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Scale
 The apparent scale for many of the wooden track buildings and
train cars is 1:87 based on door size, floor spacing, and car height. Doors are often a
common and standard feature suitable for use to balance textures and images from various
sources. These are generally just under 7 feet in height (~83"). Door widths can vary
significantly making this characteristic much less useful for scaling.Following are
some metrics based on observations to validate these scale assumptions.
 
Railcar scale
Railcar scale is harder to quantify. Wooden train car
bodies are roughly equivalent to 1:126 based on width and height. Train car lengths based
on 1:126 are clearly too short - about 60% of what would be expected for a normal car
length. The height is closer to HO Gauge if the wheel/trucks are included.
| Using a 1:87 scale, the cars are in principle
about 40% of standard rail car length, proper height (albeit with trucks too tall and body
too short), and approximately 30% narrower in width. Railcar height is arguably the most
apparent dimension during play, so 1:87 would again seem to be a reasonable apparent scale
to use for both trains and structures.
It should be noted that the ratio of
height to width to length for cars commercially available from various manufacturers
differs. Learning Curve™ cars are narrower, Brio® cars are
shorter, and Whittle cars have a smaller wheel size. These variations are apparent in the
comparative views of standard length cars shown. These differences can impact which track
pieces will work best on your layout. Shorter cars navigate through short switches and
curves better, while smaller wheels may cause cars to drag on tight radius arch bridges. |
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Track scale
The scale of the track is completely unrealistic of course. Not just
extraordinarily thick, rail spacing is also half again greater than it should be for a
track of this gauge. Wider rails, though, are quite helpful for train stability when
pushed by small hands...
Use of scale
Following is an
example of the yard tower in its original form and the same building updated to reflect a
more realistic scale with textures.
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