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I am interested in building a unit train (more or less) of intermodal cars (typical mix of multiple stuff such as well, flat, etc.).  My layout is not huge and the MTH premier well cars at 17- 18 inches plus may be a bit much. Other than individual flats, the only car I have now  is the 6-16336 from lionel. It is obviously not scale but looks correct with my  layout and mix of locos.  I have looked at a few (on line) railkings - and they appear to have good detail and reasonable size at 14  3/4 length. Does anyone have preferences on h the older  lionel, or menards (these appear to be scale?), or rail king ?

Not that I am spending big $ but is there anything I am missing?

 

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Last edited by hokie71
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Lionel did make O-27 sized well cars for double stacks and spine cars for trailers. They are actually closer to S gauge, but with O gauge trucks. They do look decent on O-27. I've not been paying them too much attention lately, so I don't know if they are still making them. And I do know they go well with their Mi-Jack intermodal crane. Speaking of which, don't try to lift the die-cast K-Line trailers with it. They are too heavy for the gearing. And If you buy a M-J, be sure to test it! They are known for cracked gearing on the lifting cradle.

Chris

LVHR

Last edited by lehighline

I’m a scale guy, but I do have my son’s Railking double stack car here and I think it’s a good option for semi-scale intermodal. It’s nicely proportioned and compressed with same detailing as the original issue Premier cars. Here’s a photo comparison:

DCFEDDB4-1547-4009-B4F2-A74552E2B47947CE1BF3-EA6A-43B6-AB1F-0C4A9C55FC8493769C1C-C5B5-4155-92A6-EDFAD288ED6E

Intermodal is a lot of fun and there are a lot of variations in intermodal operations. Sure, there’s solid stack trains and priority TOFCs, but mixes of stacks, TOFC, and even COFC happen. Even autoracks sometimes are mixed in. And intermodal cars come in different sizes and styles. I think the Railing car would fit well with your Lionel cars as would the other options mentioned, including the Lionel spine cars.

I have a few of the old ROW cars, which I use on my scale trains. They have wells large enough for scale 40 foot containers (or two 20s) and bigger containers can ride on top. Very prototypical:

 

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As “Curve” mentions above the old ROW cars are now available from Menards. They size out between the Railing and Premier Gunderson style cars:

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But remember there’s variation in prototype sizes. I’ve not seen the Menards car in person, but to my eye the containers that come with it look to be slightly less than scale (unlike the original ROW containers). But that’s likely better if you’re mixing them with other semi-scale equipment. 

Like the Lionel cars mentioned above, the Railking car is probably about 1/64 scale in size. I tried a Lionel starter set trailer in the well (also prototypical) and it looks just about right compared to a 1/48 trailer in the Premier car:

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By the way the upside of going semi-scale is that 1/64 is a preferred scale for die cast truck models and so there’s a wealth of trucks and trailers available to complement your trains. 

Good luck and have fun.

RM

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Thanks for the ideas and to John and Rich for taking the time on the pictures.  They were super helpful in putting things in perspective.  I had my eyes opened on the scale comparisons too.  Never considered that the 40' trailers I have on the older Lionel set (and in general) were really closer to 33 feet if considered in 1/48.  The ones in the original post picture measure 8.25" - only 33 ft in  1/48 but are 44 feet in 1/64.  The premier spine sets have 48' trailers- wow a full foot long compared to my 8.25 inch containers.

I did a quick comparison on the length of the husky cars too. Scale premier cars are listed at 18.75" long or 75' in real life.  RK husky cars are 14.75" - this is 59 feet in 1/48 (not too close to the real 75') and 78.6' in 1/64.  Once again the non scale cars are closer to 1/64 for sure.  Strange isn't it how they (to my eyes) look credible compared to a 40" scale box car and scale cylindrical hopper.  

I plan to order a RK Husky set today and get under way with this.

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