I am would like to get an opinion on what Vehicles look the best with Traditional S gauge American Flyer. I have purchased M2 1/64th scale vehicles but they seem to be on the small side. What vehciles do you use?
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M2, Johnny lightning, Hot wheels, AHL trucks. Problem is finding 40's era vehicles to model the 50's.
Rich
M2, the former Racing Champions, certain Matchbox and the others in 1/64 scale. You may be thinking the Manoil coupe and other Tootsy Toy-like vehicles AF used as flatcar loads are correct. If you are trying to capture the spirit of '50s Flyer, then go ahead. I use the 1/64 stuff myself. I know a few great S Gauge layouts that actually use 1/43 scale cars which are even too big for O guage and it seems right if all the cars are to the same scale. It's all how you carry it off. The 1/43 car guys celebrate the automotive aspect of the layout. It works. I don't know why. I just wouldn't do it myself.
The M2's, AHL's and others probably look small if referenced to trains on traditional Flyer track or Plasticville buildings.
They look just fine in a scale environment:
Rusty
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1/64 is "correct" for S, and I think Rusty Traque has it: The Flyer track ties are so high that the 1/64 cars do look small.
Myself, on the S portion of my layout with GarGraves track I have 1/43 models of small cars - Beetles, Morris Minor, Nash Metropolitan, sports cars, and so on.
I use the M2 cars, and they look fine next to a "S" Arttista figure. I'm a "diecast car fanatic" and think the quality, selection, and price of these cars is GREAT.
For trailer trucks,I like both the AHL line and the older Winross models.
Mark in Oregon
Three inch Tootsietoys are 1/64th (not the four inch ones) and the F&F plastic cars that came in grape-nuts flakes are also 1/64th.
It's funny but the 1/64th scale trucks like Winross and AHL look better proportioned as compared to the trains than the cars of the same scale. I just got some M2 vehicles to try and they seem too small even though they are supposed to be 1/64th scale. Maybe it's just me.
Jim McClenin
>> ...the 1/64th scale trucks like Winross and AHL look better proportioned as compared to the trains than the cars of the same scale.
Jim McClenin
I have heard that many of the die cast car manufacturers use a blank mold that is 3" long. Any model that is make from that size of mold blank is labeled 1:64. Models tend to fill up the available space in the mold. Thus, a VW beetle might be somewhat oversized while a Cadillac El Dorado might be somewhat undersized when compared to their respective prototypes because both cars come from the same size mold. Comparing a truck to a car would probably result in similar differences in scale. Cars are smaller and a bit too large while trucks, being larger, are a bit smaller comparatively speaking. All this is hearsay evidence, but it is the most reasonable explanation I heard so far. Ed L.
That seems to be true. All the cars are the same length. The packaging on many of the Racing Champions cars included the exact scale for the car in the package. As I recall it varied from about 1/61 to 1/71 for ones I have. These cars look fantastic on city streets on a layout.
