Test wagon required

[buzz]

Hi all
Can any one tell me the largest single item of US freight rolling stock manufactured.
NOT including double stack containers or articulated wagons.
This is needed to either make a crude test car or purchase the wagon
as a clearance set up and test car.
I will never run that size of wagon on my railway, but you never know what may happen when your railway friend brings that new train he just bought
to a running session.
I don't particularly want to be extracting stock that has jambed somewhere or replacing telegraph poles
regards John

[buzz]

Sorry forgot to say in HO scale
regards John

[jward]

i would think that would be the covered auto racks put otu by walthers. not sure if they are still available, but they were about 90 feet long and almost as tall as the double stacks.

[Jim Banner]

The largest is probably one of the schnabel cars which would be about 36" long in H0 scale.  Check out the following link:

http://home.att.net/~Berliner-ultrasonics/rrschnab.html

Jim

[buzz]

Hi Jward
MANY thanks for the pointer in the right direction.
"unprintable exclamation" that is one huge freight car its 89' 4" long apparently
Just the thing for a clearance test car
will order one in my RR of choice before they run out that way it can double as a scenery come shunting yard anoyance piece as well
regards John

[buzz]

Hi Jim
Not sure any railway modeler I know could run one of those
That's defiantly one for the model railway club layout.
My railway will occupy a single car garage defiantly no room for three feet of space taken by a single wagon.
regards John

[CNE Runner]

Buzz - Just a thought, but since you want a 'test car' wouldn't it be a lot cheaper to purchase a set of trucks and attach them to a piece of 36" lattice strip (thin wood)? I have made a couple of these types of 'test cars' in the past and they do the job admirably...I don't even bother with couplers as it is a clearance test car. If you need to check height clearances you could mount the appropriate sized Styrofoam cube in the center of the car - thereby doubling its usefulness.

Ray

[Jim Banner]

BUZZ, I don't expect you or anybody else will run a schnabel car on their model railroad, unless their railroad consists solely of tangent track.  I was just trying to answer the first part of you question:

Can any one tell me the largest single item of US freight rolling stock manufactured.

Jim 

[buzz]

Hi jim
Its just that I had not expected something quite that large
to turn up as an avalable model.
I think the largest has arrived  but is just a bit big for what I had in mind
regards John

[jward]

that's why i suggested the auto rack. it's about the largest common car.
the world's largest schnabel car was based about 3 miles from where i now live, and as a child i saw it all the time. they only ever moved it in special trains, with a rider assigned to the car. it had the unique ability to crank the load about 3 feet to either side, to better get around obstacles. even then, there were many places it couldn't go. but it sure was impressive to see in person, with something like 48 wheels.

the auto rack, on the other hand, is a very common car around here. there are literally thousands of them, and both csx and norfolk southern run solid trains of them through pittsburgh on a daily basis.

[Atlantic Central]

BUZZ, I don't expect you or anybody else will run a schnabel car on their model railroad, unless their railroad consists solely of tangent track.  I was just trying to answer the first part of you question:

Can any one tell me the largest single item of US freight rolling stock manufactured.

Jim 

One friend of mine has one and we do run it from time to time. His layout has 34" radius curves and it runs just fine. We run it as a special train just like the prototype cars.

Sheldon

[BestSnowman]

I actually saw a schnabel car in action a couple of weeks ago on my way home from work. I was moving quite quickly in some congested traffic so I didn't get a good count at how many axels it had, I would guess it was a 20-axle.

[glennk28]

Yjr aitp rack is a goood gauge of clearances--unless you are running stacks--then the double stack is it..  The Superliner should be ujsed  (or a "Gallery" commute car)to check low-level clearances--that low belly will hit a lot of things. 

I have been considered an "expert" at finding poor clearances--I once received a "Dubious Achievement" award from a group I belong to after managing to get two different locos--in two scales--stuck in tunnels on layouts I was visiting.  gj