A friend and I were building roads today on me layout.. A small controversy came up in ref to feet and miles in HO scale.. I used the conversion factor of approx 87.1/1 which puts me approx .137772675 if 12" being 1. then I multiplied that by 5280.00 which is feet in a given mile. If you do this a scale mile = 60.166" My friend used a convesion chart. We both came up with different answers. The objective was to locate a "W" whistle sign before a crossing. I'm a stickler for my R.R. being to scale and right.
NickyB
nickybIf you do this a scale mile = 60.166"
That's a small error somewhere (and a convoluted way to reach the value). 5280' divided by 87.1 = 60.61998 feet for a scale mile in HO.
nickybI'm a stickler for my R.R. being to scale and right.
What radius curves are you using? How long are your trains?
nickybThe objective was to locate a "W" whistle sign before a crossing.
This varied from railroad to railroad and by location, but in many cases this was about 1400 feet in real life. Converted to HO scale, that would be about 16 actual feet from whistle post to the crossing on your layout. Unless your layout is exceptionally large, compression of distances is your friend.
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Exactly Cuyama, The actual scale feet is a bit much I know but like all other things to you have to make excemptions and move on I guess... I explained to my friend My R.R. my whisle sign I put it in then we went and had a beer and startd watching some Baseball. He liked that
I support selective compression.
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My whistle posts are always right next to the crossing.
-Kevin
Living the dream.
I think it has been discussed frequently in MR, but the concept of the "smile" comes to mind. I think it stands for "short mile." Factor is something like 5 miles actual to 1 mile on layout.