Good Morning,
I am in the final stages of a 3d Animation for a Civil Engineering firm, and I have a model of a SD-45 (I think) that shows the clearance under the bridge. Can anyone tell me how tall a SD-45 is so that I can be sure I have the scale correct?
Thanks =)
Martin
15 feet 7 3/16 inches over the rail head
Thank you =) apparently the model I purchased isn’t accurate (I think the trucks are too far out to the sides so they weren’t a good guage for the overall side of the engine). but your reply is VERY helpful
Martin
The old Athearn blue box model right? 
No, its a digital file (I am working in Maya). I think someone made it for a school project or something and then put it on the web for sale. Don’t think they knew much about trains =\
Martin
Oh that’s nothing…A friend of mine brought her 1 1/2 year old son and he wore overalls with a little steam engine in the front. I was counting the wheel configuration and it looked like a… 4-0-4?!
Most railroads had clearance standards and since locomotives could run on nearly every railroad I suspect nearly all diesels from EMD would have the same height limitations and would be basically the same height.
[#welcome][#welcome][#welcome]
If you go to the NMRA website you will find a page which has both the loading gauge (for stock maximum size outward from centre) and structure gauge (for the minimum size hole for cars built to the loading gauge to go through). these dimensions would also be available elsewhere.
The two gauges are not close in size… because the structure gauge allows for a car built to full loading gauge width that is 89’ long to go round curves (both horizontal and vertical)… when the ends of the car can reach out sideways and the mid car can undercut the curve (also sideways) (Oops… that’s sideways and up/down).
From the drawing in the back of Kalmbach’s Our GM Scrapbook the height of an SD45 is 14 feet 8 and 3/4 inches. The height shown is measured from the bottom of the wheels to the top of the cab. An additional measurement shows the height from the bottom of the wheels to the top of an air horn centered on the cab of the SD45 as 15 feet 5 and 1/4 inches. The plans in the book are attributed to Specifications books issued by the Electro-Motive Division.
Back at that size difference thing… maybe this will help.
If you have one of those long, square in cross section but much longer than wide boxes of after dinner mints it will go down quite a small straight pipe… but when it gets to a corner the pipe needs to be a lot bigger or it will just jam. The bigger dimension gets used all over.