FINDING OUT HOW TO FIGURE OUT THE HO SCALE

[norman peterson]

[:D][:D]i need help in finding out the HO scale out. Like in inches and feet. I don't understand how to do it.

[ukguy]

HO is 1:87 so for every 1 inch in HO it would be 87 inch in real life, Or if some thing were 87ft in the real world it would be 1ft (12inches) HO scale. just divide any linear measurement by 87 and you will have the correct scaled down version for HO

Have fun & be safe
Karl.

[AggroJones]

Check the Walther's catalog or your LHS for 1:87 scale rulers if you like to purchase one.

I aquired mine from the bathroom floor at the local GATS show in 2002. Found a FREE ruler. Can't beat that.

[Virginian]

Aggro, please tell me you washed that ruler!

[dehusman]

To go from real measurements to scale, divide the real measurements by 87.
To go from scale measurements to real, multiply the scale mesurements by 87.

Then convert the results to the measurements you want.

For example if a gondola has an inside length of 52 ft 6 in, that's 52.5 ft. Divide by 87 to get .603 ft or 7.24 in in HO scale.

For example if two tracks are on 2" centers, multiply 2 in by 87 to get 174 in or 14.5 scale feet ft.

Dave H.

[Fergmiester]

Though I realize HO stands for half "O" scale, which is 1/48, which really means HO should have been 1/96.

I've got to ask the question How did we turn 96 into 87?

Fergie

[Leon Silverman]

Fergie:
The HO means that you can take an HO scale train and fit it between the center and outer rail on O-guage 3-rail track. The HO track guage scales out to a protypical 4'-8-1/2" spacing between the rails. O-gauge trains are sized to 1:48 proportion, but the original O-gauge track scaled out to a 5'-0" guage. If you look at pictures of O-gauge layouts and compare them to HO gauge layouts, you can probably see that the O-gauge layout has a slightly wider spacing between the rails.
Proto:48 scale takes the O-gauge sized trains and runs them on track rails that are scaled to be 4' 8-1/2" apart.
This is why HO scale is not proprtioned to be 1:96.

[siberianmo]

Good answer, Leon ...... I've wondered about that myself!

See ya![tup][;)]

[RedLeader]

HO means "Half O" not in proportion but in gauge. Two different concepts. Originally the letters really meant the gauge and not the scale, with time the idea have changed, but the concept is still the same. So, what I really mean is, that what HO means is that the track gauge is 16.5 mm. Now, in proportion, that would be 1:87.1 times smaller than the real thing (standard gauge). But HO gauge not necessarily means that it is 1:87.1 in proportion, this applies in the case of On30 (O that uses HO tracks) or OO (1:76.2 in HO tracks).

Here's a helpful link: http://www.nmra.org/standards/S-1_2StandardScale.html

[palallin]

Gauges are not lettered: they are numbered. What we today call "O" was originally "0." And the scale which was first applied to it (when scale became a consideration) was a relatively accurate 1:43.5, half of which is exactly 1:87. "O" scale eventually became 1/48 because the math and the measuring was simpler, but nobody wanted to change the gauge (until the P:48 guys came along). You'll notice that O scale cars are still 1:43 and that so are British O scale trains. There is also a P:87 to satisfy thos interested in a correct gauge for 1:87 scale.