For the 6464 type box cars (postwar from '54? on), to determine their scale, try going to an office supplies store and getting two scales-- an "engineer's" scale, and an "architect's" scale. "Scale" is to us engineers what you would call a ruler. These rulers that are scales are different: they are triangular, and overrun being 12" long by a half inch or more on each end. The architect's is used to convert feet and inches in real life to, in S scale, to a scale called 3/16th-inch = 1 foot. This means that 3/16" on a paper plan or in a model represents one foot. This rule or scale has six faces; one is a regular 12" ruler, and the other five faces contain ten scales. That for 3/16ths runs one way on its face; that for the twice smaller 3/32nds scale runs on the same edge of the face, but in the opposite direction. The numbers represent feet; before the zero mark is an added foot marked off in inches in some fashion. The "fifty-foot" S-gauge car is measured by placing the 50 mark on one end of the car, and the middle mark of the inches marks below zero on the other end. Thus we find the boxcar body to be 50'-6" in exterior length.
With the Lionel 6464 car, we will use the engineer's scale. This has six scales on the six faces (each of the three sides has two faces, separated by a groove to aid gripping). These are called the 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 scales, corresponding to the number of divisions per inch. A 100-scale (100' to the inch on paper) railroad valuation plan is drawn using the 10 scale, for example; but for the most part the individual marks are used to represent one foot, as in a roadway plan which might commonly be a 50-scale drawing. However, for the Lionel car we use the 50-scale as a 5 scale-- that is 1" = 5 feet; here each division is a tenth of a foot, or 1.2". You will find that it is 50'-6" long; its scale is 1/5-inch. Thus its scale ratio is 1:60. To measure directly in total inches you can use the engineer's 60 scale.
For Lionel Std-O cars, it is well known these conform to the 1/4" scale, or 1:48 scale ratio. You will find the early issue of these (early 70s) are models of 40-foot cars; their carbodies will measure 10-1/8" or 40'-6". While the engineer's 40 scale can be used as a 4 scale, the architect's 1/4 scale will be more convenient as it contains the inch marks at one end for direction incorporation in measurements.
When purchased in white plastic, these scales are relatively inexpensive, and will shed considerable light on what (and how so) the various models represent. It may be that the waffle car is a version of the Scout Baby Ruth box car, which was a smaller-yet example of a 40-foot boxcar... or was it of a 37-foot reefer? And the early postwar plastic boxcars shorter than the 6464s?
The postwar 2046 engines (baby Hudsons) are an example of the 1/4" inch Hudson reborn as a 1/5" near exact copy length and probably height-wise, except for being a bit hippy on the same gauge, and the various tenders...
--Frank
