difficulty with scale.

[Anonymous]

Having some trouble understanding this HO stuff.
So HO is 1:87.1 in scale.
And scale works no matter what unit you work in right?
So a 5 3/4" long box car (58mm) would be how long in real life?
5.75 * 87.1 = 500.8" = 41.7'
or
58mm * 87.1 = 5051mm = 5m
then also 41.7'=5m?

I suppose the important question is; Are box cars really 41' in length?
then this would all make sense.

[Sperandeo]

Hello "mackrafty,"

You seem to be doing just fine. The most common length for boxcars up into the 1950s was nominally 40'-6". After that 50-foot boxcars became more common, and that's still the size of most boxcars today.

so long,

Andy

[gvdobler]

Or if you were to lay 87 of the model box cars end to end, they would be the same length as the real box car.

So if you only needed 50 cars they would be bigger than HO , but if you needed 160 model cars they would be much smaller,,right.

[tstage]

QUOTE: Originally posted by mackrafty

Having some trouble understanding this HO stuff.
So HO is 1:87.1 in scale.
And scale works no matter what unit you work in right?
So a 5 3/4" long box car (58mm) would be how long in real life?
5.75 * 87.1 = 500.8" = 41.7'
or
58mm * 87.1 = 5051mm = 5m
then also 41.7'=5m?

I suppose the important question is; Are box cars really 41' in length?
then this would all make sense.

mackrafty,

Actually, your calculations are a wee bit off. In reality, 40.5' = 12.34m

But, using your figure of 5.75" from you equation above, it should read:

146mm (58mm) x 87.1 = 12,717mm or 12.72m or 41.72'

That should make things work out a bit better for you. [:)]

Tom

[tatans]

Before we converted to metric, I always knew a boxcar was 40 feet in length, to this day I use that as a standard when estimating any distance and I"m usually right on. I did not know that today most boxcars are 50', now I must readjust all my thinking, but still a great way to estimate a distance.

[Anonymous]

I was wondering why it wasn't really 58mm, and then...

Holy cow.. I just realized that the ruler I found has four sides, BUT ALL the sides are measured in inches. Each side is just measured in differnent Nths, like 10ths, 32(the norm), 15ths, and 12ths.
I was so confused when I tried to measure metric, but really i was measuring inches in 10ths.. whoah..

I so very much need to find a metric ruler if I am going to try and NOT confuse the heck outa me. Thats the last time I try and do measuring and math starting at 2am!!!