Does anyone have any back ground information of the origin and use of the 18 foot railway car and what type of car was used and for how long. Much appreciated.I don't believe this was an invention by Bachmann to entertains us who live in the world of On30. Know that British cars or goods wagons as they are called were shorter than our North American types. Have not seen any information regarding this on any forum to date.
Since nobody else has responded I will try to give this a stab.
There was a article somewhere I think maybe in the Gazette and I cannot locate it but the cars are copied after the Billmeyer & Small freight cars from the 1870-1880's with the airbrakes added.The Denver & Rio Grande used short Billmeyer & Small cars and even started with some four wheel cars.
Royce
Meant to add that the recent On30annual has two great articles on back dating the old Bachmann mogul and these cars would go great with those engines.
Royce
Thanks Royce. That bears checking out some more. May find some companies who used them and in what time period.
The article was in the May 1975 issue of the Gazette.
First D&RG cars were 4 wheel cars with a length of either 14 FT or 17FT 1872-gone by 1903
second order cars were 2 truck with a length of 22FT 1872-1903 ICC rule change did not
make it feasible to upgrade.
Short cars 20FT 6In Gondola were built by Magor for Braden Copper Co in Chile for use on the
Railways 2FT 6In line.
Ken Clark
GWN
Also meant to add that the Yosimite Short Line in California had a 18' box car.
I think the cars are neat and probably are not the goal of any prototype.
Royce
Royce and all who are interested in this topic. A little research and this is what I found. Go to www.midcontinent.org web site.One there go to the online archives section and open the wooden car builders section. Scroll down the page and click on Billmeyer & Small and you can view some great history on this car manufacturer. They made a lot of narrow gauge equipment . Enjoy the read. I did and in fact I bookmarked for future reference.
Wow, great site canpac. Thanks for sharing that.
Scott