According to my calculations a typical HO rolling stock is 5.5 inches. Now if you were to run a 100 car train, what would the exact length be? Just grab some paper or a calculator and do the figures. Remember 12 in.= 1 ft.!
49.34 feet would be 100 40 foot cars if you also figure in the 3 feet spaceing for couplers back when they had 40 foot box cars. I remember they used to say 88 cars were a mile long train, but that was not actually correct. Today 140 cars is a nice train. You could stretch on out there if you had 100 84 foot dining cars, or some of the long cars of today. The KCS just derailed a 7,000 foot container train here in north Dallas a couple of days ago. (A mile is still 5,280 feet isn't it, or are we on the Chinese scale now?)
