Scale of MTH RailKing Bus

Hi,

Don't know whether you are still interested or not, or even if it's still available, but I just bought the same bus but with different graphics.  The MTH catalog (30-50067) lists these as scale, which I took to mean 1:48 at best, 1:43 at worst and so I went ahead with confidence.  Unfortunately, it's got to be 1:50.  It was so small that I thought an HO model was sent by mistake!

I will probably keep it as I got it on sale from a forum sponsor and I think it will be fun to load it up with people.  However, it doesn't look the way I envisioned next to my trains nor my trolley.  And next to my 1:42 Dodge Power Wagon Kinsmart trucks (the only other vehicles I currently have) ... Well, you don't want to go there!  Visually it's just too tiny to put next to any of those.  If you have a big layout, it might look nice in the back somewhere given the colorful graphics of the eBay example.  Alas, my layout is too small to hide such a dramatic scale mismatch. Not that this ever bothered me as a kid ... :-)

Tomlinson Run Railroad

Hi, MTH busses are 1/50 scale and mix in well with Corgi 1/50 busses. I have several.

They also fit in well among 1/43 scale autos.

I feel 1/43 cars & 1/50 scale busses are perfect with O scale trains 

1/43 scale busses and tractor trailer trucks however do not look right as they are to runty.

Here's a photo of the MTH bus (Milwaukee Road) next to a Corgi bus (a GMC Yellow Coach 743). It does look a bit small, as the Yellow Coach was a smaller prototype compared to the later model represented by the MTH bus. I think it's OK on a layout as long as it's carefully positioned so as not to be next to something with which it's not in proportion. If it's driving down the road by itself,or in a bus station that's in the background, it should be fine. I wouldn't put it next to a 1:43 1938 Cadillac. I got it as a flat car load and it looks OK in that role. 

It's a Corgi 1:50 model, so it a very close match for O-gauge 1:48. I have both Corgi and MTH models and they are the identical castings, etc. Southwest Hiawatha's photos shows two buses that are both Corgi models, just of different buses - one is earlier and a bit smaller than the other.   Corgi makes a variety of 1:50 buses and some of those made in the 30s are quite small (as they were) and some made decades later much larger, as they were.  

I have a number of Corgi, MTH, and similarly licensed Corgi-casting buses on my layout, many converted to 'Streets.  They are good looking, nicely detailed, and close to scale.