A daily updated blog typed by someone with painty hands, oil under his fingernails and the smell of solder in his nostrils who likes making all sort of models and miniatures. And fixing things.
Friday, March 18, 2011
UK vs US rolling stock
While I'm doing this HO scale thang, I couldn't resist posting pictures of the UK Ruston 165DS locomotive coupled to a US bogie reefer. The contrast in size between the two items of rolling stock is very interesting.
While I'm not an expert, I think this is a pretty standard wagon on American railways. It towers over the locomotive though. The difference in volume, allowed by thier more generous loading gauge, shows why in the old days you could fit a motor into a 3.5mm scale American loco wheras to do the same with a UK one, we had to blow the scale up to 4mm to the foot whilst retaining the same gauge.
Of course, nowadays we have nice little motors and sophisticated gearboxes which will fit. But it's too late to alter the most popular scale. Anyway, if you've ever built a locomotive with waggly bits on the otside, you'll have appreciated the extra space 'twixt wheels and footplate edge.
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4 comments:
And that's just a small transition-era boxcar! A modern 89' autorack is over twice as long and almost twice as tall!
Really ? !?!
As da Kidz say: OMG !
you picture makes the loco look small .Its when you start thinking the boxcar is 1:87 and the loco is 1:76 you realise that in "real life" American stock is massive compared to ours.
protoype example english loco aud US rolling stock:
http://www.railpictures.net/viewphoto.php?id=314109&nseq=10
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