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Scale Distances When Planning A Model Railroad Layout

An often asked question relating to planning a model railway layout is, how much track is required to achieve a scale distance of one mile or one kilometer?

These are approximate figures for some of the more common scales:
Scale one mile one kilometre
1:22 (G) 151 feet (45.5 metres) 242 feet (72.8 metres)
1:43.5 (O) 76 feet (23 metres) 123 feet (37 metres)
1:87.1 (HO) 38 feet (11.5 metres) 61 feet (18.4 metres)
1:76.2 (OO – UK) 44 feet (13 metres) 70 feet (20.8 metres)
1:160 (N) 20 feet (6.2 metres) 33 feet (10 metres)
1:148 (N – UK) 22.5 feet (6.8 metres) 36 feet (10.9 metres)

On most railroads even the closest railway stations are several or miles apart so, on a model railroad layout, it is not usually feasible to lay the huge length of track required to represent the true distance.

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