1:20 scale 20' boxcar

[snowshoe]

Does anyone have the dimensions of the 1:20 scale 20 inch boxcars.   Based off pictures it looks shorter then the big hauler 1:22 scale cars.  I know you cant always go by pictures.

[Ted Yarbrough]

Snowshoe,
Don't have the car, but a friend does and it is not as long as the Big Hauler boxcar. It is smaller, you are correct. The 1:22 version represents a 30 ft car and the 1:20 version represents a 20 ft car.
Happy Rails To You,
Ted

[Kevin Strong]

Not sure on the height, but the 20' flat car I have hear measures 3.5" wide by 11 3/4" long. The flat car shares the same frame, so it will be the same length and width. Height is definitely lower than the 1:22.5 box car.

Later,

K

[Wade Colyer]

Hi Snowshoe:

The roofwalk on the 20' car is 5 5/16" above the rail and the brake wheel is 6" above the rail.

Wade

[snowshoe]

Thanks guys.  I was trying to compare it to the HLW boxcar and seems to be very close in size and  the bach is almost half the price.  thanks again

[darkdaniel100]

Has anyone got a picture with all three versions side by side?

By all three I mean (spectrum 1.20.3, 1:255, 20' 1.20.3 version) ?

[snowshoe]

here is a picture of the 1:22 scale Bachmann, left, next to the HLW on right.   HLW is 1:24 but the Bachmann 20 inch seems to be about the same dimensions as the the HLW

[locoron]

Somewhere in my stuff I have a picture and a drawing of, what appears to be, the prototype for that little car. If memory serves me it was 20' long and only 6' 7" wide so the little sucker is really 1:20 scale.
locoron

[Kevin Strong]

There is no prototype for that car. It's similar in appearance to the Cairo and (brain just went poof--something starting with a K?) car, which was a 24' car, leading to speculation that it was originally a 1:24 model rebadged as 1:20. I'm told by the person who built the original that these were simply generic cars built to be 20' long when measured in 1:20.3, none of which had specific prototypes. They weren't necessarily meant to be "scale" models.

As to actual prototype cars in 1:20 measuring to those dimensions, you've got to go back to c. 1870 to find anything close. The original theory in railroading was that a car could be no wider than twice the gauge, so many early 3' gauge cars were built to 6' wide. Bilmeyer and Smalls, a prominent early carbuilder, built a number of cars to that width, though their lengths were generally on the order of 23' to 25' long. Box cars were also taller than what this one scales out to. (If memory serves, it's a mere 4' high inside height.) B&S did build some box cars in which you'd be hard-pressed to stand upright, but nothing quite that low.

It's definitely confusing, given Bachmann's Spectrum 1:20 stuff, which is without question very accurate in terms of scale, then you have these cars also listed as 1:20, which are purely freelance. The consumer is led to believe there was a specific prototype for these as well. I wish there were better clarity between the two beyond one being "Spectrum" and the other "Big Hauler."

Later,

K

[Wade Colyer]

Hi Kevin:

Cairo & Kanawha. You're too young to have brain-fade already.

Wade

[snowshoe]

I ended up ordering one of the Bachmann 20 inch.  It is almost identical in size as the HLW.  The biggest difference was Bachmann used smaller trucks and small wheels.  How could that be since the 1:22 stuff has the larger trucks and wheels.  One would think it should be the opposite. LOL

[Kevin Strong]

While I'm loathe to ascribe anything "scale" to these cars--because they're purely freelance--the wheels on them scale out to 20" in 1:20.3. Going back to the c. 1870s equipment I referenced that was also built to near these proportions, that was a common wheel diameter. I don't know how long cars with that wheel diameter lasted in regular service--probably no longer than the small cars themselves, which being low capacity, probably wasn't terribly long. I know on the EBT, most of the early stuff was replaced by the 1900s, with some cars (particularly the wood hoppers) staying in service until around 1915. What finally "killed off" the last of the early rolling stock wasn't that they were necessarily worn out, but it was too hard to retrofit them to the automatic couplers and air brakes.

Later,

K

[samevans]

IIRC the boxcar was described as a C & K prototype to 1:22.5 which was 1:20fied by the use of 1:20 details such as ladders and grab irons.  I seem to remember that the drawing appears in a Carstens book?

[Kevin Strong]

Sam, that's what I had been told at one point, too (though to 1:24, not 1:22.5). It may be patterned after that car in a generic sense, but per my discussion with the individual who built the prototype for the model, it was not a model of that car but simply a freelance design built to be 20' long in 1:20.3

BTW, "Slim Gauge Cars," which is the Carstens book in which the C&K box car appears, is due to be reprinted in the fall.

Later,

K

[on30gn15]

BTW, "Slim Gauge Cars," which is the Carstens book in which the C&K box car appears, is due to be reprinted in the fall.

Very much worth getting.