I’m into O scale and the rest of the world, it usually seems, is not. Dimensions in model railroad books and magazines are almost always sized to HO scale, or even S scale of all things. Of course, after A. C. Gilbert imploded in 1967 and took American Flyer with it, it seemed like the “S” is S scale stood for “scratchbuild,” because building it yourself was the only way you were going to get anything, so I guess that’s fair.
Here’s a cheatsheet you can use to convert measurements from one scale to another.Assumptions: O scale is 1:48, G scale is 1:22.5. If you use a different measurement for either scale, I’m sorry. This won’t be much use to you.
| G Scale | O Scale | S Scale | OO Scale | HO Scale | TT Scale | N Scale | Z Scale | |
| G Scale | 213% | 284% | 339% | 386% | 533% | 711% | 977% | |
| O Scale | 47% | 133% | 158% | 181% | 250% | 333% | 458% | |
| S Scale | 35% | 75% | 119% | 136% | 188% | 211% | 289% | |
| OO Scale | 30% | 63% | 84% | 115% | 158% | 211% | 289% | |
| HO Scale | 26% | 55% | 73% | 87% | 138% | 184% | 253% | |
| TT Scale | 19% | 40% | 53% | 63% | 73% | 133% | 183% | |
| N Scale | 14% | 30% | 40% | 48% | 54% | 75% | 138% | |
| Z Scale | 10% | 22% | 29% | 35% | 40% | 55% | 73% |
Find your scale in the table along the top, then scroll down to the desired scale and find out the factor you need to enlarge or reduce. So, if, say, I have HO scale plans I want to enlarge to O scale, I run across the top to HO, then down to O scale, and see that I need to enlarge the plans to 181%. If I have O scale plans I want to reduce to S scale, I run across the top to O and down to S, and see I need to reduce the plans to 75%.
I’m sure someone will find this useful.
Anonymous
/ July 19, 2004Sure you’re sure? I mean, I can see how anyone who’d want this would be glad to have it. I’m even sure I can see how anyone who needed it needed it bad. I’m not either, by the way. Hwever, I don’t quite see how you can guarantee that you’ll reach either of the above. Tell me that, in general rather than specific terms, but with illustrative examples, and you’ve revealed the secrets of the universe.
Anonymous
/ July 19, 2004A very significant amount of my traffic comes from search engines. It varies from month to month but 30% wouldn’t surprise me. Since this kind of information is fairly rare online, and Google does a good job of indexing me (and MSN and Yahoo seem to be doing better lately), I’m pretty confident the people looking for it will find it.