40' or shorter


Maxitrains

Maxitrains

Member
I'm looking for some 5 or 6 box cars ( sets of 3 identicals ) which should be not longer then 40', actually I'm looking for the shortest possible cars that were/are used on US lines.

I also found some pics, but when compared to 40' model cars, they look somehow different

This is a 40' model Boxcar
ddc8_1.jpg


And this is a real 40' boxcar
IC%2015474_West%20Colton%20CA_Craig%20Walker_1980-01-05_9460.jpg


Somehow the real boxcar seems shorter, or is it because the model car has a narrower door?

Does anyone has any information about which were/are the shortest boxcars used in USA lines.
 
The model is an early AAR type. Notice the roofwalk on the model. Roofwalks were banned on any new car made after 1966. I'm not sure just when, but more recent cars can also be made considerably taller than in the 20's 30's, etc. You are comparing two very different time periods hence the difference in the appearance of the cars.
 
Yep Ray is right...

the Proto type picture is known as a HI-Cube box car.

As for shortest box car...you will want to determine what era you are modeling first....

then we can help you with your question....
 
Don't get me wrong guys, but I'm not looking for info about those pics I posted, I posted those just for comparison. I mostly would like to know if on any US lines ever ran, any box cars shorter then 40 feet. something like 20 or 30 foot box cars. time period, before the 50's.
 
I believe an earlier style boxcar was the 36foot wooden boxcar. I'm just now starting to learn about the older era rolling stock. I'm curious what you find out.
 
OK, finally I found from one of my rolling stock, the box car I was tryingt o explain. I would like to know if on the US lines ever ran anything like this. The following car size is what I would like to have working in a section of my layout.

short_Box.jpg
 
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BUMP!!!

Anyone can help about this? If my calculations are exact this should be somethign like a 25ft box car.

I also found a slight problem in this boxcar, I removed the plastic wheels and replaced with the metal ones, but it seems the lateral pins of the axles is longer then the original plastic wheels, so the metals ones are sort of squeezed in and they won't turn freely, should I use a drill bit and deepen the holes?
 
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A 25 foot car would have been extremely rare in any period after about 1860. There were some cars in that range, mostly flat cars and a few early tank cars. 36 foot was about the minimum for most cars up until about 1900, when 40 foot cars started to gain favor. American freight cars have run on four wheel trucks from the 1840's on so they had more wheels to spread the load, even on poor trackwork.

As far as your wheels not fitting, you can certainly try to deepen the bearing hole by drilling but that's only going to work if we're talking about a few millimeter of depth. Any more than that and you'll drill though the journal box cover. I'd make a careful measurement of just how long those axles are compared to the truck. It may be better to buy trucks that fit the wheel rather than the other way round.
 
Well this car doesn';t have trucks as U see in the above picture, the axels are directly attached to it . I measured the old plastic axle and the new metal one and there's a difference of 2 mm from point to point.I don't know how much thickness there is in the bearing hole, if I deepen it more the same plastic pressure could tear the plastic and have the axle point comming out of teh sides.

I donno how hard the wheel metal is, cause I could try to reduce the points lenghts that 2 mm on a lathe by filing them, at least only for those cars or trucks that won't fit.
 
Two millimeters may work if you only have to remove one millimeter from each side of the truck. I use the word truck to denote what the car sits, whether 2 or 4 wheels. US trucks have the axles mounted the same way, there are just two of them per truck instead of one as on your car. If you have a good lathe, you could also try turning down the axle to reduce the length but you will have to keep the same sharp point ratio or you won't get very good rolling qualities.
 
40' boxcars will be OK for a wide period of time, including the period I think you mentioned in a previous post that you wanted to model.

Kennedy
 
Kennedy, its not the period of time that worries me, but I want shorter boxcars because of the restricted place I have :)in 80' U can put 2 x 40' boxcars, but you can put 4 x 20' in same place :p ( if 20' existed ) that's what I want, to see many cars in that place, so the sorter they are the more I fit in.
 
Maxi, it's more efficient on the prototype to use one 80' or two 40' boxcars, because for starters, the railroad doesn't have to maintain 4 sets boxcars worth of parts!
 
And, there are no 20 foot cars in the United States. 36 feet is about as short as you can realistically get. You'll just have to live with the lack of space in this case if you want to model US prototypes.
 
yeah I know that the shortest were the 36'. I was just making an example I will try to fit 2 or 3 boxcars per line if they fit. I will start to work on that part very soon, I already pin pointed some nice backdrop buildings from Walthers that I might buy or replicate.

somethign like this will fit perfectly leaving enough space infront of it for a concrete dock with enbedded rails ( for boxcars )

09330000003173.gif


Will fit the above to the backdrop at the lower part of the following picture. leaving enough space infront of it for the boxcars.

dockside.jpg
 
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