What size freight cars to buy?

[Anonymous]

I have a set of early Williams F7's. What size Lionel freight cars will look right with them? O scale, O gauge, postwar or modern?

[brianel027]

Well Jon, there are several factors to consider. Your F7's are nearly scale in proportion, although lack some of the scale detail found on more scale-sized items today. So on a detail level, your locos will not stand up in comparison to those kinds of detailed prototypical cars. Certainly the larger types of "traditional" freight cars would look good, like the Williams box cars (which are larger than the Lionel/K-Line/Industrial Rail 6464 szie type) or the earlier Railking cars. Actually some of the newer Railking items are made from the former Premiere line items - which got moved to the Railking banner because they weren't as detailed as some of the competitors newer scale sized offerings. Those Railking cars from the older Premiere line tooling are scale in proportion but lacking the detail level of the newer offerings.

The other thing to be considered is the size of your layout. I feel that on smaller layouts, the smaller proportioned cars look a little better. Nothing wrong with mixing and matching - having a few more scale proportioned cars along with a majority of more traditionally sized cars. The K-Line 765-series welded steel side box car for example is one of near scale proportion, but with it's chopped ladders and modern roof, easily resembles a high cube box car when run with the smaller 6464 size types.

It is ultimately a matter of personal preference. But your F7's are close to scale size, so you could let that be your determining factor, or your eye and what just looks right to you.

I personally run many smaller engines, though I have a few that are close to scale as far as proportion goes, like the K-Line MP-15 and the Lionel NW2. But my layout is smaller and I think the smaller cars just look better. I also lower the height of the MP-15 shells though so they sit lower. The cab doesn't tower quite as much above the cars I run and shortening the shell height, actually makes the loco appear to be bigger given the kinds of cars I run behind it.

[Locomotive681]

joncoy
I would go with williams passenger cars or freight cars .

Loco681

[Roger Bielen]

With the hobby leaning more and more to scale and unless your done with anymore engine purchases I'd look more to the scale. As Brian said, you can mix traditional and scale in a consist, I do it all the time, by tapering down in size and/or up depending on the engine and caboose I'm using. Other factord are cost, scale does cost more, and curve radius, on the smaller curves scale, especially passenger, have a good bit of overhang..

[jefelectric]

Hi joncoy,

I have a set of Williams FA1s and I use a lot of scale but try to stay away from the 50' cars. I think they look a little big and also don't work well on some of my 031 curves in a few locations.

John