Scale Size

Vincer,

In O gauge products, MTH makes two product lines, Premier and Railking.  The passenger cars you bought are in the Railking line and are not usually scale size products (somewhat undersized in length).  You say that the loco is in the "F" series, so the loco is probably near scale size, regardless of Premier or Railking line.

So, the problem you are perceiving is probably the shortness of your layout when a passenger train is chasing its tail.  Only resolution is to lengthen your layout and maybe get away from pure ovel running.

Chuck

MTH, Lionel, K-line (defunct), even Atlas (under their Industrial Rail line) make a lot of equipment that is O-gauge but not O-scale (1:48) to service a market where a guy wants dependable, well-made, well-tracking equipment but does not have the room (typically) or the budget (these smaller items typically are lower-priced) for the 1:48 items.

It sounds like you got a Rail King locomotive, and possibly some Rail King cars, as few 1:48 passenger cars would be 16" long.

You didn't buy the "wrong" anything - but wading through the variations of 3-rail O-scale/gauge is a learning experience.

MTH - purple box = 1:48; yellow box = Rail king, under 1:48 unless it says "Rail King Scale".

Lionel - "Standard O" = 1:48; "Traditional" = under scale, typically...

It can be confusing. No short answer.

And remember, if it looks good to YOU, then it looks good enough.

An F-3 A-unit diesel locomotive is 50-feet 8-inches in length. Since O-gauge is 1/48th of full size, a scale F-3 is 12.67 inches in length as is my Atlas O Santa Fe F series diesel in the picture below. Most passenger cars are 84 feet in length - which scales to 21 inches in O-gauge. However, many O-gauge passenger cars are compressed to 18 or 15 inches in length. A compressed O-gauge F-3 diesel model is about 10 inches in length and goes well with your 16-inch passenger cars.

MELGAR

If your F3 engine is about 10" long it could possibly be the 'Rugged Rails' B&O model which is mechanically similar to the larger RK Scale and Premiere engines but designed for small layouts. Can you post a photo of your engine and cars?

No matter which one you get $20 is an amazing deal!  Congratulations and welcome to O gauge trains!  Welcome to the Forum as well. Stick around and ask questions  there is a vast pool of good information here.

C.Sam beat me to it, It sounds to me too, like you got am MTH Rail King Rugged Rails series F unit.

MTH also made RK passenger cars in 12" length, in both Stream Lined and Madison (Heavy Weight style), I don't know if they made them in B&O or not (Hey they DIDN'T make Santa Fe Madisons)

Theses are nice cars with detailed interiors.

Doug

The MTH website shows 12" Railking passenger cars:

30-6111  4 car Streamlined set shipped 3/1999

30-6116  Streamlined Coach

30-6127 Streamlined Combine/Diner 2 car set

30-6265  Madison 4 car set  shipped 3/2000

30-6266  Madison Coach

30-6269  Madison Combine/Diner 2 car set

The product locator, not surprisingly, doesn't show any in dealer stock, but they were available a LOOOONG time ago.

This will at least give you item#'s to help you look for them. I have several sets of both styles of these cars(just not any in B&O) I think that you would like them, if you can find them.

Good Luck,

Doug

Greetings all,

Thank you all for your informative replies.  They were very helpful.

I believe the streamlined set that Doug mentioned (30-6111) is/was the compatible passenger car set that is best suited with my locomotive.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying the setup as I have it now and the difference in loco/car size isn't bothering me as much as it first did. Also, my train isn't chasing its tail quite yet as Chuck mentioned. I think once I get the room to expand my layout that will help. 

I will try and post a photo soon.

Thanks again all,

Vincer

Greetings all,

Attached are a couple of photos of what I had discussed in my first post regarding locomotive/rail car ratio size.  It's not an impressive layout I know but it will improve over time.

Thanks for looking,

Vincer

Hi Vincer,

  Actually, even though the F-3 is short for scale length, so are the passenger cars, real passenger cars would be a bit more than 1.5 times as long as the F-3, so your proportions look pretty good comparing the locomotive/cars.

 The MTH Railking 027 cars (the 12") would still look Great, but would look better on the curves, as they would have less undercut to the inside, and less overhang on the outside of the curves.

 The model railroading hobby is as much one of Balances and Compromises, as it is about trains. In this case is the closer to real proportions more important to you, or is the appearance on curves? Or GET BOTH sets, and run each as the mood strikes you .

  Be careful, it sounds like you have contracted a case of the "O Gauge Virus" which is generally incurable, but Rarely Fatal(unless your Wife catches you buying more trains.

Doug

Nice looking set and as Doug mentioned is fairly proportional to the real train. Your cars appear to be the 15" models which goes very well with your locomotive.  Hard to believe you got this for $20! That's terrific.

You could also be on the lookout for a set of wider curves to expand your layout. MTH (and others) track is often available 'used' at a substantial discount...

In a hobby shop that set would cost 10 times more.

Good posts above. In the real world, your matched set is closer to scale than what I run. I have a postwar set of Alco FA diesels that are about the same size as MTH's rugged rails F-3s and run them with O27 passenger cars that are 12-13" in length. In fact, I've limited myself to Lionel and MTH O27 passenger cars mainly due to the overhang you're seeing.  See if you can get some wider curves when you expand your layout.

Vincer posted:

Greetings all,

Attached are a couple of photos of what I had discussed in my first post regarding locomotive/rail car ratio size.  It's not an impressive layout I know but it will improve over time.

Thanks for looking,

Vincer

More interesting are those wood floors! Are you living in a older home? Those floors look amazing!