How long is long?

[Anonymous]

Okay guys, I live two blocks away from Port Coquitlam's Intermodel rail yard. Supposedly it's the biggest in North America. It's 3.5km/4.8mi long and really wide. I haven't been inside since I was a lil kid.

I'm really thinking of joining a model rail club and trying to model PoCo's yard, complete with haunted round house.

So How long would it be in HO? Couple hundred feet or something?

[Anonymous]

If you made an exact scale model:

(4.8 X 5,280)/87 = 291.3 feet in HO scale

Wow, how many cars would it take to fill that yard? Probably a year's worth of production by Athearn.

[Anonymous]

"Supposedly it's the biggest in North America."
Well, maybe second biggest. Check out the Bailey Yard in North Platte, Nebraska - it's 8 mi. long.

http://www.uprr.com/aboutup/history/bailey/

[Anonymous]

Well Think Scale i think HO is every 8th inch = one foot so take it in that direction and yes i probably will be big.

~UP3593

[Anonymous]

I live near a branch line so the biggest yard i have ever seen is an hour drive South West.

~UP3593

[dknelson]

1/8 inch to a foot is much smaller than HO although some use it for very rough estimates for trees and scenery and other noncritical measurements. 60 feet per mile is close enough for this purpose.
Not only would you need huge space and huge numbers of freight cars to fill up an exact scale yard -- even an exact scale model of a fairly compact yard -- but think about the electrical power needs and the wiring. Could you afford the lighting above?
And then start to wonder how you'd keep the track clean ...... dream on

Dave Nelson

[Anonymous]

Hmm...yer right. The model club has their layout in an old abandoned school gymnasiam. It would proubly cost $1000's just to buy the track.

I must of been bonkers...

[Anonymous]

maybe ATLAS would DONATE the rail


HAHAHAHA sometimes i crack myself up!!!!!

[Anonymous]

Ok if 1/8 in is smaller than HO then what is it. because im new to Ho from o gauge and thats 1/4 so whats Ho?

[Anonymous]

even though your kidding its NOT FUNNY!


UP3593

[dknelson]

Oh my young friend this gets complex! American O is in fact 1/4 inch scale. But the old English O scale was 7 mm to the foot. 1/2 of 7 = 3.5mm which is, of course, HO scale. I do not know if anything is made in 7mm to teh foot scale anymore even in Merrie Olde England.

Way way back there was some interest in 1/8 inch scale and a few locomotives and cars were built. I think it was called E scale after the guy who built the stuff, Egolf (spelling? I am relying on my memory here). By way way back I mean the mid 1930s. The nice thing about 1/8, and 1/4, and for that matter S which I think is 3/16, is that you could use regular rulers and do the conversions in your head. oddball mixes of 3.5 mm to the foot are an unfortunately holdover from the past.
Dave Nelson