Todd
You have plenty of which to be proud. In a short period of time you and your group produced a whole series of very well done O scale models. As a model railroader with my roots firmly planted in 3 rail a get a kick every time I see a 2 rail O scaler recommend that for an accurate 40 foot PS-1 Box car the best way to go is to just put two rail trucks and Kadees on the Lionel model. 
Ted,
Thank you for your efforts.
It is a great reference source.
Tank car update:
After receiving my Lionel PROCOR tank cars I have updated the weight info on the Lionel 30,000 gallon ethanol cars as well as several other models.
Some models are much lighter than others!
Ted,
Nice job as usual. And if you don't mind, I'll add a few comments to the Flat Car post.
Regards,
Todd
Todd
Your comments are always welcome additions to the O Scale Freight Car Guide. There is nothing quite like having information directly from one of the people that helped create some of the best O scale models.
My MTH Book on Premier Rolling Stock Vol I details all MTH Premier Cars from 1996 to 2013 vol I, it covers Multi-car sets, cabooses, boxcars, reefers and stock cars. The book includes nearly all pictures along with the catalog it first appeard in, the road numbers, curves required and dimensions. It can be purchased from our web site www.thetrainshop.com
Volume II which covers the remainder of the premier freight cars will be out by the end of August
Could you provide at least a single page example from each volume? I may wish to purchase at least one of these.
New For April: Skeleton, Bulkhead, Center Beam and Heavy Duty Flat Cars!
https://ogrforum.com/t...heavy-duty-flat-cars
Ted,
As usual, OUTSTANDING!!!!
These, freight car loggings are very helpful, interesting and enjoyable.
Thank you,
Ralph
Ralph
You are welcome. I'm happy to do it.
There are so many good O scale models out there and I don't think that many of us are aware of most of them. I know that before I got into doing the research I never would have guessed that there are over 200 differently tooled O scale freight car models that have been made since the 1990s. We still have several categories of cars to go!
Ted, Thank you so much for your very informative series on freight car scales. Even with all your help it will still be impossible to be exact on all the cars out there.
Case in point, Weaver has issued a series of Milwaukee Road ribbed boxcars which I have 13 of. If I put one of them next to a Lionel scale Milwaukee Road boxcar and an MTH premier Milwaukee Road boxcar I end up with 3 distinct sized boxcars. A 40' scale boxcar should be at least 10 1/4'' long to get an inside dimension 40' boxcar. Unfortunately, some manufactures give the length with the couplers included. It would be nice if we could get some standards in the measurements from the manufactures also!
Ted, Thank you so much for your very informative series on freight car scales. Even with all your help it will still be impossible to be exact on all the cars out there.
Case in point, Weaver has issued a series of Milwaukee Road ribbed boxcars which I have 13 of. If I put one of them next to a Lionel scale Milwaukee Road boxcar and an MTH premier Milwaukee Road boxcar I end up with 3 distinct sized boxcars. A 40' scale boxcar should be at least 10 1/4'' long to get an inside dimension 40' boxcar. Unfortunately, some manufactures give the length with the couplers included. It would be nice if we could get some standards in the measurements from the manufactures also!
What a great thread. I have been severely chastised for asking about scales, but I am thick skinned, so I still ask. Thanks for your good examples. I am covetous of some of them.
Does the OGR forum have a files section? The Yahoo group I belong to has one, and information like this can be stored in and added to. This is a great resource, and should be easily accessible, without having to go through the history. Nice work, and I will definitely research links and re read the posts. I have compiled some information on various rolling stock over the years in connection with cars our forum group has done pertaining to prototype, road numbers, and other pertinent data which I have saved in my favorites.
Don
Weaver has issued a series of Milwaukee Road ribbed boxcars which I have 13 of. If I put one of them next to a Lionel scale Milwaukee Road boxcar and an MTH premier Milwaukee Road boxcar I end up with 3 distinct sized boxcars. A 40' scale boxcar should be at least 10 1/4'' long to get an inside dimension 40' boxcar.
Paul
Nominal 40 foot box cars had an interior length of 40 feet 6 inches. With interior lining and end shapes the exterior length of the car body would be 41 feet+ or 10 1/4 inches for a 1:48 scale model. Add in end ladders, brake wheels and steps and the length grows slightly more.
Box car width has changed very little since the late 1930s. All your Weaver, Lionel PS-1 and MTH PS-1 or AAR cars should be very, very close in width. Car height among our models depends on two things. First, the prototypes varied. The 1937 AAR standard design called for a 10 foot interior height. Railroads soon started asking for cars that were a few inches taller and 10' 6" became common, especially after WW II. That makes for about 1/8" variation among O scale models. The second factor is ride height. The combination of deep flanges and tight curves in 3 rail O require many cars to sit higher on their trucks than the prototypes. All of our O scale model makers use their own trucks and there may be a significant variation in ride height. On recent MTH freight cars with provision for Kadee coupler mounting a shim of about 1/8" is included to move the Kadee coupler down if three rail trucks are retained. If two rail trucks are used the shims are not needed. Weaver trucks sit lower if the three rail coupler is removed and Kadee couplers are used but some underframe detail will need to be removed to use three rail wheel sets on the Milwaukee cars even on O-72 curves. (Trust me on that, I know!) 
Unfortunately, some manufactures give the length with the couplers included. It would be nice if we could get some standards in the measurements from the manufactures also!
It seems reasonable that manufacturers would give the overall maximum dimension of their products. If they didn't I imagine someone would complain when ten boxcars advertised as 10 1/4" long didn't fit in his 104" long siding.
We have over 40 O scale box car models from Atlas, Lionel, MTH and Weaver and they are quite faithful to overall prototype dimensions. If you have any specific dimensional questions please post them. Item numbers and photos will help. It is likely that other people will be wondering about the same things that you are. If we can answer those questions here it should add to the reference value of this thread.
What a great thread. I have been severely chastised for asking about scales, but I am thick skinned, so I still ask.
Bob
I'm glad you like it. So far the boo birds have not gathered here. They have respected the discussion of scale cars by those interested in scale models. If you have specific questions ask away. If the car type you are interested in already has a thread on the 3RS forum and is linked above please post you question there. If you have a more general question or the car type does not have its own thread yet go ahead and ask here.
This is a great resource, and should be easily accessible, without having to go through the history.
Don
Some have suggested that this thread should be a sticky at the top of the 3RS forum. I think that would be a great idea. If one of our web masters would like to do that I am all for it.
So Ted, how does a sticky work? Even though I was a member for quite some time, I only recently became active again, and the forum has changed a bit since my participation of old.
Don
Some have suggested that this thread should be a sticky at the top of the 3RS forum. I think that would be a great idea. If one of our web masters would like to do that I am all for it.
This has my vote, FWIW. Lots of great info here that I'm sure took you a long time to put together. Would be great to save it permanently.
And thanks for your time and effort putting it all together for us! It's a great reference.
Thanks again Ted. One thing I might add, if you know the length of the real freight or passenger car, divide it by 4 and that will give you how long in inches the car should be. So, a 52'6" gondola should be 13.15" long. If you know the length of the model, multiply it by 4 and that will give you in feet what the car size is. So, a 9" boxcar times 4 would give you a 36' boxcar which obviously would not be a scale 40' boxcar.
This isn't 100% accurate but it is close enough to help to figure out if it is scale or not. Just remember not to include the couplers in the math.
So Ted, how does a sticky work?
A sticky is a thread that stays at the top of a page regardless of how recently the last post occurred. We have one at the top of the 3RS page on how to install Kadee couplers on Atlas freight cars. A moderator can make a thread a sticky.
This has my vote, FWIW. Lots of great info here that I'm sure took you a long time to put together. Would be great to save it permanently.
If you would like to see this thread become a sticky I would suggest sending a note to one of our moderators requesting that it become a sticky on the 3RS forum.
One thing I might add, if you know the length of the real freight or passenger car, divide it by 4 and that will give you how long in inches the car should be. So, a 52'6" gondola should be 13.15" long.
Paul
Just remember that 52' 6" (or 13.125 inches in 1:48 scale) is the interior length of the gondola. If you line up K-Line 652 series diecast gons, Lionel Standard O PS-5s, MTH Premier gondolas, Trainman gons and Weavers War Emergency gondolas you will find bodies of the cars to be very similar in length despite the fact that lengths listed in their respective catalogs varies by about 3/4 of an inch or 3 scale feet. They are all good scale models. The three rail truck and coupler assemblies are unique to each manufacturer and cause variations in overall length that shouldn't overly concern a modeler in search of 1:48 scale cars.
Good threads! And normally I wouldn't give a beaver house, but don't the threads belong in the 3 rail scale section? My thought(ouch) is more for those who only read the scale sections than it is about having a lesser passion for scale myself.
Then again I guess this is the best area for "general" posts around here. Again just a thought(ouch, gotta stop that) 
Adriatic
The main O Scale Freight Car Guide thread is here where anyone interested can follow the links to the individual threads on MOW equipment, tank cars, UP cabooses, etc. The individual threads live in the 3RS section.
New for August: O scale New York Central Pacemaker boxcars.
New for September: O Scale Wood Side and Express Refrigerator Cars
It looks like the threads for several car types have fallen off the site. I get a deleted message when I follow the links for 100 Ton Covered Hoppers, Gondolas, Hooker Freight Cars, Stock Cars, and Standard & Piggyback Flatcars.
I hope these aren't lost for all time! If they are gone, did anybody save them and can I get a copy (if that's allowed)?
I also hope it is not gone. That was a great reference and I can only imagine the time Ted Hikel spent putting it all together. Would be a shame to loose that info. With the new print feature of the forum making it easier to print, I am going to start printing more of these type of threads to .pdf files and saving them.
Rich has been trying out new features from Hoopla recently. I think a bunch of things inadvertently got deleted when he tried to clean up the old for sale forum posts. This needs to be brought to his attention if there is any hope of getting them back.
Edit: Rick, I hit the alert button on your post in the hopes of notifying them of the situation. I put in a long note with it. Let's see if anything happens. Fingers crossed.
Hey guys
I noticed a few days ago that some of the O Scale Freight Car Guide threads had been deleted. It was a personal Natty Boh No moment for me!
I have my draft texts. Between that and some cashed pages I can recreate the missing posts in something like their previous form. As time allows I plant to post new threads to cover the missing car types and update the links here on O Scale Freight Car Central. Unfortunately I don't have all the great comments and photos posted by others. Hopefully you all can contribute again and add to the information that I have to share.
I am happy to see that you noticed the missing threads. When page view data reappeared in August it was amazing to see that together all of these threads had over 55,000 views! That let me know that these threads have become a popular reference source. Since they are read by so many of you I'll make sure that they become available again.
Thanks for your interest in the O Scale Freight Gar Guide.
Ted
Update: The Stock Car, Gondola and Hooker original posts are back and the links are working!
That's great that you have all your original material Ted. But before you go to the trouble of recreating them, let's see if they can be recovered first. We might get lucky.
Elliot
The 100 ton covered hopper and standard and piggyback flat car thread are the only ones I have not been able to recover by cutting and pasting my original posts from the cashed versions of the pages. If Rich can recover those two it would be fantastic.
I was especially fond of the 100 ton covered hopper thread. It was one of the first O Scale Freight Car Guide threads, it was second only to the tank car thread in popularity and I learned at lot in putting it together and reading the contributions from all of you guys.
If the flat car and covered hopper threads can be recovered soon I'd be thrilled. If they can't I'll make certain that they make a comeback in new and hopefully improved forms.
Ted,
Thanks so much for the effort you have put into this. I too hope that all can be recovered or recreated. And another thanks for being willing to recreate the missing ones if need be.
Somewhere recently, in a thread about things getting deleted, I suggested a place that threads like this could be made "Sticky" so they do not ever get deleted. Don't know how that went over, but after this and the Natty Boh thread I think it makes even more sense to have something like that available. I would bet others have also suggested something like this long before I did.
Of course it would be up to the moderators to decide what to put there and make 'Sticky', but for the really popular ones like these we could all make the suggestions to make them permanent od something. They could also get an idea by the number of views as mentioned in your post above. I would think 55,000 views should easily qualify for 'Sticky' status.
I would be happy to see a sticky at the top of the 3RS page with links to all of the freight car threads. I think having a sticky would make it much easier to find the individual threads.
While I have been able to recreate most of the lost original posts the photos and information posted by all of you are missing. It is great to see several posts, many with photos, already posted on the revived threads. Thanks to all of you who have had a chance to post so far. It is always nice to see a variety of equipment be they the latest enhancements of contemporary models or some of the O scale classics.
I'm looking forward to reading, seeing and learning more as we keep building this resource for O scale modelers.
New for October: O Scale Steel Side, Bunkerless and Mechanical Refrigerator Cars.
The 100 Ton Hoppers Freight Car guide has been deleted.
What happened?
Andrew
Andrew
Earlier this year several of the O Scale Freight Car Guide threads were lost. I was able to recover the original posts for all of them except the 100 ton covered hopper and the standard and piggyback flat car threads. I have my original drafts and I will repost those threads as time allows.
All of these threads have been enriched by the contributions from people on the forum. Your comments on the original 100 ton covered hopper were especially important in making that thread more complete and accurate. My draft may not contain all the corrections that were made to the thread. Your critical eye will be greatly appreciated when the new version of the hopper thread goes up.
Here is one to add to the 55-ton open hopper list. I think this as a Scale Craft, but not sure. I was acquired with other 2R Scale Craft cars. No original box, and nothing cast into the metal car body.
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