True length of rolling stock

[gn goat]

This may be a dumb question but I'm curious: Is there a standard method for measuring the length of rolling stock? I have a Walthers HO caboose and on the box it states that it's 30 feet long. I've measured the length of the caboose several ways (coupler to coupler, etc.) and the only one that agrees with the box measurement is from body end to body end (excluding roof overhang). Perhaps someone can shed light on this.

the goat

[ericboone]

Unfortunately, there really isn't a real standard here.  For boxcars, gondolas, and bulk head flat cars, the length is typically the prototype's inside length.  This is because railroads are most concerned with the cars load capacity.

[orsonroy]

This may be a dumb question but I'm curious: Is there a standard method for measuring the length of rolling stock? I have a Walthers HO caboose and on the box it states that it's 30 feet long. I've measured the length of the caboose several ways (coupler to coupler, etc.) and the only one that agrees with the box measurement is from body end to body end (excluding roof overhang). Perhaps someone can shed light on this. the goat

In general, the stated length of a car in the modeling community (and with real railroaders too) is a generalization. Virtually all "fourty foot" boxcars were really in the 41' to 43' range, as measured from end to end (the "end" of course being subjective: did you want the measurement from end of the coupler, pulling face of the coupler, end of the strikers, or just the outside of the body?)

So if a manyfacturer says "30 foot car", cut them a little slack. The car is really probably 33.25' long (from striker to striker, which is generally where I figure length), but the manufacturer isn't technically "wrong"; no more wrong that we mere mortals who dare to call a turnout a switch (same as 99.999% of real railroaders).

[Paul Milenkovic]

My understanding is that an 85' passenger car (a standard length) is over the pulling faces of the couplers.

But . . .

Even though we consider ourselves scale modelers instead of toy railroaders, even the NMRA standards have compromises in them that are departures from prototype dimensions to get models to work -- width of wheel treads, flange size and depth, coupler size (the standard HO Kadee is oversized, but Kadee has something closer to prototype for people who want to go that route), and yes, space between cars.

Prototype cars are coupled much more closely together, and this holds true for the 40-ish length freight cars -- it is not just in passenger equipment that his compromise is made.

In the toy vs scale model railroading debate, I look to the flying-model airplane people for inspiration.  There are scale and non-scale flying models, but even the scale models have their compromises and non-scale is by far the bigger part of that hobby, and the main interest is that the models operate -- that they have propulsion, that they fly, and that they are controllable in their flight in some degree.

If you wanted super-scale display models of trains, you can get dummy couplers, correct wheel treads and flanges from NWSL, and go that route.  But for me, the interesting part of railroad models is seeing them operate -- seeing them couple up in switching moves, seeing them run in trains, negotiate trackwork, start and stop smoothly.  As such, the spacing between train cars is wrong on our models, and it is a compromise to allow them to operate.