My friend has a pair William’s NYC F3 (AA). One is powered and the other one has horn, bell and extra sounds(tower talk and engine noise). He purchased them a few years ago and is now looking for a passenger set to go with them. They are excellent engines although I personal am glad my Williams engines only have the horn and bell. All the passenger sets he has are quite shorter (in height) than the F3. We went to the lhs and he liked the price of the railking nyc passenger cars but I think they aren’t tall enough. Is this normal? Does it have something to do with the standard scale vs traditinal scale and does anyone recommend a passenger set that would look good with his engines. Thanks for the advice as always!
The cars aren’t supposed to be the exact same height as the engines. All my F3s are taller and a little wider than the passenger cars.
I have a set of NYC streamliners from Lionel. Some time next year I hope to find a nice set of 2344s to pull them.
The width of a prototype F3 is 9 feet 10 inches for the body and 10 feet 8 inches overall, including grabirons and other protrusions. Postwar Lionel F3s are very close to this width in 1/48 scale, that is, a little over 2 1/2 inches. My Williams heavyweights are the same width. Ten feet 8 inches is the American loading gauge and is the overall width of virtually everything you will see on prototype tracks.
The F3 is 14 feet 1/2 inch from railhead to the center of the arched roof and exactly 15 feet overall. Heights of cars can of course vary, as long as they do not exceed the maximum for the region where they are run.
I have the Williams shark nose from late 80’s I’m told (bought used) mine has horn, bell, and crew talk as you first start off if you start slowly. (basically engine 309 your clear to go and then you hear engine 309 leaving) I believe that’s the engine number used. anyway I bought Williams 60’ passenger cars to go with them and there just about 1/8" lower than the engine but there about 18" long each i like the length of them behind the shark nose A-B-B-A that i have I have 6 of them . I originally got an A-B-A but decided to get another B when I saw it on ebay. Makes my train about 14’ long. Looks sharp when I can find somewhere to set it up with that length