The layouts in 101 Track Plans are designed to be independent of scale, so that any plan can be used to design a railroad in any scale. Each plan in the book is overlaid with a square grid, with the following legend on most pages:
Ruled lines across plan are:
6" apart in N
9" apart in TT
12" apart in HO
18" apart in S
24" apart in O
This means a plan designed for a 4x8 HO railroad would serve just as well for a 2x4 layout in N-scale or an 8x16 in O.
TrainPlayer
adopts the same scheme. The program has its own internal grid, which is
aligned with that of the drawing as the layout is being prepared. Aligning the grid establishes
the connection between pixels in the image and real-world dimensions, and allows
the program to report measurements in your choice of scale.
The following scales are supported in TrainPlayer.
Scale Name Scale Ratio Grid Spacing (inches) Z 220 4 N 160 6 TT 120 9 HO 87 12 OO 76 14 S 64 18 O 48 24 I 32 32 G 24 44
When you choose one of these scales in Layout Properties, it does not change the appearance or proportions of the layout, but dictates its overall size and the sizes of the car models. Scale Ratio gives the relationship between a given scale and actual size -- a real locomotive is 87 times the size of an HO model of it.