00 vs Ho?

[MarioBarb]

Hi

Bit new to the whole train scene here, but while browsing ebay for rolling stock I noticed someone differentaite between HO scale and OO.

Any serious difference here.

Also - how do the experts on this forum rate Hornby and Lima?

Thanks

mario

 

[wjstix]

Long story short - HO scale/guage was first created many years ago in Germany by Marklin, with a scale of 3.5mm = 1 foot or 1:87. This scale caught on quite well on the continent and in the USA, but in Britain, they were unable to fit a motor into a UK locomotive built to that scale, so they kept the same track guage as HO (16.5mm) but increased the scale size to 4mm = 1 foot, or 1:72. So...both OO and HO use the same track guage, but OO engines, cars, buildings, people, etc. are slightly bigger than their HO counterparts.

 

[hminky]

Most "old time", 1870's, equipment made in the US is OO/HO. Here is the IHC 4-4-0 with the correct OO scale figures. The 4-4-0 is an OO scale (1/76) model running on HO track. I model the 1870's in OO/HO at:

http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/1879/why/
Thank you if you visit
Harold

 

[60103]

American OO is 19mm gauge. Lionel made a bunch of it just before WWII, but not after and it's a rare collectible now. There were other manufacturers doing kits, some of which Lionel plagiarized for their line.
Nowadays, OO is confined to British modelling. There is a tinge of HO scale modelling in Britain, but not much. Effectively all the commercial scenic part is OO (4mm to 1 foot or 1:76) and the track is mostly 16.5 BUT there are groups working in 18.2 mm and 18.83 mm gauge.
Recent commercial OO models run quite well on standard HO track; older ones do not.
OO modelling of North American trains is rarer than HO modelling of British trains.
The scale ratio is 8:7, bur the British OO trains are about the bulk of American HO trains.