Slightly OT question

I am reading an article now about an HO scale highcube autoparts boxcar, and it says the following:

This car exceeds the normal Plate B clearance height for unlimited travel by

8".

Could someone please explain what this means, as I think it could effect the rolling stock I am planning to use on the layout I am designing at the moment.

Cheers

Shay

Reply to
Snowy
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It means that the car is eight inches taller than what the specifications for a Plate B car allow, which means the car's routing CAN be affected. However, if it will be traveling over a route that can accommodate doublestacks, it's a non-issue.

Note, though, that there may be clearances in certain industrial situations that might limit this car's appearance there, too.

Dieter Zakas

Reply to
Hzakas

The railroads can build a car to any size that they want to. The car is then compared to a standard spec for car sizes (plate B is one of them as this is the plate or drawing/picture letter in a book describing the car sizes) and any excess size relative to the plate needs to be noted. This sort of stuff limits the movements of the car over the railroad but for cars in a particular service between two businesses this is usually not a problem unless the route is closed for some reason and another route needs to be used. Failure to follow the clearance problems ends up with cars with no tops or sides from hitting things alongside the road as well as knocking over that stuff, causing other more serious problems, just like 18 wheelers trying to get under a low bridge. Note that when the Freedom Train went across the country, there were places where it wasn't pulle by the SP loco as that loco was larger than could be run in that particular area.

-- There are more Democrats on the Calif. Special Election than Republicans! Go count if you don't believe me! Bob May

Reply to
Bob May

Then this is going to affect what cars I use, because the track I am modeling rules out superliners, tri-levels, doublestacks. Basically what I need to get is a list of anything that needed extra clearance. My line will be heavy with coal, timber, general freight. Is there a website, or person on here maybe, that could have this information?

Reply to
Shay

Just don't run any equipment that's marked "Exceeds Plate C" or larger.

Superliners and trilevel auto racks are "Exceed Plate F." High-cube double-stacks and the new AutoMax cars are "Exceed Plate H."

--Dan

Reply to
Dan O'Connor

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