Car Length

[blueriver]

Hi,
I know there are several lengths that cars are made; for example, ore cars are quite short but modern passenger cars are quite long. What would be an average length of a car? I am trying to design a staging area and passing sidings and I would like to know how long they need to be to accomodate the various types of cars I plan on running. This will also help me know how many cars I can put in a consist or how long my trains can be.

Thanks.
blueriver

[Seamonster]

I stand to be corrected by the more knowlegable in this forum, but I believe if you're modeling the steam era, the 40' boxcar would be the "standard" car measurement, and a 50' or 55' boxcar for the modern era. I think the more important thing is what your trains will be doing. A local way freight may have only a few cars in it and will be constantly dropping off and picking cars and not changing its length too much. Except for club layouts, most of our layouts are not large enough to model, say, a 2 mile long grain train in its entirety or one of the long distance named passenger trains in its entirety. Like we do with our structures, we need to employ some selective compression in our trains. A long train chasing its tail on a small layout just doesn't look right, neither does a long train with its locomotive at one station and its caboose at the previous station! I would think that the amount and length of staging tracks may be limited more by the available space than other factors, but certainly should accomodate your longest train. I'm not using hidden staging yards--I do my staging in yards that are out in the open.

I'm sure there'll be many who disagree with some of what I've said, but hopefully it will get a discussion going which you will find beneficial.

[dehusman]

From the 1830's to 1880's figure 4 inches per freight car (35 ft cars).
From the 1880's to 1910 figure 5 inches per car (36 ft cars).
From 1910 to the 1950's figure 7 inches per car (45 ft cars).
From the 1950's to 1970's figure 9 inches per car (55 ft cars)
From the 1970's to now figure 10 inches per car (65 ft cars)

These are for general mixed freight trains.
For passenger, auto rack and intermodal trains, figure 12 in per car (90 ft cars).

Dave H.