am i missing something?

[overlandflyer]

"The correct scale for standard-gauge trains running on gauge-1 track (which is what almost all of us use) is 1:32."

i read the statement above in the FAQ's, but then the only "Full-Size Drawings" you present here state 1:29 scale in their titles?  i do see that these are merely re-dimensioned HO scale drawings (with dimensions drawn in rather crudely) and aren't really the work of the author, but wouldn't this serve only to confuse those unfamiliar with what should be the correct scale for #1 gauge when modeling standard US gauge (56.5")?

[cabbage]

Yes -you are not missing something. For some reason the US seem to like running 1:29 scale (i.e Gauge 2) on Gauge 1 track.

regards

ralph

[Rene Schweitzer]

You are correct -- 1:32 is the accurate scale for standard-gauge trains on gauge-1 track. Unfortunately, when large scale, standard-gauge trains first started appearing, the manufacturers (primarily Aristo-Craft and USA Trains) chose 1:29 scale so that a standard-gauge boxcar (for instance) would be about the same size as a narrow-gauge boxcar in 1:22.5 scale. This incorrect and confusing scale achieved a foothold in the market as hobbyists accepted it. By the time 1:32-scale trains started appearing (primarily from MTH), 1:29 scale was already well established.

It is because most American standard-gauge modelers use 1:29 scale that we publish the drawings to that scale. We also publish a chart with each set of drawings that indicates the reduction or enlargement
of the drawings for all of the common garden-railway scales. --Marc Horovitz

[overlandflyer]

Aster was making #1 gauge (1:32 scale) live steam since the 80's.  i will be building the Aster Challenger when it arrives in October (joining the NKP Berkshire already in service as freight haulers), but sadly i cannot find even a dozen scale freight cars to pull.  Accucraft sold out a huge amount of 1:32 scale UP-SP reefers i unfortunately missed out on, and now with the Accucraft Big Boy (1:32 scale) coming out soon, 1:32 freights will be extremely scarce (unless you want to pull a string of M&M hoppers).

manufacturers are you hearing this?

i thought the arbitrarily 'bigger is better'  wars ended with the tinplate battle between Marx and Unique Arts in 1950.  scale modelers from around the world, ...despite how it appears, not everyone in the US failed high school math.  as far as your table of scales and gauges, i'd like to see a % error column added.  such a normalized figure would be far more informative than simply showing the prototype-scale difference.