"> I have a large collection of trains that were given to me by a friend that "> changed subjects of interest. So anyway, it looks like the majority are HO "> scale. The only reason for me to know this is the boxes and online research. "> I do have one box that the cars seem very large for HO. The box cars are "> about 2" longer than the HO 45' trailers. Since all 12 are assembled and in "> a box together, how can determine the scale? "> "> I am not educated in trains and have no idea the larger ir smaller of O? N? "> HO? etc... Any help will be appreciated!
The *easy* way is to get a piece of H0 track and see if the wheels on these cars 'fit'. Yes, I know, they could be Sn3 or something like that. Does any of the 'collection' include any track? Even if it doesn't, you can still compare the wheels -- measure how far apart the wheel treads are on a 'known' H0 car and measure the spacing on the 'unknown' ones -- if the spacing (width) is the same they are the same scale, or at least the same guage track.
Note that while older vintage cars are likely to be 40' or 50' long (common sizes of box cars up though the '60s or so), more 'modern' box cars are longer, like 60 or *more* feet long -- so called 'High Cube' cars. A 40' H0 box car will be 5-1/2" long and a 60' 'High Cube' H0 box car will be 8-1/4" long.
It is easy enough to tell 0 from H0 from N: 0 is about 2x the size of H0 and H0 is about 2x the size of N. Other (not as common) scales include S and TT: S is between H0 and 0 and TT is between H0 and N. The most common incarnation of 0 scale is Lionel three rail 'tinplate' -- this is fairly easy to spot.
"> "> Regards, "> Denise "> "> ">
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