OO & HO (not a scale / gauge war)

Lima started producing HO for the UK market about 1972 and by 1975-6 spotted the scale problem and retooled for OO scale. Some of their wagons were HO European models with BR or NCB etc markings added.

They also do 1:72 scale (military) figures. People vary in size but you could certainly add HO figures amongst OO figures or in the background.

Faller, Kibri, Vollmer, Heljan etc started with buildings around 1:100 scale as well as foreshortening. You really need either to pick the models developed in the last ten years or measure them up before purchasing. There's always rereleases of old models so watch it! Pola (I think) was always 1:87.

- OO track is correct gauge if you're modelling 4'1 1/2" gauge.

- no danger of good operating models on British layouts.

- 60 years of old models aren't wasted.

- I can't buy any British models to use on my European layout, even those that actually got to Europe.

Regards, Greg.P.

Ah, now that is a bit closer to where I was going with this series of questions. Here in the Pacific Northwest, USA we had a couple of locomotives that were British built kicking around for a while. One recent example was a Vancouver Warves diesel locomotive that was the traditional 0-6-0 British switcher seen everywhere on their system.

I think Roco was, for a while anyway, making an HO scale version of that in several European color schemes because some of them wound up in the Netherlands, etc.

However, at least one of the early steam locomotives on what eventually became the British Columbia Railway definitly had a very British appearance to it, and I don't think there is an HO version of anything close. It *might* have been a Price (New Zealand locomotive builder) rather than British but unfortunately the one photo I saw of it didn't give any clues as to where it had come from.

I was just curious as to how well it would work to put a British OO model onto a North American layout, in order to model such situations as that or other cases where British locomotives have wound up in North America.

I've heard that British OO models, when put on North American model railroads, don't look horribly out of place because their size, while relatively huge compared to what the prototype would have been, isn't too bad when compared with North American freight cars. I don't think I've seen photographic evidence of that, however, so I don't know for certain.

Putting someone in the cab to run the locomotive seems like it would be particuarly problematic, but finding just one appropriate 1/72 scale figure that would fit in the cab and look apprpriate might be the best solution - assuming of course that it might be a problem for the locomotive to go wondering down the track with no one at the cotrols. Though I suppose it would be sort of fun to put an HO scale figure in there, sitting on the top of a step ladder or some such.

The Roco 0-6-0DE is usable once the headlights have been removed - they work so light guide holes need filling and then a repaint is required.

I'm not aware of any Price steam locos going further afield than assorted Pacific Islands.

OO locos are always going to be too big in relation to HO. Trix did a Flying Scotsman in 3.8mm scale. It was re-released by Liliput after Trix folded. Rivarossi did a Royal Scot 4-6-0 in 3.8mm scale plus LMS coaches. Both those locos toured the US.

Fleischmann does an actual BR Diesel (Warship class) and Southern coaches in genuine HO.

snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com wrote: [...]

I just placed an OO GWR 4-6-0 next to a PRR K-4 Pacific.They are about the same length, height, and width, but oddly enough, the 4-6-0 looks too big. Its wheels are too large, and its cab is too tall compared to the boiler. The 6-wheel GWR tender looks weird next to the 8-wheel (two truck) PRR tender.

I also put a 60ft BR coach next a 72ft PRR commuter coach. Not quite as bad. Same length, height, and width within a millimetre or two. But the windows don't look right on the BR coach, they seem too large for the body compared to the windows on the PRR car. The doors are definitely wrong, they reach to the roof line.

So, no, even though the models are about the same size, they don't look right next to each other. The proportions of windows, etc, make one seem too large and the other seem to small when set next to each other.

HTH

Thanks very much for that effort.

The particular locomotive involved (not even sure where I saw a photo of it) was something along the lines of a very small 0-6-0T or 0-4-2T, and I suppose that it wouldn't do to have a "tiny" switcher like that dwarf a large mainline locomotive.