Just curious- LGB has been known to be quite flexible with their rolling stock when it comes to scales. Any idea what scale their #42790 caboose is (Approximately)? Or if it looks good with 1/29 rolling stock? Your thoughts………
-Kevin.
Kevin …as you know I like to go buy my eye but I’m guessing it’s at 1:22.5? Only a guess
Rooster- Thanks. By my eye, that’s what I would normally think, too (I even tried using the other eye, as well- no luck). But, I’ve read that some of their locomotives and their New Orleans style street car are closer to 1/26 ish. Many of their standard gauge box cars are the same basic dimensions as Aristos. 1/29 ish…. I dunno!???!
-Kevin.
Well I know that Aristo is not true 1:29 with most of their passenger equipment and my struggle with the LGB Amfleet cars is they are somewhere between 1:29 and 1:24th in my opinion.
As I understand it, Aristo’s heavyweight stuff is modeled after some 72 ft NJC commuter stuff. At least that is what they say. That’s is why they are shorter than expected.
Aristo said that their streamline passenger cars are “near scale length”. Well, thats open to interpretation. Even though the are visually too short, I like them.
Steve Featherkile said:
As I understand it, Aristo’s heavyweight stuff is modeled after some 72 ft NJC commuter stuff. At least that is what they say. That’s is why they are shorter than expected.
That was the story I heard about the streamliners that David mentioned …however this has nothing to do with Kevins caboose…Wait that doesn’t sound right. How about the “Caboose that Kevin was looking at”. Wait …aaah forget it!
I’ve heard it (somewhere) that Aristo’s heavyweights are closer to 1/32 than 1/29. The interiors (seat spacing, diner tables, doors, etc.) sure seem to indicate that to me.
Hey…. I think I just hijacked my own thread…
-Kevin.
And hey- stop looking at my caboose. I’m very self conscious about that.
Kevin - it only gets worse from here. With Ken constantly commenting that he likes mine and Rooster posting pictures it gets downright embarrassing 
Really, the only way to know for sure, would be to take measurements of the model and compare them with known dimensions of a suitable prototype. Things like doors and step heights could give you an idea of approximate scale, if you don’t have a suitable prototype to work from.
LGB uses a rubber scale. The scaled up dimensions on some of their offerings, don’t work out to the scale scale, even on the same model. Meaning the height of a model may work out to one scale, but the length works out to a different scale, and so on.
My best suggestion, regarding the caboose in question, would be to run it with whatever it looks good with. If it looks good with stuff of a particular scale, then that would be the approximate scale I would call the thing.
Supposedly, LGB did start out with 1:22.5 IIRC, but has since gone with their famous rubber scale.
Jon- Come to think of it, people have been looking at my caboose quite a bit, lately. It is a bit unsettling.
David- No doubt. LGB definitely uses a lot of flexibility in their designs. I’m looking to run the caboose with some 1/29 Aristo and USAT stuff. When I think about LGB, I almost automatically think that their stuff will be out of scale looking. However, as I mentioned, their US style standard gauge boxcars (and maybe other rolling stock) look real good next to 1/29 stuff. I wonder if thats where Lewis got the idea for 1/29?!!? The dimensions are pretty close and for my purposes, it doesn’t have to be an exact model of the prototype. I just don’t want it to look like a caboose on steroids or something.
So, does anyone own one of these cabooses (LGB 42790)? Got any pics of it with some 1/29 rolling stock?
-Kevin.
Kevin, Aristo started importing REA boxcars and rolling stock, before they took them over, or whatever happened, and started marketing them under the Aristo name.
I model mostly narrow gauge in 1:24, since my feeble brain can do those kind of calculations easily. But much of my rolling stock was actually built to a slightly different scale. If it looks good together I run it together. Its my railroad, so it only has to look right to me.
Yes, the 10 foot rule is used quite liberally around here.