Standardized cars?

[S&G Rute of the Silver River]

Were narrow(3'0")guage rolling stock built to a uniform standard? If so what is it? And what would be the deminisons in 1:20.3? Many thanks!

[kstrong]

No, there were no standards in terms of narrow gauge railroad equipment. There were consistent ranges of sizes, and generally speaking, cars increased in size over the years.

For instance, an 1870s catalog of narrow gauge equipment lists cars between 6 and 7' wide, and 23' long. By the 1910s, widths averaged around 7' 6", and lengths were up around 30', even up to 40' in some cases.

Passenger equipment stayed fairly stable through the years. Early cars were only around 7' wide, but quickly widened to around 8' so that passengers could sit two-abreast on both sides of the aisle. That remained the constant pretty much through the end of narrow gauge passenger operations. Lengths varied, but 35' was a common length for a 13-window coach.

Later,

K

[S&G Rute of the Silver River]

Thanks. So a duel service car would mostlikely be the 8' or the 7'6"?

 

[RR Redneck]

There was on set standard for narrow guage rolling stock. They built whatever worked and to heck with standards.

[kstrong]

I'm not quite sure what you mean by "dual-service."

Later,

K

[S&G Rute of the Silver River]

Think a flat car W/ railings, a roof, and removable benches. Used to haul people and bagged grain.

[kstrong]

Ah, you mean something like this?



They range in size from small to large. In most cases, they were built by the individual railroads from existing flat cars they already had. The one I built is a bit on the large side of things--33' long by 7' 6" wide. I'd expect to see them ranging in size from that down to maybe 25' long x 7' wide--perhaps smaller if the era you're modeling is fairly early, say c. 1880s or 1890s.

(A history and construction of this model can be found here:
http://www.mylargescale.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=43205 )

Later,

K

[S&G Rute of the Silver River]

 thanks. Sence they were made of old flat cars I think i'll make them to be 7' wide and 25' long.