I just ran a postwar car and a 602 prewar car through an 022 switch, and it appears they both will work just fine. The flanges on the 602 are slightly larger than the flanges on the postwar car.

 

Allienfuel has not been back since July.

I guess he is totaly confused now. :smokin:

 

excellent posting........I found it very confusing until i learned of the many variances in O Scale stuff.........again, excellent explanation.

 

The "N" in N-scale, could also have meant "Nothing could be smaller than this!" And then Z scale came waltzing in.

 

These are all O-Gauge boxcars. Not sure if ANY are actually O-Scale!

 

No one has mentioned OOO scale trains yet.
In 1969 and 70 I built my first OOO layout on a 4x8 board. This later became known as N scale. From O scale, we had OO scale, and then OOO scale. OO is about half of O, and OOO is about half of OO. When OOO came to be, it pretty much ended TT scale's chances of being big in the states. I still have a beautiful little TT scale train layout.
Over the years I have chanced upon some pretty interesting information on scales and gauges of trains. Wow, there is a bunch. It seems I saw included in the lists a mention of #3 gauge also, don't remember for certain.
An extra thought here just fell out, darn thing bounced off my foot before it hit the floor. Seems like the floor has gotten farther away from my hands too!!! Awww, got it...has anyone tried using O gauge track to run G scale trains to represent approximately Go30?
Anyway this has been an interesting thread and thought I'd bump it up.
Dick

 

RMT has a somewhat eclectic assortment. Their ore cars turn out to be scale sized, but most of the other stuff is either fantasy or "traditional" sized.

 

I just recently purchased a Lionel Christmas train and the overall size between it and some of my Lionel trains makes it look a bit smaller...... go figure...

 

I was revisiting this thread today as I recently purchased an MTH Southern Pacific 4-8-4 Gs-4 Steam Engine on eBay (got a swinging deal for 130.00 and it works great after mostly being stored) and have been looking for a couple of Southern Pacific passenger cars for it. At the moment I'm pulling some 0-27 Harley Davidson cars with it, but wanted some lit cars. The Southern Pacific motif is pretty much color coordinated with the Harley stuff making for a good looking train. Needless to say, finding SP *** cars in 0-27 has been a challenge. Most are either HO, G-Scale or the larger O-Scale. Now I have a better idea on what to focus on....

 

Prewar O size variance

I've just wrapped up the restoration of a little prewar Lionel Ives 1501 windup loco. With that, I'd thought I'd offer some size comparison pics of some prewar O tinplate locos.

Pictured left-to-right are:

Lionel 258 (custom paint)
Lionel 1681
Lionel Winner Lines 1015
Lionel Ives 1501

These are all O gauge, and they all have x-4-x wheel configurations.

TJ

 

I love O and O-27 simpley due the all the action accesory buildings/ industries. However I feel I would have a hard time making it all to scale like I did with my HO layout. Instead of making it realistic I may make it the Toy Train Layout.

 

Like I alway say.........No matter what scale.......THEY ARE ALL TOYS.

The main thing you hear about 3 rail is the track is so unrealistic.
I guess some never saw a well built 3 rail layout, if you just can't get over the third rail then look at a well built O gauge 2 rail layout.

Or then step a size down to S, a little smaller and it has "realistic" two rail.

Most HO or even N modelers will tell you that the number 1 reason they model HO (or N) is because of the size requirements needed for an O layout.

But in the end THEY ARE ALL TOYS.

I like them ALL no matter what size they are. :smokin:

 

The traffic over in another thread got me interested in looking at the Lionel freight cars at The Western Depot. Now I better understand why used cars sell for so much on eBay.

Every car I looked at specified a minimum curve of O-31. For example:

http://www.westerndepot.com/product_info.php/cPath/21_503_34_338/products_id/39627

Why would that be for a box car? I can understand something like a Berkshire locomotive binding up, but other than possibly looking funny, why would the above car not work on my O-27 layout?

Thanks,
Tom

 

Sometimes the trucks don't have the clearance to swivel sufficiently for O27 curves, that would be the normal reason for that restriction.

 

Learning... But Confused


Fair enough.

It would appear that lack of swivel was built in on purpose. Although I am still learning, my best information is that my Pullman cars were made by Lionel. The cars are longer than the new-stock-for-sale case I cited and run quite well on my O-27 track.

Although I am not averse to rebuilding for O-31 curves, it would be great to know if Lionel's description for new stock is a requirement or a recommendation.

Thanks,
Tom

 

I suspect the only way to really know is to try them. Some of the recommendations are chiseled in granite, other cars it's just a "suggestion". I tried to run the Hogwart's locomotive on O31 curves, it's rated for O36. Even making a couple of mods, I still couldn't get it around the O31 curves! I just took the scale PFE Vision Line Reefers and pushed them around the few O27 curves I have in a box, they went around without a problem.

 

Expensive Foray

I suspect the only way to really know is to try them...

I agree.

I was hoping someone had already experimented.

Tom

 

Not me, maybe someone else here.

 

Why not try some of the Railking cars? I have them in three different road names and they do work on O27.

 

Scale O Gauge vis-a-vis 1/48 Scale

Nearly all of my freight consists are Scale (1/48), but there is considerable difference between Atlas O, K-Line Scale, MTH Premier and Lionel Standard O. I don't think I have any Lionel Standard O left. Seems to me the MTH Premier and the Atlas O are more consistent. The K-Line Scale is a little smaller in most cases, but I surmise that K-Line was making Scale of the smaller real thing. The only freight car I have left that is semi-scale is the K-Line Texas Mexican Railway Boxcar. The only way I will part with it is to have it pried from my stiff dead fingers.

 

Scale

I also have an MTH Texas & Pacific Caboose that is Rail King, but is nearer 1/48 scale than most Rail King.

 

FYI, quite a few RK items are scale sized. Many of the smaller switch engines, stuff like the bobber cabooses, and their 70 ton ore hoppers are all scale sized.

 

All scale size by different manufacturers.

I have attempted to upload pictures, but don't know if successful.

 

When I watch real trains, I've seen boxcars of varying sizes all connected together. It makes my feel better about having cars of differing dimensions in my consists.

 

Definitely - boxcars, tan cars, gondolas and other types of the same type of car vary slightly in size in the real world. I think it is more realistic when they do on the layout. I actually like the fact there is a tiny variation between cars of different manufacturers (and sometimes even among the same, from different years' productions).

The photo below shows what I think does not work out, though, at least for me. Both are Lionel O-gauge products, a standard size (1:48 scale) Santa Fe "Map slogan" car on the left, and a traditional size one on the right. These I never run together.

 

Definitely - boxcars, tan cars, gondolas and other types of the same type of car vary slightly in size in the real world. I think it is more realistic when they do on the layout. I actually like the fact there is a tiny variation between cars of different manufacturers (and sometimes even among the same, from different years' productions).

The photo below shows what I think does not work out, though, at least for me. Both are Lionel O-gauge products, a standard size (1:48 scale) Santa Fe "Map slogan" car on the left, and a traditional size one on the right. These I never run together.

View attachment 85154

Lee, I am not trying to argue, just trying to learn. If you like them being different then why don't you like those as your example being different?

 

Note: Within the non-O-scale K-Line offerings there are those that use the old Marx O-27 molds & are so small that K-Line also sold them with American Flyer trucks as S-gauge cars & there are those that are comparable to Lionel's traditional O-gauge cars.
Attached is a photo of two K-line boxcarsn the left, K-6454, an imitation of Lionel's classic 6464 boxcars, & on the right, K-5122—made from a Marx mold.

 

Great topic.

I just built this multiguage shelf at our club to help explain the differences to the our visitors. I still have a few things to add including signage.

 

Crap crap crap. Dad collected and handed down 15 rolling stock, 2 cabooses and 4 engines of postwar "Lionel Traditional" scale stuff. Thought I had a good head of steam going into this but it's actually an anchor. Looks like "Scale" is the place to be. Crap. :smilie_daumenneg: