Looking at Scale

In the spirit of due diligence, I decided to print out plans of an engine I liked in various scales and to set them up on the layout to get an idea about what size I liked best.

The plans, if you were wondering, were of a German built Orenstein & Koppel 0-4-4-0 "mini mallet".  This engine is, in every sense, a freak of nature.  It's an 8 wheel mallet which is bizarre to start with, but it's also 2-foot gauge, the front 4 wheels are inside frame, the back 4 wheels are outside frame, and the front steam chests are tilted at about 20º.  It originally ran on a mining line in Mexico.  It is now restored and runs on the Cripple Creek tourist railroad outside of Colorado Springs.  The scale drawing comes from Backwoods Miniatures who offer the kit in On3 and On30 for a steep $350USD (then again, it is a neat engine).

Anyways, here's what they all look like together.

From left to right, Fn2 (1:20.3 scale on 32mm "O" gauge track), 1:35n2 (1:35 scale on 16.5mm "HO" gauge track), and On30 which you likely already know.

My wife saw the print outs setup and before I could even ask she blurted out, "the middle one."  Looking at pictures of these now on screen it's not easy to get an idea of actually how big the 1:20.3 is.  Her comment was, "too big" and I think it's mostly right.  The 1:35 does have a really nice feel to it and looking at them all together, doesn't On30 look so miniature?