Since no one seems to make 1:48 or 1:50 vehicles which would be perfect for O scale, we are wondering if 1:43 scale work well. It seems that they are a bit large.
This is a common issue and it is a good question. I think you will be fine using 1:43 vehicles. I recently replied to a similar thread so if you don't mind, I will paste my reply here(laziness on my part).
I found that the actual scale of the vehicles is less important than how it fits in with everything else in the scene. Three rail O scale is a series of compromises in that we have some oversize elements as well as some undersize elements. Some examples include oversize wheel flanges, couplers, and the railroad track itself in many cases. We also use some undersize rolling stock and most of our structures need to be selectively compressed to fit on our layouts. I use vehicles in all three scales mentioned above. Some vehicles such as construction and farm equipment are easier because few people know the exact dimensions(I doubt anyone will know the measurements of a TD24 dozer off hand). A great example of a well detailed layout that combines various sizes of vehicles and structures can be found in Dennis Brennan's book Realistic Modeling For Toy Trains published by Kalmbach. This book is filled with great ideas for building and detailing a layout.
Karl
The 1:43 cars are perfect...the trains are too small! Why is it that we are not bothered by the fact that our "O" track is 1:45? Also, I can't think of 2 brands of "O" people figures that are the same size. They range from small MTH to large Prieser, with the rest in between.
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