06-16-2010, 09:28 AM
The letter by Ed Clarke reads as follows:
To the Editor:
It so happens that I purchased your dollar book last week ( Build Your Own Model Cars And Locos ). I can change the scale from 1/8th to 1/4th or whatever scale I desire, but it would be a darn sight faster and easier if you would put youre measurements in feet and inches direct from the prototype and let the modeler take his pick, instead of putting it in thirty-seconds and sixteenths, and even sixty-fourths as you do.
Who are these HO people that they need prototype dimensions broken up for them? I would say that 80% of the guys in HO buy kits and ready made cars anyway. That same percentage buys ready made track. There are a lot of other things that they do that O gaugers don't do, but they still call themselves model railroaders. You deny all of this, and I'll laugh at you! That 80% or more don't know an ampere from a volt or an ohm from a micro farad. But in HO they don't have to know very much, for the Editors of Kalmbach Publishing Co. will give them the answers.
You state that you run measurements in feet and inches. You might do this once in a while, but the issues I have of yours which would fill a book case, and this book I spoke of, tell a different story.
As long as a guy in HO can go out and purchase a car kit for a couple of dollars, he is not going to waste his time building one from scratch. The word "model" to them is just a front when it is used in front of the word "railroader". They can't call themselves scale modelers, either. A lot of detail on HO models is either oversize, or left off. They can't make certain parts to scale for the simple reason that the parts wouldn't be strong enough.
I could go on like this indefinitely . . .
The editors reply...
( Since August 1956, Model Railroader's major construction articles have included -with few exceptions- dimensions given in prototype feet and inches. The book mentioned was published in 1954, before the present practice became standard )
So !!, I guess times haven't changed all that much at that.
! ? !
To the Editor:
It so happens that I purchased your dollar book last week ( Build Your Own Model Cars And Locos ). I can change the scale from 1/8th to 1/4th or whatever scale I desire, but it would be a darn sight faster and easier if you would put youre measurements in feet and inches direct from the prototype and let the modeler take his pick, instead of putting it in thirty-seconds and sixteenths, and even sixty-fourths as you do.
Who are these HO people that they need prototype dimensions broken up for them? I would say that 80% of the guys in HO buy kits and ready made cars anyway. That same percentage buys ready made track. There are a lot of other things that they do that O gaugers don't do, but they still call themselves model railroaders. You deny all of this, and I'll laugh at you! That 80% or more don't know an ampere from a volt or an ohm from a micro farad. But in HO they don't have to know very much, for the Editors of Kalmbach Publishing Co. will give them the answers.
You state that you run measurements in feet and inches. You might do this once in a while, but the issues I have of yours which would fill a book case, and this book I spoke of, tell a different story.
As long as a guy in HO can go out and purchase a car kit for a couple of dollars, he is not going to waste his time building one from scratch. The word "model" to them is just a front when it is used in front of the word "railroader". They can't call themselves scale modelers, either. A lot of detail on HO models is either oversize, or left off. They can't make certain parts to scale for the simple reason that the parts wouldn't be strong enough.
I could go on like this indefinitely . . .
The editors reply...
( Since August 1956, Model Railroader's major construction articles have included -with few exceptions- dimensions given in prototype feet and inches. The book mentioned was published in 1954, before the present practice became standard )
So !!, I guess times haven't changed all that much at that.
We always learn far more from our own mistakes, than we will ever learn from another's advice.
The greatest place to live life, is on the sharp leading edge of a learning curve.
Lead me not into temptation.....I can find it myself!
The greatest place to live life, is on the sharp leading edge of a learning curve.
Lead me not into temptation.....I can find it myself!