Are Kits by Custom Model Railroads Under Scale?

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

Custom Model Railroads – N Scale St. Paul Building: Part 1

I’ve been jumping around quite a bit from project to project.  Mostly because I’ve been extremely busy and I find myself doing the “easy” parts of a model build and once I hit the parts that will take me more time, I just to the next project. As I’ve always said, I will absolutely complete every project I start here, so if you’ve been following along with anything — don’t worry — at some point it will be back.

For my latest jump in projects, I’ve switched gears to the St. Paul Building by Custom Model Railroads.  I’ve been waiting to do one of the CMR kits for some time, and as soon as the kit came in the mail, I just had to get started with it.  This is one of the kits I posted an announcement about when I heard they were going to be produced.

Filed under: Products, Structures , CMR, Custom Model Railroads, model, model kit, model railroad, model railroading, N Scale, scale model, scale modeling, structure

Photos of Kato N Scale Santa Fe Regal Spa Sleeper (PRR Broadway Limited Add-on)

After purchasing the Kato PRR GG1 and Broadway Limited 10-car set (read here), I found myself really wanting the option add-on Santa Fe car they released to compliment the Broadway Limited consist.  This Santa Fe sleeper, the Regal Spa, was pulled as part of the Limited to Chicago after 1946.

Filed under: Equipment, Products , Broadway Limited, GG1, Kato, model railroad, model railroading, N Scale, passenger car, passenger train, Pennsy, Pennsylvania Railroad, PRR, railroad, Regal Spa, Santa Fe, scale model, scale modeling