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During the last 30 years, the trend, some may call it an obsession, with the desire among many baby boomers to have their 3-rail trains as "scale" has been an interesting phenomenon.  Many of us grew up with Lionel, American Flyer, and Marx traditional or semi-scale trains, and likely didn't give a hoot about whether our toys were scale. As we got older and had some money from working our tails off, we slowly but steadily wanted our trains and structures to be more "scale." This transformation happened to me around 1991 when I saw my friend's Erie Triplex running; it simply looked neater to me. I think this was due in no small way because our 3-rail track systems are a bit wider and much higher than what the proportions of real railroad tracks are to real trains, and "scale" trains tend to diminish this discrepancy.

Yet, it always confused me that O-scale was listed by the manufacturers as 1:48 scale and HO (half of O) as 1:87. If HO was half of O, then HO should've been listed as 1:96 scale. I am sure the TCA has published this discussion before and some of you may already be aware of the origins. Evidently, it all began with Marklin producing the original O-scale trains in 1:43.5 scale. Now the math works, and I can rest . BTW: In Europe, 1:43.5 "O-scale" is still the standard.

O scale - Wikipedia

Last edited by Paul Kallus
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The "half-O" (yes, it is properly "0"/zero and not "Oh" as in the letter, but Anglophones tend to interchange "zero" and "Oh" freely) refers to the gauge, and not the scale. HO gauge is half of O gauge, but O gauge track is actually too wide (5 scale feet - that should be 4ft 8.5 inches)  for N. American 1:48 scale....which makes O gauge too wide for O scale....but not across the Atlantic, kind of, where O scale is 1:43 or 1:45, depending on the country.

....you had to bring this up, didn't you?

I have two model railroad books, one printed in 1939 (England) the other 1940 (USA).  They agree with what has been stated above.  Also they agree that Scale Model Railroading as opposed to Toy trains really started in the late 1920's.  There were a few earlier live steam ones built.  The very first ones were scratch built to varying scales.  However It seemed that most modelers' were laying Track at O-gauge (1.25").  The proportions in the UK 7mm to the foot.  In the USA 17/64 or 1/4 inch to the foot with the later being the more popular.  At the 1933-34 Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago there were a number of O Scale Model Railroads displayed which seem to further "fuel" the interest of the public.

Last edited by MainLine Steam

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OGR Publishing, Inc., 1310 Eastside Centre Ct, Ste 6, Mountain Home, AR 72653
800-980-OGRR (6477)
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