BLI NYC USRA All-steel Box Car in N Scale

[Chris333]

About the height. If the height is correct then you need some way to raise up the couplers. Besides the box rubbing the axles the coupler height was low on my cars.

I did find this:
http://www.steamerafreightcars.com/gallery/boxauto/nyc38680main.html

Even BLI's own artwork looks like they should be taller judging by how much truck is showing:
http://www.broadway-limited.com/images/view.aspx?productId=2334

I wonder if these cars ever got P&LE paint.


EDIT: fwiw my B&A car rolled freely whereas my 2 NYC cars dragged and would only roll about 6" due to the axle rub. So this may not be a problem for every single car. Still shimmed it up .010" and the couplers line up with a MTL car.

[bbussey]

... But before I knock the ride height and fix it, does anyone know the actual prototype height to the running board?

I will check one of my ORERs later today and report back. Neither of my two cars are rubbing on the axles, but I am leaning toward employing Chris' MTL .010" washer solution to raise the ride height.

[Cumbo2000]

Judd, we would have another four buyers if you choose not to swap a B&A box car for a PRR H33.

Bob Witt

@garethashenden, @R L Smith, @Altoona are you still interested in one B&A box car? If so I'll order a four pack and do the distribution.

Bob Witt

[Altoona]

Still very much interest in a B&A boxcar.
Judd Barton

[w neal]

Any body want to spilt a pack of Peoria & Eastern boxes? I only want 2, I think. PM me.

[reinhardtjh]

@garethashenden, @R L Smith, @Altoona are you still interested in one B&A box car? If so I'll order a four pack and do the distribution.

Bob Witt

I would take a B&A if any one of the others declines.

[garethashenden]

@garethashenden, @R L Smith, @Altoona are you still interested in one B&A box car? If so I'll order a four pack and do the distribution.

Bob Witt

Yes please!

[R L Smith]

@garethashenden, @R L Smith, @Altoona are you still interested in one B&A box car? If so I'll order a four pack and do the distribution.

Bob Witt

Yes, I'm still in!

Ron

[bbussey]

I will check one of my ORERs later today and report back. Neither of my two cars are rubbing on the axles, but I am leaning toward employing Chris' MTL .010" washer solution to raise the ride height.

Sorry I'm late on this.  I measured both the eaves height from the rail and the top of roofwalk from the rail.  Here are the model dimensions juxtaposed with the data from a 1956 ORER:

                        Eaves Height      Top Roofwalk
                      Prototype  Model  Prototype  Model
          B&A Series      12'9"  12'3"      13'1"  13'1" 
          NYC Series      12'8"  12'3"      13'1"  13'1"

So BLI keyed off the top of the roofwalk.  However, the plastic roofwalk is much thicker than what an etched roofwalk would be.  The 5" difference in the eaves height works out to .030", which seems a lot.  I may boost mine .030" to see how it looks, but I suspect I may settle at .020".  I'm going to key off the Atlas cars on judging which measurement looks better.  And, it appears etched roofwalks will have to be swapped in once the cars are raised.

[bbussey]

I raised the cars .030". It's a tad high for my tastes, so I'm probably going to drop down to .020".

[central.vermont]

So Brian, is my car going to be adjusted before I pick it up.  Just kidding!! But I would like to know who's metal roofwalk we can use on this model to swap out the plastic one.

Jon

[Mark5]

I raised the cars .030". It's a tad high for my tastes, so I'm probably going to drop down to .020".

Yeah .030" looks a bit much - thanks for posting this (all). I decided to spring for one (as of this moment MBK still shows one single in stock).

Weird to have to raise a car ... 

Mark

[bbussey]

I changed the spacers to .020", it looks much better. The floor is now at the same level as the Atlas USRA boxcars. The top of the roofwalk is still below top top of the USRA roofwalks, so I'm going to leave them in place for now.

[OldEastRR]

And this is the second recent case of a manufacturer getting a key dimension of a special prototype wrong ... how can this be? In a world of instant online information and dozens of rr historical societies, who just goes ahead with a "sorta" datum instead of a precise one? Surely there is at least one person among their design crews intimately familiar with RR car drawings and evaluating historical photos?
I can put up with balky engines and terrible couplers but to get a wrongly designed car ... is frustrating.

[bbussey]

Well, they keyed off the roofwalk height instead of the eaves height, which isn't a bad choice necessarily. The problem is the thick plastic roofwalk pushes the ride-height down. The body dimensions are accurate fortunately, so adding bolster spacers solves the problem.