Scale size for some standard O

 Know nothing about Lionel, but ice cars were sometimes smaller than box cars, and trains of the late forties could have a zillion different heights, widths, and lengths, even among box cars.  The PS-1 was huge compared to other box cars of the era.

There is no "standard" size for a freight car.  The size of the car is based on it's capacity and that capacity has increased over the years.

Rusty

It's best to use your 1/48 scale rule on the ones you have and then compare to some reference books.  

rusty is correct;

There is no "standard" size for a freight car.  The size of the car is based on it's capacity and that capacity has increased over the years.

i believe you are comparing aples to oranges when trying to compare a milk car of the 1930's to a 1950's Ps1 boxcar or a Weaver H30 Hopper to an ACF Centerflow Hopper

Now comparing a lionel ps1 boxcar to a weaver boxcar is a different story since you Will be comparing apples to apples. Those cars should be at the same measurements.

Even with "semi-scale" you have to know the parameters of the prototype. Reefers, particularly older wood-sided from the late 19th/early 20th were much smaller.

Even with more modern freight equipment, some of the "semi-scale" offerings were actually pretty close to the mark, if not dead on. Some of the MTH Rail King cars are actually scale-sized models of smaller prototypes. Tank cars in particular need a lot of analysis as they were all over the place with respect to sizes, number of/placement of domes, catwalks, railings, etc.

Also found another interesting thing, too. There's "as-built" and "when-scrapped" [OK right before] conditions of locomotives and rolling stock. Sometimes a unit doesn't look anything like it did when originally built  due to wreck repairs, modifications, and even combining with other pieces of equipment. For example, there were 50-foot wooden stock cars that were built by cutting two (or more) wrecked/damaged 40-footers and combining them. There's a 2-8-0 locomotive in the Lomita Railroad Museum that was saved from the torch that doesn't look anything like its builder's photos.

As Clem K said, have your scale ruler and data sheets handy.

Delighted to hear that Lomita added another locomotive.  The original Mogul was a delight, and as I recall, had a haystack tender.

Here's a portion from a photo I found at Shorpy.  www.shorpy.com

Notice that even within a type of car, (reefers in this case) the roof lines and even the sills are not always the same height.

Rusty

My mistake, Bob. It's was the Mogul I was referring to. Dave O'Connor and I were talking about it a few weeks ago as he had modified a Rail King 2-6-0 to look similar for his son. The as-built photos of that locomotive are very different from it's as-retired condition. When you think about it, locomotive shops were the original model railroad kit-bashers.

Thanks for the replies. I guess I was just suprised that the difference would be that noticeable. Its hard to believe that cars increased that much in size over the years. I did notice that some reefers appear to be in the same size category of what I am looking for in a car also and appear to be in the same time frame. I think I was forgetting about the time frame aspect of the cars. Also thanks for the link to shorpys. I had never heard of that web site before and it looks interesting. 

Monty

Shorpy has great historic photos.  Many of the railroad related photos that appear on Shorpy are by Jack Delano.  He was a photographer working for the Farm Security Administration and the Office of War Information in the 1930s and 40s.  Since Mr. Delano was on the federal payroll and all that beautiful 4x5 Kodachrome sheet film was supplied by US taxpayers the photos are in the public domain and are also available on line at the Library of Congress.

As illustrated by the photos of Jack Delano and others there was a tremendous variety of freight car sizes, capacities and construction methods evident in the American freight car fleet near the middle of the 20th century.

Take a look at these photos.

Note that there isn't just substantial variation in car height and width but variations in end configurations as well as construction methods in ends and roofs.  A few cars in the upper photo even have wood ends.

Back in the WW I era new up-to-date box cars were being built with 40 ton capacity and steel ends.  Interior height of 8' 6" was common.  The USRA had standard double and single sheathed box car designs and many railroads ordered cars to the general USRA specifications well into the 1920s.  Refrigerator cars were built to external dimensions similar to these box cars but the weight and volume of insulation and ice bunkers reduced their freight capacity.

While many 1920s era box cars had a 40 foot interior length with an 8' 6" interior height some box cars were much larger.  The Atlas Trainman single sheathed box car is a scale model of a late 1920s Pullman built automobile box car.  It features 50 foot interior length and 10 foot interior height with an internal volume of about 5000 cubic feet.  That is about 2/3 more volume than a USRA pattern box car.  Since automobiles are mostly air it took a lot of volume to fit four or 5 of them inside a box car.

In 1937 the American Association of Railroads produced standard designs for new 40 and 50 foot long all steel box cars with 10 interior height and 50 ton capacity.  Many car builders adopted these standard designs.  After WWII Pullman-Standard took the basic AAR design and applied their own pressed steel roof and ends along with extensive use of welding to produce the PS-1 box cars in both 40 and 50 foot lengths.

Lionel makes a very fine model of the 40 foot PS-1.  Weaver and MTH have also offered 40 foot PS-1 models in O scale.  MTH recently announced a 50 foot PS-1 box car model and Atlas offers them in 3 door configurations.  Atlas and MTH also offer 40 foot AAR design box cars.

Several railroads created their own designs in the late 30s for steel box cars of the AAR dimensions.  The Pennsylvania created the X-31, recently announced by Lionel.  The B&O an the Milwaukee each had a unique box car design with models offered by weaver.

If a car does not become economically obsolete it will usually se about 40 years of service.  So those USRA type cars stayed in service into the 1950 and 60s.  AAR cars made it to about 1980.  Forty foot box cars are extinct in revenue service as are all 50 ton cars.  However a few remain in MOW service.

Today there are a few 70 ton cars in revenue service.  Most are 100 or 110 ton capacity with their volume matched to the commodities that they carry.  PS-2 covered hoppers provide a good example of car size being matched to commodities.

The early PS-2 covered hoppers, like the PS-1 box cars, were an adaptation of a standard design for a 70 ton car of about 2000 cubic foot capacity.  That volume and weight capacity is a good match for carrying full loads of sand or cement.  Lionel, MTH and Weaver offer models of these small 2 bay PS-2 hoppers and Atlas offers models of the earlier trend setting ACF car.  Atlas also offers a Trainman model of the larger 3 bay 3000 cubic foot 70 ton PS-2 hopper that came into use for hauling grain the the 50s.  In the 60s 100 ton trucks came into wide use and Pullman expanded the PS-2 to 4427 cubic feet to fit a maximum load of grain.  Lionel, Atlas and MTH all offer 100 ton PS-2 grain hoppers.

There have been about 150 O scale freight car tools in production since the year 2000.  Some are vastly different in size but may be perfectly appropriate for modeling a specific era.  As seen above, a variety of cars can go well with a PBR.