Santa Fe Rolling Stock

I don't have that many Williams Diesels so I don't now specific to that.  I have about 25 scale map slogan cars of various manufacturers, all scale and all excellent.  It is about as "Santa Fe" as rolling stock gets.

Hi Lee,

Thanks for the response!  I'm pretty confused by all the manufacturers and inconsistencies within their lines.  Certainly not an easy hobby to break into and figure out.

 

Locally, there seem to be mostly Lionel (and mostly vintage Lionel) dealers here but no where that sells much MTH, Williams, etc  so i can get a good idea on what is and isn't sized "relative-to" the Williams Diesels. I went to five train shops in the last two days. 

 

I did find a 40' Williams map car today - crown edition in a silver box - but when I got it home, it looks significantly smaller in size to the F7s. Perhaps these are more "traditional" size?  My F7 As came out of a blue box - also marked crown - and my Bs were both red shoeboxes - they are clearly all sized the exact same.  

 

I also found a deal on an MTH Premier Corrugated Autorack that clearly rides high, but it at least looks more realistically sized to the locos - albeit more likely it would have been pulled by an SD45 or Dash-2, etc. Unfortunately, I didn't find any Premier boxcars to compare with.  

 

I'm lost in a wealth of information for sure - and the train folks I have spoken with haven't been much help.  I'm guessing if I'm sticking with the Williams Diesels (which looks great to me) I probably need to be watching for MTH Premier to match - but certainly feeling lost as to what is what. 

I have around 150+ ATSF cars.  My favorites are Atlas, Weaver, Pecos River Brass and MTH.  The Atlas cars make heavy trains while the Weaver cars are very light.  An O gauge train with more than 20 Atlas cars will cause you to "get a knuckle" very easily. 

K-line makes a lot of Santa Fe cars, but they are on the verge of looking like a little kid wearing his Dad's shoes (semi-scale, as they're sometimes called).

 

Perhaps this will help:

• MTH is easy.  If the product number starts with 30-, then it is a smaller sized toy train car.  If the number starts with 20-, then it is a hi-rail size car.

• Atlas and Weaver (as well as Pecos River brass or plastic cars - no longer produced) will all be hi-rail size.
• Lionel calls its hi-rail sized cars Standard O.

 

Thanks Tom!  That's super helpful! Exactly the info I needed about these lines.  

 

 

I've come across Atlas O in white boxes - not the atypical blue -  these appear to be cheaper plastic cars with plastic trucks?

 

Is all the Williams Stock smaller - not hi-rail?

I tried doing a search here but came up with nothing. But I know there have been photos posted here showing the size differences between O gauge box cars from different makers.

 

A footnote to consider is that real box cars differed a lot in sizes... just look at photos of real trains. And then there's the aspect of what looks right to YOU. Some folks don't mind running smaller traditional box cars behind a more scale sized loco, but some do.

 

Then there's also the diameter of track you're using and the over all size of your layout. To me, smaller sized trains look better on a smaller layout, but opinions differ.

 

The Williams locos you mention are pretty close to scale size, though not as detailed as other high end scale locomotives. And there's certainly no shortage of Santa Fe box cars, since everyone makes them.

 

The smallest O gauge box cars are the short 027 plug door box cars by Lionel. Close to these are the K-Line 5000 series box cars with opening doors, based upon the original MARX dies.

 

Next are the traditional 6464 size ones, which is not limited to cars having the 6464 suffix. The now defunct K-Line Classic, and K-Line Train 19, the MTH Rugged Rails box car and the Industrial Rail ones are nearly identical in size.

 

The Weaver CROWN series of box cars are patterned after smaller prototypes, even though they are scale sized: the woodside reefer, the outside braced box car (SHOWN IN ABOVE PHOTO) and the steel side box cars. Weaver bought the dies from Crown Model Trains (CMP), hence the name. These 3 models are all the same size. More detailed than the traditional box cars (as you can see in the above photo) and a nice size, in between the traditional 6464 and the larger Rail King and Williams box cars.

 

Next up are the Williams box cars... slightly longer, wider and higher than the 6464 type and certainly closer to scale size, though not detail wise. The basic 40 foot MTH Rail King box car is similar.

 

If someone doesn't post the photos that were taken and seen here, I'd suggest looking at train videos, taking notice of the rolling stock size. Going to a train store, asking questions and hopefully seeing for yourself (depend what the store stocks) and going to larger train shows that have more dealers and operating layouts.

 

Once you've been in the hobby for a while, this sort of thing becomes basic knowledge.

 

 

This is all great info -  thanks so much!   I'm planning my layout -  I've got a lot of space to work with as we have a very large unfinished basement -  I'm looking at beginning with a permanent L-shaped dog-bone layout with two mainlines.  The sides of the L can extend 16 ft and 20ft from the corner.  I've been looking at O-72 and then either 60 or 84.  I can do 72 for sure.  84 might require me to shorten the runs for clearance. -  I've got a lot more space for future additions -  but I feel like this is a manageable start.  

I'm leaning towards a more scale look - though not concerned with trying to get it perfect.  I guess that's called hi-rail?

Based on everyones very helpful input - it sounds like  I should be looking for mostly MTH Premier, Atlas O, and Weaver - but a Williams or Railking would likely fit in ok.