Can you put a number to it? It's not 1/48, right? It's smaller? And, if so, what scale is the postwar 646?
Thanks
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Jim,
The postwar 2046 and 646 are basically identical engines with different numbers depending on whether they were catalogued as O gauge (646) or O27 (2046).
You cannot assign a scale to these because they are not based on any one prototype engine in the real world. It has some features of a NYC Hudson, but it is selectively compressed in various dimensions and is not a scale model overall. The greatest compression would be the shorter length as compared to a scale Hudson.
Different aspects of the engine (height, length, width, etc.) are all different scale ratios as compared to typical prototype steam engine dimensions.
Jim
Toy scale! LOL!
Jim Policastro posted:Jim,
The postwar 2046 and 646 are basically identical engines with different numbers depending on whether they were catalogued as O gauge (646) or O27 (2046).
So, the only difference was which track they were sold with .... O or O-27?
You cannot assign a scale to these because they are not based on any one prototype engine in the real world. It has some features of a NYC Hudson, but it is selectively compressed in various dimensions and is not a scale model overall. The greatest compression would be the shorter length as compared to a scale Hudson.
I guess that is why they use the "Baby Hudson" term?
Different aspects of the engine (height, length, width, etc.) are all different scale ratios as compared to typical prototype steam engine dimensions.
Jim
Thanks, again. I asked because I have a nephew who builds dioramas, and he wants to have some trains combined with some 1/48 scale WWII armor models he built. There is a gentleman advertising two non-working 2046 engines for sale that I was going to buy, and I was wondering if they would look too out-of-place with the 1/48 models.
Jim,
That's correct about the track they were sold with. Either could really be run on O27 or O gauge, but they gave them different numbers . Same with 675 and 2025, 671 and 2020 turbines, etc.
I would think that your nephew could get away with using the 2046 with proper weathering and proper placement in the diorama. Good composition would make it believable since the engine would probably be of secondary interest to the military models.
Jim
Marx tinplate is often thought of a 3/16ths which is S scale with O gauged wheel sets for operation on O-27 or O gauge tinplate track. Lionel postwar tends to be somewhere between that and almost 1/4qtr but this varies between items sometimes quite a bit. Generally where 1/4 inch (.25 inch) to the foot scale is in the US recognized as O scale you will find that Lionel steam locomotives scale out at .2025 inch to the foot. Where S scale is .1875 inch to the foot. So you find the Marx 333 Hudson the smallest, the Lionel Hudson's in the middle between the Marx and of the near scale Lionel 773 Hudson.
As steam locomotives go in prototype the wheel arrangement does not mean that all are dimensionally the same. In the USRA days, which greatly influenced locomotive design through the 1920's and 30s, the builders provided a light and heavy version of the used wheel arrangements. So while this certainly is aimed at weight; locomotive's of lighter weight tend to be smaller than locomotives of heavier weight within a wheel arrangement.
So matching locomotive size to the scale of a diorama within the context of O or O27 gauge versus quarter inch to the foot scale is more in the eye of the beholder for reasonableness of the fit.
Bogie
