AndersI wrote: ... If OzTransLtd thinks the T43 is too long, he obviously has some kind of scale in mind. ...
Yes, he does. I'll be back on that subject later today.
EDIT:
When it comes to choose a scale, the following needs to be taken into account :
First, || and /\ views are half (multiple of 2 pixels) as long as the horizontal (multiple of 4 pixels) view, and that is measured along the roof line or base of the vehicle.
All references below to number of pixels are for horizontal view only, and adjustments need to be made for all other views.
a) disregarding articulated vehicles, the maximum length is 32 pixels or 8/8th (length needs to be a multiple of 4 pixels). Further we can have vehicle lengths from 3/8th to 8/8th.
b) then 1 pixel should be taken off for the gap between the vehicles, however this gap of 1 pixel is normally filled for closed coupled vehicles, such as MU-Trains or modern passenger coaches; and disregarded for other than horizontal views. Even if this gap is virtually invisible with some trains, there should still be some sort of distinction between individual vehicles (wagons).
Now there is a real difference between the length of locomotives and wagons, passenger coaches in particular; but in TTD scale we cannot really implement both of them to scale. So using different scales for wagons and locomotives makes sense. In Europe, standard modern passenger cars are around 26.5 meters and locomotives around 18.5 meters. That would mean :
. modern passenger wagons (26.5 m) = 8/8th or 0.8 meters per pixel rounded to the nearest multiple of 4 pixels.
. locomotives (18.5 m) = 8/8th or 0.6 meters per pixel rounded to the nearest multiple of 4 pixels.
If a locomotive is longer than 19 meters, then it is almost always an articulated engine and can therefore be implemented as such.
I would say :
. engines (steam without tender) of 18.5 meters = 8/8th (adjust other lengths accordingly).
. passenger wagons, including MU-Trains of 26.5 meters = 8/8th.
. long freight wagons (with quad axles) = 8/8th.
. standard freight wagons (with twin axles) = 7/8th.
. narrow gauge, 1/8th less than above.
That would make the T43 of 14.4 m = 24.9 pixels or 24 pixels minus 1 for the gap = 23 pixels long.
If you look at my avatar, those 3 trains (SBB Re450 [S-Bahn Zürich], SBB IC 2000 Driving Trailer and BLS Re465) are implemented to true scale, all are articulated and use 1 pixel per 0.4 m. Those were my first attempts on drawing trains. But they would not work very well compared to other TTD features, such as size of stations (platforms would need to be at least 10 tiles long) and the limited size of the TTD map.
There are other measurements. The height of a vehicle is 8 pixels, then you add another 4 pixels for the roof (as seen from an angle above). The catenary is 14 pixels of the ground, so the centre of pantographs (when up) are on pixel row 14 of the vehicle.
BTW, the French set uses a strict standard when it comes to vehicle lengths, which I do not know, but they may want to share that info with us.
I hope this will help; maybe Purno could add that to his tutorial (if it is not already there), so all those newbies can get some ideas what is involved when designing train sets.
