Is there a railroad scale close to 1/72? I am planning a rather larger diorama, but 1/72 vehicles and buildings are quite limited. Not that there aren't a lot out there, but none seem to cover what I am looking for.

HO Scale is 1/87 scale, that would be the closest.

Thanks Kevin.

British OO gauge is 1:76. it uses the same track as HO but everything is bigger.

here are few UK model shops that do international business,
not playing favorites, just a few to get you started with
http://www.crabpotvillage.co.uk/
http://www.thehobbygoblin.co.uk/
http://www.kernowmodelrailcentre.com/
http://railsofsheffield.com/
http://www.osbornsmodels.com/
http://www.thesignalbox.co.uk/
http://www.crafty-hobbies.co.uk/

I keep forgetting about those Brit's. They always have to be a little different.... There is actually quite a bit of OO in Canada too.

Hi Matt,

As said by others, HO is 1:87, British "OO" is 1:76, and S Guage is 1:64. How you deal with them kind of depends on the subject! If your dio is constructed to be viewed from a fixed angle, you can have HO stuff in the background to give a false perspective suggesting bigger distances than you have room for on the base. (Using N Guage stuff (1:160) in the "far distance" on an HO scale scene is a well-known trick that allows seemingly endless mountain scenery on a narrow shelf layout.)

Depending on the setting for your dio, you need to know that European trains tend to be the same scales as US ones (1:87 HO, 1:160 N) while for historic toymaking reasons the British stuff is slightly larger (1:76 OO, 1:148 N). O Gueage is another complicated one - in the US it is 1:48, in the UK 1:43.5, and around 1:45 in Europe.

If your dio is set in the UK, you can probably get away with mixing OO trains with 1:72 stuff, but it is more noticible if you use HO or S. Just be sure to keep a healthy physical and visual separation between these trains and the 1:72 figures to avoid direct comparisons!

Tom

I intend to build a 1/72 scale Dora. I am not sure of which support vehicles would be appropriate. There should not be any military buildings present, but maybe a cottage or barn. Being that it is so large, I don't think forced perspective will work. It will be viewed from the side.

Ah - I see the problem! All the German railroad stuff will be in 1:87, so will look rather small compared to the figures. I know there are German rail kits in 1:35 - are there any corresponding ones in 1:72? If not, you might have to scratch-build. Sorry!

The thing to bear in mind is the rest of the rolling stock that served the gun will be parked a safe distance away, in front or behind it on the main track. (They actually laid a new parallel track at the emplacement site because Dora straddled two lines...) So unless your dio is extremely long, chances are there wouldn't be any other train stuff visible nearby. What you would have, though, is a lot of trucks, kubels, and other support road vehicles scurrying around. The exceptions to the "no trains nearby" rule might be the diesels used to manouver the gun, and an ammo wagon?

Tom

This one really has me stumped. I've found several trucks in 1/72, but don't know which model would be correct.

Hi Matt,

I was at a show today, and saw a Trumpeter 1:72 kit of the German WWII diesel shunter loco - ideal for your Dora build. (They had it pushing a K5E on the box art...)

Hope this helps!

Tom

That would make a nice addition. I'm about to purchase a book on the Dora. I'm sure to find some reference material, in it.

How'd I miss this thread?

Jonathan, Kevin, Tom, thanks for the great input. Matt, you can often find model scales listed as OO/HO on older kits, marketed for both UK & US. For a long time in UK "HO" and "OO" were used interchangeably even thought, as Jonathan, Kevin and Tom mentioned, they are different scales that use the common HO track gauge.

O scale - some call it "woe scale!"

Hope you find what you seek.

One thing I've noted in HO structure reviews is that the 15% difference between HO and OO (20% for HO and 1/72) can be overlooked on some building kits; IIRC Ratio makes window and door kits for OO, and now ModelArt makes 1/72 windows and doors (Not separately that I know of.) One could enlarge the window and door openings of HO buildings and make structures for the other scales.