L-Gauge standard height + too-large wheels?

[SandBlueEnjoyer]

Hi everyone, I'm coming back from my dark ages and came across a problem with several builds that has bothered me.

I bought the BMR 50' PCF boxcar instructions a while ago, and recently noticed something: it's too tall. A standard AAR Plate C railcar is 15'6", which, using the L-gauge scale of 1 stud = 0.8 ft, equals 12.4 studs tall, but the BMR set is 14 studs tall! I've briefly looked around and it looks like several other models have a similar height issue -- BMR's classic 40' PS-1 boxcar should be 12 studs tall but is actually 13.2, their 60' hi-cube boxcar should be 13.6 but is actually 14.3, etc.

A big part of the problem seems to be wheels -- standard North American railcar wheels are 28-33 inches in diameter, which is roughly 2 studs wide, while we're stuck with 3 studs wide. Even for perfectly-sized railcars, this will present an issue with height consistency. (I'm not really worried about clearance, but I want to make lots of my own builds and I want them to match up with others's if/when I display at conventions)

So, do we have any sort of standardization for railcar height, especially considering the wheel size issue? And what do you all do? Do you just build the railcar itself to scale, and deal with slightly too-large wheels? Do you try to recess them slightly? Do you build the whole thing slightly out-of-scale in height?

[Stereo]

Wheels are measured without the flange, so really it's 2 plates less than 3 studs.  But the flange is a lot bigger (1 plate is ~4 inches) so it does require the body to be higher to clear them.  And visually they're large.

[zephyr1934]

Yes, generally the lego train wheels and/or trucks wind up being too large. I think usually people just ignore it, but there are probably a few who work around it, e.g., cheating it with skirting on an auto rack build

 

As for shows, there's no single universal size/height/etc.. Typically width is the first issue, then length, and only after that comes height. I'm sure you are familiar with the 6/7/8/wider debate. I'm old school 6 wide but 8 seems to be the most popular with AFOL. Folks with R40 curves will build shorter (lengthwise) than folks with wide radius curves. Etc. etc.. And as you build more your style will evolve. But if you are concerned, BMR is about as standard as you can get these days so sticking to their dimensions (and extra tall trucks) your builds will flow well with many others.

Of course one way to be certain your train will look proportionate at a show is to build the whole train.

[witchy]

My preference for sizing wheels is usually from the top of the rail to the top of the flange. If it doesn't create a problem with the front-to-back spacing (and in the case of steam locomotives, alternating flanged and blind drivers generally fixes that) it gives a good vertical spacing, and the slightly off axle positions can be covered with the external frame of the bogie by placing the bearing boxes a bit higher for visual effect. As a result, a standard #5 wheel represents 6.5 plates or very precisely 950-1000 mm in 1:48 (38"-40").

Recently I've been playing around with concepts for sprung bogies though, which are their own can of worms, requiring additional vertical clearance in exchange for the theoretically improved running qualities and making the design of flatcars extremely challenging.

For extra accurate bogies, custom #4 (or even #3) wheels are great. Otherwise when working on normal gauge I try to design to accurate BMR scale on all axes (~1:48, meaning 7 wide for UK, 8 wide for US or continental Europe, and up to 9 wide for Nordic countries), and recess the top flanges of the wheels if using standard sizes. In 1:64 scale I sometimes use custom wheels in #2-#4 sizes, and choose their sizes more based on the overall effect relative to the other parts of the build, prioritising proportional consistency and physical practicality over exact dimensions.

The main exception is the BMR intermodal standard, which sacrifices some accuracy for more versatility in building techniques. Consistency with the standard is far more valuable to me than slight imprecision in the proportions (and building containers with corrugated sides in 6.4 studs wide would be an almighty pain).

[lego3057]

I think that, in respect to 8 wide( 1:48) models, they have accurate dimensions, generally. The wheels are probably on the small size. I remember, some years ago, people reached to the conclusion that they suited better 7 wide cars, than 6 or 8 wide cars. In the end, if you measure the 3 dimensions of the box ( and not the total height from the ground) they will be right scaled in most of the cases. But if you´re in 6 wide building  than yes, everything tends to be quite tall (actually 8 wide tall)

Edited February 5 by lego3057