Large Scale Central

1:30 scale vehicles

General Discussion
#1

I know many folks out there are looking for 1:29 scale vehicles to go with their 1:29th scale trains. I haven’t seen much in 1:29, but I found some 1:30 scale vehicles on 3000toys.com. So I thought I would share what I found with those who are looking. I know 1:30 isn’t 1:29, but its pretty darn close.

Texaco Firetruck

http://www.3000toys.com/catalog/detail.aspx?itemfind=ERTLF415

Texaco semi truck

http://www.3000toys.com/catalog/detail.aspx?itemfind=ERTLH817S-B

Texaco tinplate style truck

http://www.3000toys.com/catalog/detail.aspx?itemfind=ROUND%202CP6040

Texaco tandem axle truck

http://www.3000toys.com/catalog/detail.aspx?itemfind=ERTL9385

Texaco tandem axle tanker

http://www.3000toys.com/catalog/detail.aspx?itemfind=ERTL9330

Texaco tank truck

http://www.3000toys.com/catalog/detail.aspx?itemfind=ERTLF950

Now admittedly many of these are vintage vehicles, but then so are steam trains. :wink:

#2

It’s a bit odd that people try to find an exact 1/29 scale model to supplement their 1/29 scale trains when there are perfectly acceptable models claiming to be 1/30 scale that are not actually that scale .

Along with other things , Martyn , my Son , and I collect diecast models . We also make model road vehicles in a variety of scales .We do quite a bit of research on the general roadscene and also on field tractors and earth movers .

Because of the research we have done , we have found that many road vehicles are approximately the claimed scale , but not exactly or even close in some cases .

We demonstrated this by placing a (claimed) 1/18 truck , and next to it another (claimed)1/18th scale model of the same truck.

The latter truck was 1/19.6 scale . Next to that we placed another (claimed) 1/20 scale , it was in fact the same size as the 1/19.6 job . I hope you see where this is going .

Placing vehicles side by side by side in this manner we actually got as far as 1/43 scale before we ran out of near adjacent scale vehicles . So we got an ever diminishing sized line of vehicles all claiming to be the same scale as its predecessor in the line up .

So what , you may ask ?

If it looks right , use it , that’s what .

Try this without being cynical or smart assed .

How big would a 1/24 scale Jeep Grand Cherokee be ? Don’t look it up , just guess how many inches long it would be . I bet you would not get within a half inch of the actual dimension .

So where does this leave us ? Should I soil the look of my 1/22.5 Beyer Garratt by placing a 1/24 vehicle next to it ? Or would nobody realise that it was the wrong scale ? Wouldn’t everyone be marvelling at the loco ?

I would advocate the old engineering rule----if it looks right , it probably is .

Your choice , spend half your life looking for exact scale models (incidentally plastic kits tend to be very accurate) and finish up having no road traffic , or accept that near is good .

By the way , the placement of your road vehicles can make it matter even less .

Mike (fed up with having to add “Brit” to his signature)

PS Talking of scale , why do we happily tolerate a live steam loco with damn great gauges and valves

poking out of the cab like some hermaphroditic creation ? Do we close our eyes to that but niggle

about “scale”? .

#3

Mike I agree. I have some smaller type 1:24th scale autos that look to be over-sized next to other 1:24 scale autos of a larger type. But by placing the over-scale autos together in one location and the right sized ones together in a different location, the scale variances can be hidden.

But Mike, the point of my post was to point folks to autos that they might be able to use with their trains. I was just trying to help

I purchased the 1:30 scale firetruck for a project I have in mind. I would have preferred a longer firetruck, but the one I posted/purchased will work for my project.

#4

‘Should I soil the look of my 1/22.5 Beyer Garratt…’

Is this a scratch-built model, Mike?

tac
Ottawa Valley GRS

#5

Those are great!

#6

David Maynard said:

Mike I agree. I have some smaller type 1:24th scale autos that look to be over-sized next to other 1:24 scale autos of a larger type. But by placing the over-scale autos together in one location and the right sized ones together in a different location, the scale variances can be hidden.

But Mike, the point of my post was to point folks to autos that they might be able to use with their trains. I was just trying to help

I purchased the 1:30 scale firetruck for a project I have in mind. I would have preferred a longer firetruck, but the one I posted/purchased will work for my project.

Sorry David , I knew what you were trying to do but got a bit carried away .

I usually do when my pet subject of scale madness comes up .

By the way , the trucks you highlighted would grace any layout .

Mike

#7

tac Foley said:

‘Should I soil the look of my 1/22.5 Beyer Garratt…’

Is this a scratch-built model, Mike?

tac
Ottawa Valley GRS

tac , I have never actually checked on the supposed scale of my LGB/Aster thingy , so that sorta proves my point , don’t it ? I bought it because it’s very pretty and looks about ok to me . Oh yes , and at the time was extremely rich . Not now though , spent it all on trainnz .

Mike

#8

With careful and shrewd buying one can make a small fortune with trains,

provided you start with a much larger one.

:wink:

#9

John Caughey said:

With careful and shrewd buying one can make a small fortune with trains,

provided you start with a much larger one.

:wink:

John , you been peeking at my bank account ?

Mike

#10

Mike, I agree about scale madness. To me as long as things are close, then its ok with me. Some folks don’t have a sense of scale at all though, and their set ups do bother me a bit. In one place I used to go when I was a truck driver, they had display with an approximately HO scale diner with approximately O scale tractor trailers parked in front of it. That kinda bothered me.

I build in 1:24th scale, because the math is easy for me. But the lumber I use is in 1/32nd increments, because I use a set of drill bits to set the space between my saw blade the rip fence, and the bits are in multiples of 1/32nd of an inch. So I build in 1:24th scale with 1:32nd scale lumber to represent a 40 inch narrow gauge railroad running on 45mm track. The “proper” scale for 40 inch gauge trains on 45mm track would be 1:22.58.

Round here the second rule is the 10 foot rule. Rule number one is have fun, but don’t hurt anybody.

#11

John Caughey said:

With careful and shrewd buying one can make a small fortune with trains,

provided you start with a much larger one.

:wink:

Yeah and those who figure that the large fortune will be a nice nest egg after they departed are living in la-la Land.

David M

This is how I rate model railway items (in reviews and such)

How the measurements are rated:

+/- 1.0% or better : Excellent
+/- 1.1 to 4% : Very Good
+/- 4.1 to 7% : Good
+/- 7.1 to 10% : Passable
+/- 10.1% and above : Questionable

Measurements taken with:

Vernier (0-450mm; 0.02mm accuracy)
Digital Vernier (0-200mm; 0.01mm accuracy)
Height Gauge (0-250mm; 0.02mm accuracy)

For some that is much too strict and technical since it requires access to the correct prototype data as well as the equipment and skill to measure accurately. OTOH a very long time ago I was QC inspector in a very fancy tool room at a high tech company in Switzerland. Where “close enough” was not even in the vocabulary.

#12

Scale madness:

Once, at a train show, a friend pointed a guy out to me and said, “Watch that guy. He’s a real stickler and will pick your stuff to pieces if you let him.”

A few minutes later, another friend pointed the same guy out to me with a similar warning.

Later, I noticed him looking my train over very carefully.

He sauntered over to me. “I want to point something out to you. Hershey never painted the kisses gondola silver. They were white like the paper flag.”

I’ll bet he sent those too friends to me to give me that warning :smiley:

#13

Ah, and since I have yet to find any prototype data, beyond some old photos, I would rate Excellently questionable.

:wink:

Hans the amount of allowed variance depends on the application. Many times my electronics teacher would hand me a resistor or capacitor for what we were working on, that wasn’t what my calculations showed I needed. To him it was “close enough”, and sure enough he was right every time. The circuit worked, even though the component in questions wasn’t bang on what it was supposed to be. But in other applications, there is no tolerance for any variance.

#14

By the way, THANKS DAVID for putting up some links of interest to us!

(just in case you were beginning to think “why bother”)

Regards, Greg

#15

Tom, trying to model accurately is a good goal. But rivet counters can be cruel and heartless sometimes in pointing out fopas. When I was in High School, a friend of mine scratch-built a pickle car. He followed the plans he had very closely, and I thought he did a fine job in painting and lettering the car. He displayed the car at the local hobby shop. A rivet counter started in on my friend about incorrect details on that model of car. Bolts that should be there, rods that were wrong, paint colour being incorrect for that vintage of car and the road number was wrong as was… None of this was in the plans my friend had. I believe that was the last model my friend built for many years, maybe ever.

I have been asked to judge at model contests. I do, even though it does make me uncomfortable. I can see the time and effort that has gone into many models, and I hate to pan someone else’s work and effort. So when I have judged contests, I don’t want to be questioned by any of the contestants as to why I chose A over B, or why I didn’t choose C. I don’t want to come off like the guy who hurt my friend. I would rather be a secret judge.

#16

Thanks Greg. And you are welcome.

#17

David Maynard said:

…

Hans the amount of allowed variance depends on the application. Many times my electronics teacher would hand me a resistor or capacitor for what we were working on, that wasn’t what my calculations showed I needed. To him it was “close enough”, and sure enough he was right every time. The circuit worked, even though the component in questions wasn’t bang on what it was supposed to be. But in other applications, there is no tolerance for any variance.

Funny you should mention that .

In one of our operating groups back East we had an electronics teacher. Naturally he would be the first to be consulted when something of the electronic variety didn’t work e.g. a throw-indication LED would just not light up. Given the voltage and the current he quickly determined the required value … no, that LED would still not light up.

Yours truly then suggested to use a xxxx Ohm resistor. The accurate resistor was replaced with my xxxx suggestion and … look at that … the LED lit.

In that case I was way outside the tolerance. But it wasn’t a “scale” resistor.

#18

H-J,

Did you use the formula MA=GIC?

#19

Hans the amount of allowed variance depends on the application. Many times my electronics teacher would hand me a resistor or capacitor for what we were working on, that wasn’t what my calculations showed I needed. To him it was “close enough”, and sure enough he was right every time. The circuit worked, even though the component in questions wasn’t bang on what it was supposed to be. But in other applications, there is no tolerance for any variance.

A couple years ago, I read an article about “Black Converters” or making switching DC-DC converters with minimum components. “Hmm. wonder if I can make that work.”

I put one together on my breadboard with what components I had, and nothing near the values the article suggested and the silly thing worked! Not only did it work, but it worked well, holding the output steady under various loads and input conditions and keeping the efficiency in the high 70s.

Oh, Sorry. This is a thread about those cute trucks, not half-functioning electronics.

Those ARE really cute and would fit right in my era.