Buildings in HO Scale?

A

ArthurDaniels

New member
Are there Buildings and other scenery items in HO Scale?

Are there ways to re-size buildings and other scenery items to make them HO Scale?
 
There is no difference in the size, the only thing different between HO and real size is the measurements on the ruler.
 
clam1952 said:
There is no difference in the size, the only thing different between HO and real size is the measurements on the ruler.
Click to expand...

With respect, there are significant size differences. I have designed an HO layout in Trainz. When I select a typical building and place it on the map, the building is huge. Therefore, I either need to be able to resize the building to HO scale, or find buildings in the Content which are already sized at HO scale.
 
Have you any idea how tiny a real HO scale layout would be in Trainz? The HO Setting in the "Edit Route" tab is pretty much meaningless, as Clam said all it does is change the measurements on the ruler. Your best bet is to have a normal sized, 1:1 scale layout, and build a huge house around it. See the "Model Railroadz" thread in the screenshots forum for more details.
 
I think the OP (Arthur?) and clam (Malc?) are both correct, but in different aspects.

As others have said, all buildings/assets in Trainz are the same "size/scale" relation to the locos & rolling stock, whether you call it 1:1 (real), 1:87 (HO), etc.

That being said, many of the buildings and assets out there are far too oversized for use on a model railroad, as is the new craze. Regardless of the scale you use, many of the buildings use much larger dimensions than what you'd see of that same structure in real life - that is due to the creators of those pieces of content not building their structures to the proper scaling for Trainz. Just as an example, the "grain elevator" that looks much like the Walthers model is HUGE! Compared to the smaller but similar Pillsbury elevator (names might not be correct, but I'm not in Trainz to look at that specifically at the moment), they are meant to be almost the same building, but one is twice as large.

On that note, with the new model railroad style of layout/route people are liking to build, we do need "smaller" buildings to use. Older time frames do have smaller buildings, as that was the norm then, but newer industries that still receive rail service are often quite huge. Sure, we can hide a majority of a structure behind the wall/back drop, but once you start placing structures between the tracks and layouts front edge, size matters (so to speak). There are buildings out there, it just takes time to find them. Hopefully though, many of the content creators will also be "inspired" by the model railroadz trend and build some smaller assets and "flats" for use in this exciting "new" part of Trainz.

Chase
 
It would seem that creating any route in any other scale than "Full Size" is pretty much meaningless, and has no real advantage ... The reason why someone builds in Z Scale (instead of HO Scale) is because their house is much too small ... but in Trainz we have no such room size restriction ... So creating in smaller scales is pointless
 
Not quite the same problem, as Chase says, it's not a case of wrong scale but a case of being the wrong size to start with.
The incorrect size of many of the buildings is one of the reasons I started making my own, Items that would have been suitable were not, for example houses that have 9 or 10 foot high front doors, although probably good models, don't look realistic at close distance be it in real scale or HO. If the door is too large then the rest of the building, if in proportion, will also be way over size. Not so noticeable if you are building a full route and they are in the background though.
However before getting too critical, it's worth remembering that nearly everything on the DLS was made freely by the community and there are likely to be variations in standards, also don't assume that a particular creator that made an oversize building 5 years ago is still doing so, many are now building stuff of the correct dimensions.

What you need is buildings made to the correct size to start with so that a 10ft long object in real life, measures 10ft long in Trainz using real scale and thus it will measure 1.378 inches when using the HO scale ruler. They do exist in large quantities however you wont find them labelled as correct size or too big if you follow.
 
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cascaderailroad said:
It would seem that creating any route in any other scale than "Full Size" is pretty much meaningless, and has no real advantage ... The reason why someone builds in Z Scale (instead of HO Scale) is because their house is much too small ... but in Trainz we have no such room size restriction ... So creating in smaller scales is pointless
Click to expand...

Not pointless at all. I favor building model railroad type routes in Trainz. To be able to build accurate representations of great layouts like the V&O opens a whole new door in Trainz. Add multiplayer capability and you get the ability to operate on those great layouts long gone. Not everyone is interested in 200 mile long prototype routes. I'll never be invited to operate those routes in real life but can now do it virtually.
 
An easy way of assessing a building with a door is to place a virtual human figure next to it - or halfway into it, even if the door is closed. If there's a little height to spare, all well and good. If the virtual human would bang his/her head on entering, not so good - except for older buildings when people were actually shorter and therefore doors were lower.

Of course, the first problem then is to find a virtual human of the correct height. Some are giants - I found one lady who was at least nine feet tall!

I believe there are height rulers svailable on the DLS. If not it's a simple matter to make a block 6 feet high in the asset creation program of your choice to represent a tall man (yes, I know there are taller and many shorter).

You can read my thoughts on model railways and Trainz at http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/raywhiley/layout.plans.html

Ray
 
An interesting discussion, with various points of view expressed. The most interesting thought expressed was to "scale up" my HO layout to 1:1 scale, then model it again. I might do that as an alternative to place my layout into the "real world".

However, my primary desire is to replicate my layout in Trainz so that I can experiment with scenery, running times, operating concepts, etc. I have completed the trackwork on my "HO Scale" Trainz layout (rulers set to HO scale, etc.). It appears that some structures will automatically "scale down" to match my layout. For example, I quickly found a plate girder bridge and a truss bridge which correctly scaled to my layout when I selected these two objects. So, I will just have to look for buildings, etc. which also automatically scale down (I have already found one Industrial Building which scales down).
 
It's true that you can fnd discrepancy in building heights, sometimes even from the same author, where one two storey building has been nearly twice the height of another placed side by side. The secret is to find a range which fits the bill and consistent size and add them to your favourites.

When I was working on my first model project I found the biggest problem was actually industry, particularly interactive ones as these often require a large area way beyond the compressed space on a model.
 
Thanks to all for your suggestions. I will locate some buildings which are the correct size and use them to represent industries on my layout.
 
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