I am looking for some train dimensions and I though an AAR plate would be a good way to scale them. I saw on a website that the AAR plate B was adopted in 1948. Were there any standards in the 1930’s? I am trying to build the Illinois Central Green Diamond and I need the car widths and lengths. I have a floor plan, but I need to know at least one difinitive dimensions to scale the rest.
I usually try and use the largest dimension I can to scale from which in this case would be the truck centers. Each truck center for the cars was 64'. This includes 11" on each end of the car for the diaphragms ( so 22" total between cars). And in case you don't have it, the height to the top of the cars was 11' 6" except for the first car which tapered to 12' 2" to meet the roof of the locomotive. The locomotive then tapered up to 13' 2". As for width, the locomotive was ~9' 7 1/4" and the cars were about an inch narrower. Jason
That is exactly what I was looking for. Where did you find those? I have been searching for a while now, and it was here on Trainboard the whole time. It looks like I need to get a little better at research.
One of the Pullman Standard passenger car books (#12 I think) has some dimensions and I have one book on IC passenger trains that also has some drawings. Jason
What I have on the locomotive is that from the rear articulated truck center, it's 45' to the center of the front truck and then another 14' to the front of the grill. The pilot extends beyond this measurement. Jason
