ModelRailroadForums.com is a free Model Railroad Discussion Forum and photo gallery. We cover all scales and sizes of model railroads. Online since 2002, it's one of the oldest and largest model railroad forums on the web. Whether you're a master model railroader or just getting started, you'll find something of interest here.
Hey guys why is some HO Scale rolling stock bigger than others I have a 50ft box car and a few others that are smaller I like the bigger one myself in future reference what should I be looking for is there something I'm missing plase any info would be great as always.
Bigger cars are able to carry bigger loads. It's pretty much as simple as that. Larger cars came later in railroad history, when tracks, draft gear, and trucks were designed to handle the heavier loads. The size of boxcars is related to the era you're modeling. Before 1940, 36' and 40' boxcars were the norm. Some 50's foot cars started to show up in the 40's for automobiles and furniture but 40' boxcars were the norm. The period of the 50's to the 70's is when boxcars sizes really increased, from 50' all the way up to 89' feet for for auto parts cars. There's a good site at http://www.boxcars.us/ that shows just about every kind of freight car used on American railroads.
Here, most of the boxcars I see (and I see less of them than I did as a kid) are:
50' High Cube Gunderson Boxcars with plug doors
50' High Cube Trinity Boxcars with plug doors
60' High Cube boxcars with plug doors
50' Waffle Box (SOU and NS and occasional CSX)
89' Box (CR/NYC and others) with double plug doors (centered, not near the ends)
If you want to model modern day railroading, Trey's list is about right for common boxcars. There is no "better" type of car, just ones that are more common. For example, I live near a paper plant and the waffle side 50' box cars are by far the most common size I see, since they are used to move completed cardboard boxes. Exactly what era do you want to model and what area of the country? That has a lot to do with the common cars of all types you'll see.
The era does't reall matter to me I just want the larger 50ft or 7 inch length type rolling cars you can so much more with them than you can the 40ft cars. You can more detail and weathering to them. And are the Walthers buildings and factories big enough to support them before I get a crao load of 50ft cars
Well, you've completely lost me with that one. Unless you simply don't care at all about prototype realism, you have to care about the era you model because 50 foot cars were only common after a certain time. Along with the type of cars, you need to think about what kind of locomotives you want to run. Steam engines won't look right with trains of 50' boxcars and modern era trains won't look right, since the boxcar makes up a relatively small part of most trains today.
There's no reason you can can detail or weather a 50' car easier than a 40' car. I would argue just the opposite. You have more surface area with the longer car to weather and the type of details you'd add to a box car are about the same in scale on a 40' or 50' boxcar. It's not any harder to put the same size grab iron on a 40' car than it is on a 50' car.
What do you mean by are the Walthers buildings and factories big enough to support them...? A building is a building. Except for an old warehouse building with a covered track that might not be tall enough for a hi-cube boxcar, I can't think of any other reason a factory that has rail service couldn't serve 50' cars as well as 40' cars. The main difference is that you can only get four 50' cars on the same length of track as five 40' cars. Thus, the length of the industrial spur is more important than the factory or building itself. Maybe you can give me an example of a Walthers building you're thinking about in relation to car lengths so I can better understand your concerns.
I'm just trying to make this whole thing look good I like the bigger scale HO cars. Im trying to find out what is more popular before I start dumping a crap load of money into this if you goto the walthers website you will see all the factories and loaders and unloaders. What I am concerned about is I want everything to look like it belongs there and the era of cars and loco from 80's to current as possilbe. I'm getting back into this after being out for 10 years alot has changed. And being in the Marines and deployed 4 times in the last fours years you kinda loose touch with everything. But as for layout cars structures trains people as currnt as possible. Thank you for you info and assistance. To put everything in a nut shell I have 4 40ft car now and one 50ft box car with a wire one one end that attaches to the coupler can you explain to me what thats from I'm assuming it is a electric coupler. need help with that aslo and do all cars attach and seperate on the track just by bumping them.(crazy question I know). hope to hear from you I just want this to be as good as possible. Any questions for me please call me lolololol. sorry i lost you it has been a while a long while for me in this hobby. number is 252-422-0739 ask for Chet
