I belong to the 'if it looks right then it is right' camp. I have to say that whichever scale of loco I run - and I have most of them - they all look daft against the scale tree that works out to be about 1000' high and the 100' wide flower. And as for them giant birds the size of a 747, well.............
Kim
I loved what you said mate i didn't fully understand it but i roughly got the gist of it. Scale is a hard thing to understand and it is impossible to fully inplement.
Rgds Ian
Gentlemen.... I don't have a great deal of experience here but what I do know that between the 1870's and the 1940's the average door frame increased in size over 4 inches so a house built in 1875 would have what today would be very short doors (5'6" to 5" 8" versus 6' 8" today) and in overall peak height would be two to five feet shorter than a house constructed to the same style in 1920. Only the very rich would have houses or buildings with expansive spaces and ceilings over 7-8 feet. Until electricity was widely distributed in rural America in the 30's-40's ther were not many center ceiling hung lights mostly wall sconces and table lanterns. So in reality a 1:24/1:29 construction would look like an 1880's home on a 1930's scene.
My two scents ....
mr
Which is exactly why I vote with my wallet and don't buy manufactured or kitted structures. They get zero dollars from me until a standard becomes standard, not just a selling point.
Funny, I don't feel better...............
The Dixie D Short Line "Lux Lucet In Tenebris Nihil Igitur Mors Est Ad Nos 2001"
Step 1: Get the manufacturers to consitently build to their advertised scale. Why Aristocraft builds trains to 1:29, but buildings to a larger but indeterminate scale boggles the mind. Aristocraft's people are even too large for their trains! Pola--the granddaddy of large scale buildings--seems to have somewhat of a rubber ruler as well. Though marked as 1:22, their US western buildings are well suited to 1:20.
Step 2: Get manufacturers to recognize that what 10 years ago was a fairly amalgamous group of "g-scalers" has started to specialize into more-or-less two separate camps; the narrow gauge folks who are increasingly become very particular to scale, and the 1:29/1:32 crowd that needs smaller buildings to go with their standard gauge trains. "Middle of the road" isn't going to cut it any more because the market simply has matured.
Step 3: Convince the average garden railroader that a 1:29 scale locomotive really looks out of place when sitting next to a 1:20 station. I don't know how many times I see photos where a small closet-sized station dwarfs a Big Boy. Okay, there is the "run what you like" aspect of the hobby, but that's like using S scale buildings on an HO scale railroad. It just looks funny.
Unfortunately, until all manufacturers recognize this diverging trend in large scale railroading, we're going to have to suffer off-scale products that accurately match nothing. I'm glad to see more 1:29 buildings entering the market, and I sincerely hope folks show their appreciation with their wallets. THAT's what's going to convince manufacturers to develop more offerings. Getting back to step 3, we as consumers have to stand up and say THIS IS WHAT WE WANT. It's happening with respect to our trains. Now, we need to take it to our accessories.
Later,
K
Age is only a state of mind, keep the mind active and enjoy life
Couldn't agree with you more. While I am very new to this hobby I have been fustrated in trying to select various accessories to go with my construction plans. Seems like everying is either too big or too small to really look good with what I want to do.
Now I feel better too..............................
Just a rant born of frustration with the on-going lack of scale standards in LS. I just read Rene's fine article "Garden Railways buyer's guide to large-scale structures" in the Feb. 2007 issue of GR. On page 94 is a chart showing the various manufacturers and the scales that their products are made to. The majority of the structures are made in 1:24 scale, while only a small handful is available in 1:29 or 1:32 scale. There are some in 1:22.5 and quite a few in 1:20.3. Here's the point: how many layouts are actually modeled in 1:24? .... very, very few. Most are 1:22.5 because most locos and cars are 1:22.5. The 1:20.3 boys can now get a nice scale building to go with their B'mann Connie or Annie but they still have to pull freight and passenger cars that are seriously out of scale (1:22.5). The 1:29 and 1:32 gang now have a plethora of choices in both locos and rolling stock but generally have to settle for buildings that are too big. I'm beginning to think that no one in the industry is paying any attention to what the other guys are doing or what the customers are buying ............ there, I feel much better now.
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