I just had a thought..

[DarkTalon]

My favorite railroading is out in the garden..but what really brought me into the hobby was seeing O-scale stuff with all the bells, smoke, whistles, etc.. and all the operating accessories(cranes and what not..)  and I just recently saw this on Lionel's site http://www.lionel.com/VisionLine/index.cfm .  SO..my thought was..with the prices of some of the large scale stuff, why has this sort of detail on an engine not been done already in a scale that's roughly 2x the size of O?  The same goes with operating accessories, I can understand that some things are more difficult to do outside..but I've known alot of indoor large scalers that I'm sure might like such things...

Just had to say that out loud, thanks. :)

[Greg Elmassian]

 Look at the MTH stuff, it does all of that, they have a quillable whistle, and they are adding new stuff all the time. It's 1:32..

 

Regards, Greg

[DarkTalon]

 Not quite, while I could really care less about operationally swinging bells.. the blowdown and whistle steam effects would be quite nice to have, especially if you model 1:20.3 steamers, at least, in my opinion..

[cabbage]

 Dear Dark Talon....

What you are asking for has been around for over 100 years!!! The Scale is called "Gauge 3". It uses 64mm track (2.5 inches) and the scale is 1:22.6. Garden Railway Specialists sells this under the  "G64" section of their on-line catalogue. It is very much a minority interest here -but it is growing as suppliers gear up to the larger scale from Gauge '0' and Gauge '1'.

Have a look here:

gauge3.co.uk

http://www.grsuk.com/index.asp?info/welcome.htm

regards

ralph 

[GearDrivenSteam]

You had a thought? Was that what I smelled burning?

[DarkTalon]

 

GearDrivenSteam

You had a thought? Was that what I smelled burning?

Yes indeed! I should not do things in which I'm neither trained nor qualified for    

 And in regards to Gauge 3, I was kind of speaking more along the lines of the cost of SOME of the electric locomotives out there, live steam(which it appears those are from the gallery) is another beast entirely, especially when it comes to engineering and cost to manufacture..

[Greg Elmassian]

 Now I'm confused, your first post mentions all the gadgetry on O scale, and why not in G scale, right?

 I read your post 3 times to be sure that's what you meant...

 Then I suggest you look at MTH since they do lots of stuff like that.

Then you say: " Not quite, while I could really care less about operationally swinging bells.. the blowdown and whistle steam effects would be quite nice to have, especially if you model 1:20.3 steamers, at least, in my opinion.."

HUH? 

So is the "not quite" because you don't like swinging bells, but you do like all the other stuff? Good, because that's what MTH has.

or is the "not quite" because you want it in 1:20.3?

Just trying to understand what you want... 

Regards, Greg

[DarkTalon]

I say not quite because from every video(including their own) i've seen of MTH's large scale, they don't have any of what the Vision model had with the exception of an excellent sound system...their diesels and electrics on the other hand do have some details I've not really seen on any other models(like pantographs that operate themselves and operating fans on diesels)

And it's not about what I want, I was just wondering if anyone had any ideas as to why it seems that O scale(other than being probably the oldest scale) seems to be ahead of the curve on just about everything.

[cabbage]

All but one of my Gauge 3 locos are battery electric. The other is Steam Electric... I don't think that the engineering aspect of Gauge 3 is nowadays all that common -I for one do not consider myself to be an engineer. The Live Steam aspect of Gauge 3 is very lovely to see though!!! 

 regards

 ralph
 

[Great Western]

 Dark Talon,

Many large scale models do have a fair amount of detail but those that do usually comes at a higher financial cost than more affordable ones.

My view is that many modelers don't particularly need a lot of detail though I accept many do.

  The models I have, Bachmann 1:22.5 Big Hauler and Aristo-Ctaft 1:29 have quite sufficient detail for my preference after all I have to remove my models from their boxes when I commence running and replace them afterwards.  This can easily cause damage to highly detailed models - besides I have "two left hands" and can be clumsy.  

Moreover my trains run at dirt level and frequenly brush against foliage that that has grown close the the ROW - somethings that could snag against delicate detail.  So the smaller scale models, which are often run indoors and generally stay out on their layouts, can have a higher detail to them.

I hope this puts another point of view to you question.

[DarkTalon]

That is a very valid point, and I guess in a way justifies smaller scales costing just about as much as the larger in some places(concerning engines and rolling stock, of course) concerning ammount of detail achieved.

[grandpopswalt]

 With regard to the cost of LS vs. O scale ..... I don't have the figures to back up my opinion, but I think there are significantly more LS'ers than there are O scale modelers. If that's true then the rule of "economy of scale" suggests that as the market grows the unit cost to produce a commodity will decrease. Bachmann can afford to sell you that K-27 (a beautiful engine) at about the same price as a Lionel Hudson because it is producing thousands at a time as opposed to Lionel which produces a few hundred.

The kinds of accessories that are available in O scale would be cost prohibitive to manufacture in LS if they had to be made to withstand being left out doors in the weather. Most of us either run our engines and rolling stock indoors or to a protected place at night, or we bring them in. But whatever is left outside, track, structures, etc, and in this case cool accessories like animated crossing watchmen, milk can loaders, etc  has to be pretty tough, and expensive, to survive. 

Walt