Plasticville Union Station

[lirrman]

Have found several Plasticville Union Stations on e-bay.  All were listed in the HO section of Toys & Hobbies.  However, when I looked at the shipping information it stated "O" gauge.  Was this station actually made in HO scale.   Actually I was trying to find out the size of the footprint when the seller indicated it was "O" gauge even though it was listed in the HO section.
LIRRMAN

[Joe - PCA]

Are you referring to the Union Station or to the City Hall/Independence Hall? The Union Stations come in what we consider to be O scale and HO scale. However, the City Halls came in one size but Bachmann seemed to think it fit to market them as both O and HO!

Joe

www.plasticvilleusa.org

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

Are you referring to the Union Station or to the City Hall/Independence Hall? The Union Stations come in what we consider to be O scale and HO scale. However, the City Halls came in one size but Bachmann seemed to think it fit to market them as both O and HO!

Joe

www.plasticvilleusa.org

Seriously?    I bought a Bicentennial-era Independence Hall on eBay last year. I'll have to double-check it against some HO figures. I doesn't look too big to me to be HO. 

[lirrman]

Well, I went ahead and bought the Uion Station kit on e-bay.  It arrived, I assembled but I thought it looked a little small.  The 2 story building, with out the adjacent platforms, leaves a 2.5" (18') X 4" (29') footprint.  The 2 story height is 2.75" (20').   The box, which appears to date to the 50's or 60's, says HO but it still seems rather small.  (I also bought the
switchman' s tower which  says HO and also "built to 1/8 scale".   There's a BIG difference between 1/8 and 1/87).  I guess the station looks small because today's newer plastic kits are closer to scale and quite large by comparison.  This station could easily be used in "N" scale and nobody (well, almost nobody) would notice.  What really seems to give it away - the doorways are 7' high.  Thats HO.  Thanks for your replies.
LIRRMAN

[NelsOn-30]

1/8 scale (1/8"=1') is a scale ratio of 1:96 or just over 10% smaller than HO scale.

[Jhanecker2]

If you think about it the original   "O" gauge was  1/4" scale or 1/4" = 1foot, if you assume the original   "HO" gauge was supposed to be Half O gauge then  1/8" scale or 1/8" = 1 foot does make sense from a historic perspective. Since HO scale was later changed to its current 1/87 ratio this is where the change becomes apparent .

[Joe - PCA]

Maybe it was the other way around.... looks more like HO but was marketed for O too. I know for sure that only one size Independence Hall/City Hall was made.

Joe

www.plasticvilleusa.org

[Johnson Bar Jeff]

Well, I went ahead and bought the Uion Station kit on e-bay.  It arrived, I assembled but I thought it looked a little small.

It does look a little small, but so do some of the Plasticville HO houses, if you ask me.

[Hamish K]

If you think about it the original   "O" gauge was  1/4" scale or 1/4" = 1foot, if you assume the original   "HO" gauge was supposed to be Half O gauge then  1/8" scale or 1/8" = 1 foot does make sense from a historic perspective. Since HO scale was later changed to its current 1/87 ratio this is where the change becomes apparent .

Not really. O scale (and HO) originated in Europe. O was originally 1:43.5 so HO was half O. (These days 1:45, the most accurate O scale, is used in Europe although 1:43.5 is also used, the UK sticks to 1:43.5 or 1:43). In the USA 1:48 was adopted for O scale as a result of the ease of measurement in feet and inches. In those days models were not that accurate so the scale discrepencies were not seen as important. Some USA makers may have used 1/8 scale for ease of measurement, but as far as I am aware HO has always been 1:87.

Hamish