Hi, I would like to model a class one railroads mainline. if I wanted to model the 136 pound mainline rail used by Norfolk Southern in “HO” scale, which scale code would that be, code “83” or code “100”? What is the correct prototype rail pound size for code “83” & “100”? Mark.
In HO (which I assume is the scale you are interested in) Code 83 rail is the right height for prototype 132-135# rail. Code 100 is oversize for anything ever used. Prototypically correct 155# rail (used to a limited extent by the PRR) would be code 93. Code 100 scales out to about 170# rail - which might have been used under traveling cranes somewhere, but was never laid to support railroad equipment.
Chuck (modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
83-mainline
70-sidings
55-spurs (I think its 55 its 50 something)
Mike
Yes, but the OP wants to know what the real-life rail poundage is for the various code rail.
David B
If diesels keep getting bigger and heavier, I wouldn’t be surprised if 170 were to be used on some main lines in the future.
Thanks guys, you’ve all been a great help as that was exactly the information I was looking for on rail size. Mark.