Ed K.....
You are now an S scale guy and, like it or not, you will probably find that
being a member of this minority scale is not unlike driving a VW beetle back
in the late '50s. If'n you were a part of that "club", remember how two
VW's passing on the highway would stop, pull over, and discuss their unique
and "different/strange" cars for 30 minutes or more, and then continue on
with their journey in opposite directions. Total strangers with a common
interest in uncommon cars.
Other folks with a similar S interest will seek you out and want to visit
you and talk trains, run trains, start clubs, etc. Around here it is not
unusual for S scale guys to travel 3 hours or more (one way) to attend an
S-event or routine club meeting. So be forewarned..... If you are lucky,
you will get a phone call ahead of time. I might wager that Keith Thompson
will be one of the early ones.
Back to vertical clearances: my tunnel portals are 4" above the railhead
and the doublestacks have about a 1/4" clearance. However, rounded tunnel
portals will need to be notched to clear the corners of the doublestacks.
Notching was not common in the 1950s, and so you might have to bite your
tongue just a bit. With notching and some clever painting and weathering,
the notch is really not all that noticeable, but if you know right where to
look....it is visible.
As an interesting note, my son-in-law, a UP engineer, says the side
clearance between doublestacks and the portal's notch is 6 prototype inches
on the route over Donner Pass between Sacramento, CA and Reno, NV. Scale
that down to S size and you will see that making the model just a bit too
wide could have serious consequences as Jim Kindraka pointed out.
Philosophically speaking, it is better in the long run, to allow more
clearance than you think is really needed -- just in case. Of course, you
could run the stack cars with only one container instead of two and get by
quite easily. Jim's idea of lowering the under track is a good idea if
possible. S scale, like any other scale, is full of compromises.
Having fun yet?.....Ed L.
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OK, so how high is a doublestack? <snip>
I'll take what you say under consideration, even though I've been modeling
for close to 50 years and no one has taken any interest in it yet besides
myself.
Ed Kozlowsky
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> I'm modeling 1951, so will have no modern equipment to worry
> about. I don't even like modern equipment, so It's no temptation for
> me. What do you think is the minimum I could get away with?
> Ed Kozlowsky
Ed....You sound like a clone of me. Same era and similarly little
interest in modern stuff. BUT, my friends have modern things and they
like to come and run stuff over here. So keep your friends in mind.
Doublestack container cars are TALL. The future has many
uncertainties. Cheers...Ed L.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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