This category includes all posts on O scale and Proto 48 topics.

I began building freight car models in O scale in 2008. At that time, while editor of the Seaboard-Coast Line Modeler magazine, I built an Intermountain O scale 1937 box car model for an article in the magazine. I enjoyed it so much that I have continued to build a few O scale models every year as a hobby-within-the-hobby.

My models are built to the “Proto48” standard. American O scale is 1/48 scale but the track gauge is unprototypically 5-feet, zero inches (sometimes called “OW5”). Proto48 is the same 1/48 scale, but the track gauge is the prototypically correct width of 4-feet, 8-1/2 inches. The models are the same, but the wheel gauge is exact-to-scale. Moreover, since Proto48 is generally recognized as a fine-scale standard, most modelers who adapt to Proto48 tend to build models to a higher standard.

My long-term goal is to continue building freight cars for the time being, and build a small Proto48 switching layout when I finally retire and settle down.