionel name.  Non-race cars of various era vehicles are pretty plentiful although trucks or buses, etc. seem harder to find.

On the other hand, the high rail profile of AF track, and the somewhat out of scale nature of many traditional AF accessories tend to make some true 1/64 vehicles appear too small.  That, along with my having used Manoil, TootsieToy and whatever other toy cars and trucks I had with my Gilbert AF trains as a kid, has left me with a pretty wide tolerance for vehicle scale in a traditional toy train layout.

1/43 in the front and 1/64 farther back, no problem.  S scale, Plasticville and MTH people all coexist peacefully in my world.  Although no giant Gateman has ever been spotted on any layout of mine, there have been reports of a huge cow blocking trains and traffic from time to time. 

Cheers!

Alan

Alan B posted:

1/43 in the front and 1/64 farther back, no problem.  

Along with construction vehicles, 1/50 is also a semi-popular scale for military vehicles out of Europe. Anything made by Solido, for example, is usually 1/50 though plenty of eBay vendors will call them anything from 1/48 to 1/43.

If you’re looking to do 1/64 for the background, somewhere between those two points, you could place some 1/50 stuff. I have a 1/50 scale GMC CCKW (early closed-cab) 2.5-ton truck way in the backdrop among the trees. It’s properly camouflaged by being under cover as a solider would place it in training during WW2.

I model the Blue Ridge area of Tennessee during WW2, a place where almost any ‘normal’ diecast car would look out of place. The few civilian vehicles I have are all from the early to mid 30s. Even a 1941 pickup looks a little odd but it’s effectively weathered. The problem with diecast cars, the primary audience for them is wanting the rare and expensive car types, while us model railroaders want the normal, pedestrian stuff. A 1937 Cord 812 Westchester, for example, would look quite ridiculous on my layout even though it does fit the timeframe.

Got a decent 50 Buick today at Rite Aid for $4.....they had a Caddy too but it was a top down cnvt....so I passed.

I tried for quite a while to find 1/48 O scale cars with little success so it was on to 1/43 scale cars and trucks. The difference in size is very minor and no one that has seen my layout so far notices the difference.  My main problem is finding cars and trucks in the 1950's steam/diesel era that I model.  A Camaro or Firebird just doesn't look right at the grade crossing where a steam loco or an F3 passes.

Dennis LaGrua posted:

I tried for quite a while to find 1/48 O scale cars with little success so it was on to 1/43 scale cars and trucks. The difference in size is very minor and no one that has seen my layout so far notices the difference.  My main problem is finding cars and trucks in the 1950's steam/diesel era that I model.  A Camaro or Firebird just doesn't look right at the grade crossing where a steam loco or an F3 passes.

I hear that.

Thinks like construction equipment and fire trucks have a long service life, so they can span a much larger time period.

Either you see 57 chevys, corvettes or like brand new style cars.