There as been some discussion about whether the N scale kits produced by Custom Model Railroads — to which I have no affiliation, by the way — are under scale. This is based on the reaction of readers here after seeing the CMR kits near structures produced by Design Preservation Models (now Woodland Scenics).
To me, the CMR kits also felt under scale — at first glance the floor height appears to be 7 scale feet or so when compared to other commercial kits. So, I did a bit of investigative work on floor height.
It seems that CMR is probably using one of the more prototypical measures compared to several other companies. This is sort of like comparing apples to oranges because I don’t think some of these other manufacturers are in the same category of CMR, but this is what I’ve found. Note: I am measuring story height from the bottom of one window to the bottom of the window above it. That is essentially a point to point measurement using the windows as a guide since those would be consistently placed from floor to floor.
Custom Model Railroads (St. Paul Building) – 9.5′
Design Preservation Models (average of several buildings) – 10.5′
Model Power (Jackson Meat Packaging) – 13′
Walthers (American Hardware) – 12′
To further the comparison, I also measured the door height on the same structures:
Custom Model Railroads: 7′
Design Preservation Models: 8.5′
Model Power: 9′
Walthers: 8′
Typically, a commercial structure would have a floor height or 9-10‘ (maybe 11′) and an exterior door height of 7-8‘. For a high rise like the St. Paul, I would actually expect floor height to be at least 10′ and exterior door height to be 8′. From that standpoint, I believe the CMR kits are in scale, but tend to be on the lower end of what would be prototypical.
But to CMR’s credit, I think the real issue is that so many N scale kits are well over scale — including the Asian/European kits that tend more toward 1:150 scale. I think we’ve become accustomed to seeing these larger kits and accepting them for N scale when they really aren’t.
Overall, I’m just fine with CMR’s interpretation of N scale and I’ll purchase from them again.
Filed under: Products, Structures , Custom Model Railroads, model, model kit, model railroad, model railroading, N Scale, scale model, scale modeling, structure
Wow, there isn’t much difference. I looked at yor pictures again to try to figure out why there felt like such a large difference, and its the main floor. From what it looks like it is the same height as the other floors. While that is seen on many prototypes, the more common is a taller main floor, and all of the surrounding structures have that feature. Also floor heights and the spaces between for mechanical vary wildly, look at the Empire State Building, it has what about 102 floors, and most of the new towers being built that are passing it up are only sitting at about 80 floors.
I think you are right in making the bottom two floors as the lobby, a very wise choice. It seams like everyone I know is working on these kits right now and I envy that, maybe sometime soon I will order one. So thanks for doing a little research into this and calming my doubts with the CMR kits, really good job!
Chris
I also have found them to be a wee bit under scale. However the kits are just fantastic. The tolerances are amazing, the kit’s details are fantastic, and they are very rigid and strong…and on top of all that they are so easy to put together.
I was also comparing the H.O. kit’s to proper 1:87 ratio and the H.O. kits seem to be a bit underscale too. Not by a huge margin, and maybe Chris is right… maybe it’s the first two floors that are the problem. Looking at my Fidelity building which isn’t totally completed all the upper floors seem to be o.k.
Interesting. :D
Oh I’ve also had numberous emails with CMR too and their customer service is outstanding. Really impressive.
bob
Not so much the buildings but is Bachmann motive power and rolling stock overscale?
I’ve just got into N gauge and picking up bits and pieces from auction sites find the Bachmann items wont fit thru a rather tight – height wise – out of site track. The motive power is a GP40 while other brands of that engine fit ok. Same goes for the rolling stock.