Does anybody know if the old Lionel Hi Cube boxcars from the 70’s are scale(Standard “O”) or close to scale?
Thanks
What I want to know is: Would they fit with other Lionel cars that are Standard “O”? They look like they might.
Thanks
http://espee.railfan.net/sp_fcss-17.html
The prototype is 91 feet long. The model is 41 feet, or 45 percent, or 12 1/2 inches scant.
The prototype is 10 feet wide. The model is 9 feet, or 90 percent, or 1/4 inch scant.
The prototype is 17 feet high. The model is 15 feet, or 88 percent, or 1/2 inch scant.
If the model were to scale, the answer would be obvious. But it is significantly smaller than scale; making this decision very subjective: You’ll have to decide for yourself.
(Note that the prototype, because of its great length, is narrower by 9 inches than the usual loading gauge. This is a typical adjustment for longer cars.)
The term HyCube is specific to the cars Bob cited and these are extremely long. There are examples of extended hight box cars in 60 foot, 50 foot and occasionaly 40 foot lengths.
model:
http://www.hobbylinc.com/htm/ato/ato804.htm
real one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/17973202@N00/2839622101/sizes/o/
If the Lionel car has reporting marks indicating the models dimensions are reasonably close to scale (aka is is a 40’ car) it could be used in a scale setting. If is says the car is 60 feet or (gulp) 89 feet long it would need to be relettered.
As others have posted, MPC hi cubes are not scale. They were 027’ized. For a bit of history. According to TM’s Collector guide on MPC Lionel (vol 4), the product designers intended the then new hi cubes to be the same length as the newly tooled baby madison cars. For some reason, the idea was shot down and they were shortened. In the end, the hi cubes turned out to be lousy sellers. Probably because they were too modern of a design at the time. To recover tooling costs, Lionel used them for the Disney cars.
t-brain - I’m a fan of the 9600 series LIONEL Hi-Cube boxcars. They are very colorful, nicely graphiced for mpc era, and track well. My buddies will tell you I’m a bit of a stickler for scale, but for some reason I find these cars to be good “tweeners”. They look good with full length equipment, and don’t dwarf the semi-scale equipment.
Now, there is a personal preference that I’ll share…since I have all I want. The 9600 series cars from 1976 are painted, and look better that the 80’s molded color cars. Just hold two samples together (especially yellow UP) and you’ll see what I mean.
Two more possible reasons the Hi-Cubes were not great sellers - and this is from the view point of the consumer and the operator. One is that the frames do not lock in well to the shell and have a tendency to fall out. I’ve actually had this happen. I’ve made a small modification to mine and that problem stopped.
The other problem is that the box cars doors seem to be a little thinner that normal box car doors and are absolutely larger. The doors have a tendency to warp easily over time. On a couple I have repainted that came with warped doors, I actually glued the doors shut. Small compromise for having some hi-cubes in Norfolk Southern and Conrail.
The overall size of them, as said above, fits into the scheme of other traditionally sized cars. MTH makes a Railking Hi-Cube box car and though I’ve never done a comparison, Railking box cars tend to be bigger than Lionel conterparts.
The other box car which goes well between scale and semi-scale traditional layouts is the K-Line modern steel-sided box car. Though the car is part of the 762,764, 765 series of K-Line cars that were much closer to scale size, the steel-side box car with its shortened side ladders and no roofwalk substitutes well as a high-cube box car on a traditionally sized layout. The car can be lowered in height a little by replacing the trucks with the later K-Line issued Train-19 trucks or the last issued Husky-line replacement truck sets. Both of these trucks were lower than the common sprung die-cast truck used on many K-Line classic series cars. I have the Erie Lackawanna one and it looks great with other 6464 sized kinds of cars… I pretend it’s a high cube.
brianel027 - One of my favorite LIONEL Hi-Cubes is the 9604 NW. MTH tends to semi-scale their premier rolling stock (bust out your scale rulers), but they capture the size. For true scale fidelity, one must purchase ATLAS. Their 40 foot Hi-Cube dwarfs the LIONEL versions (as well as anything else). I use them for tunnel clearances.[(-D] I have a semi-scale layout, so I tend to purchase rolling stock that looks at home there.
The end answer to the first question. The Lionel “High Cube” placed next to a “Standard O” box car, is close enought to look good, better than when placed with a regular Lionel box car. Most all freight trains are made up of cars of different sizes.
This is what I wanted to know. I bought it when the seller told me the dimensions, 10 1/2 x 3 1/4 x 2 3/8. I compared it to a scale car and liked it enough. I have all scale sized cars and wanted it to blend. I just “needed” this Frisco car. Great info from all! Thanks