Farish Guy Arab - correct scale?

[keithfre]

Is the Faris Guy Arab to the correct scale?

[woodbury22uk]

Sorry 1/160 on length and very close to that on height and width. Quality mouldings and much finer looking than the Oxford 1/148 one. The Southdown one is showing on some websites - like the Oxford Diecast Collectors Facebook Group.

[PLD]

Nope...

Like the rest of the buses, according to Farish it is 2mm scale (1:152). According to everyone who has actually measured one it is 1:160...

[Michael Hendle]

Hi
I have just bought the new Devon General Guy Arab and it's a very good model and at the price can't really complain,and it looks right,afraid I'm not into rivet counting modelling.

To me as long as it looks right,then it's OK,I also have the new Harrington Cavalier the Valiant version,living in Hounslow I can remember them picking up in Kingsley Rd on day trips,again another fine model.

I think the Grafar and Base toys plasitc models look crisper than the metal Oxford models

Mike

[woodbury22uk]

The Oxford Guy Arab can be viewed here:-

http://www.britishmodelbuses.com/LargeImages/OxfordDiecast2/NUT001_Guy%20Arab%20Utility_Southdown_N_PP_Large.jpg

and the Panorama Elite here:-

http://www.britishmodelbuses.com/LargeImages/OxfordDiecast2/NPP001_Plaxton%20Panorama%20I%20National%20Express_Ribble_N_PP_Large.jpg

[H]

I have just bought the new Devon General Guy Arab and it's a very good model and at the price can't really complain,and it looks right,afraid I'm not into rivet counting modelling.

The Farish bus models are very nice, very fine and very well finished, but unfortunately they are terribly under-scale and I wouldn't call expecting them to be the correct size to be 'rivet counting'.

H.

[PLD]

I have just bought the new Devon General Guy Arab and it's a very good model and at the price can't really complain,and it looks right,afraid I'm not into rivet counting modelling.

The Farish bus models are very nice, very fine and very well finished, but unfortunately they are terribly under-scale and I wouldn't call expecting them to be the correct size to be 'rivet counting'.

H.

Completely agree H - expecting something to be the right scale is hardly 'rivet counting' - unfortunately though many modellers have a blind spot beyond the railway boundary and so often you see road vehicles and other non-railway items that are out of scale, period or region (almost every n-gauge railway station from 1920 to the present day seems to be on a bus route served by Routemasters!). No way would they accept the same discrepancy if it was a locomotive...

[keithfre]

they are terribly under-scale and I wouldn't call expecting them to be the correct size to be 'rivet counting'.

Neither would I! It seems though that one could be used towards the back of a layout (with a perspective effect), away from other correct-scale items.

[Michael Hendle]

Hi
At least they are better than the crude models we had when N gauge first came out in the early 1970's, blobs of white metal purporting to be cars and vans,or Wiking cars and lorries with solid wheels,a lump of clear plastic in side for glass.
Mike

[H]

they are terribly under-scale and I wouldn't call expecting them to be the correct size to be 'rivet counting'.

Neither would I! It seems though that one could be used towards the back of a layout (with a perspective effect), away from other correct-scale items.

Yep, but assuming that everything else around it at that distance is also built to that diminished scale (i.e. buildings, roads, other vehicles and that the trains don't pass by or behind) and, of course, it still leaves unanswered as to what do you use for the foreground.

H.

[woodbury22uk]

they are terribly under-scale and I wouldn't call expecting them to be the correct size to be 'rivet counting'.

Neither would I! It seems though that one could be used towards the back of a layout (with a perspective effect), away from other correct-scale items.

Yep, but assuming that everything else around it at that distance is also built to that diminished scale (i.e. buildings, roads, other vehicles and that the trains don't pass by or behind) and, of course, it still leaves unanswered as to what do you use for the foreground.

H.

Maybe time to switch UK N to Proto 160! At least there would be no need to worry about the 9mm track gauge being out of scale. Only joking H.

[H]

they are terribly under-scale and I wouldn't call expecting them to be the correct size to be 'rivet counting'.

Neither would I! It seems though that one could be used towards the back of a layout (with a perspective effect), away from other correct-scale items.

Yep, but assuming that everything else around it at that distance is also built to that diminished scale (i.e. buildings, roads, other vehicles and that the trains don't pass by or behind) and, of course, it still leaves unanswered as to what do you use for the foreground.

Maybe time to switch UK N to Proto 160! At least there would be no need to worry about the 9mm track gauge being build and stick to a scale.of scale.

That would be great, but then all our 1:148 trains would be horribly oversized. 

*Sigh*

It's such a shame that the manufacturers can't build to, and stick to, just one scale.

Mind you I'm not so sure that we'd want to be lumped in with the Americans and Continentals - they drive on the wrong side of the road. They'd also expect us to and remember the fuss when Sweden swapped sides of the roads in 1967. They had to do it in stages - buses and lorries first, and cars and bikes a week later. 

H.

[woodbury22uk]

It's such a shame that the manufacturers can't build to, and stick to, just one scale.

Mind you I'm not so sure that we'd want to be lumped in with the Americans and Continentals - they drive on the wrong side of the road. They'd also expect us to and remember the fuss when Sweden swapped sides of the roads in 1967. They had to do it in stages - buses and lorries first, and cars and bikes a week later. 

H.

There are parts of Birmingham where they seem to have adopted the Swedish changeover period as the norm. It's the road user's equivalent of Rule 1.

[gc4946]

A bit of background information on these buses:

Guy Arabs built 1942:
1332-1337 FOP 332-337 withdrawn by Birmingham City Transport 1948-49

These were built 1943:
1341-1349 FOP 341-349 withdrawn by Birmingham City Transport 1949-50

These were built 1944:
1350-1358 FOP 350-358
1366-1455 FOP 366-455
Withdrawn by Birmingham City Transport 1949-50 but six were used as driver trainers in original condition until 1951-53 until they were rebodied with Brush-built bodies ex-AEC Regents, they continued until at least 1964 in driver-training roles with that combination of bodywork and chassis.

Source: Birmingham City Transport, part II--1941-1967 (published by the PSV Circle and the Omnibus Society, 1968)