40/8 Boxcar info anyone?

[Morian Miner]

Don't know if this goes here, or Ref Room, but anyways.....

Does anyone have decent info and/or drawings of either French or German 40/8 type boxcars. I've found the length and width (20' and 8.5'), but nothing on overall height. I've seen the French ones, esp. those from the "Merci" train were narrow gauge, so I'm assuming these were meter gauge, but what other gauges did they run on? And anyone know where I can find some decent drawings and pictures of the undercarriage?

Can I just say hunting for European railway info on the web is a major pain.

[blaster_e11]

tell me what you need to know exactly (i dunno squat about railways) and i'll find a friend here to provide the info

edit :! i've found this liknk which is not currently working

http://www.quid.fr/2006/Transports_Ferr ... ry=billets

i'll try later, lmk if you need some translation to be done

[krieglok]

40 and 8 was a common term from the WW1 era, but it decribes the cars used by the military organizations during both wars. I ran a couple searches and found some text but not much in the way of drawings. Some key phrases to include in your searches would be: SNCF(French national railways) DR(German National railways during the prewar and war time eras) and the term "wagon" instead of boxcar which is a North American term.

It seems to me a number of flatcar models are being made in 1/35 scale now and I think Revell once made a wagon of some sort. You may also resort to picking up a Roco wagon and scaling up the dimensions. Let me delve into my library and see what I can come up with for you.

PS: The European standard guage was the same as the US- 4`8 1/2". Russia was 5 foot guage and the Germans spent a lot of time converting the Russian track as they advanced into Russia. The actually completed quite a bit of conversion before they were driven out.

TJ

[Morian Miner]

Krieglok,

This is for my 1/18 stuff, so I won't be able to take advantage of all the goodies in 1/35 (I'm always impressed how many railway models they have).

The reason the mention of some of the 40/8s being narrow gage is because I've decided not to do a standard gage 1:20.3 layout. By time I build my Chilmark module, that will be layouts in three scales, and I don't want a fourth. I'm also cheating by planning on using a 44-tonner painted for USATC on the same G-scale track (all the USATC 45-tonners were standard gage, but there were some domestic units built with same carbody and narrow trucks), so I figure a narrow gage 40/8 would be a decent comprimise (still the wrong scale to go with the track, but close )

[krieglok]

I see. That is interesting. As far as US Military locomotives, the Army had early Alcos that had adjustable guage wheel sets. I believe they were "MRS-2s " or something like that and they were common in the post war era. The Narrow guage idea might be difficult as most narrow guage equipment was porportionatly smaller than the standard guage stuff, so a narrow guage car may not be able to carry 40 men or 8 horses. It sounds like you have a pretty good idea of what concept you are discussing though. I still have to check out my sources to see what I can find for you.

TJ

[blaster_e11]

here is the answer from my friend :

40/8, is military writing for 40 men and 8 horses
it was mandatory on every boxcar until 1940 and meant the number of men and horses who could fit in the car in case of requisition

After WW2, the French Red Cross sent a whole train full of knick-knacks to thanks the US : 49 boxcars (one per state). Those boxcars were outdated even in 1940.


the gauge is 1.435 meter

a couple of links :

http://www.mercitrain.org/

http://www.therailroadpark.com/merci.html

EDIT :

he told me the height must be around 5 meters for a steam train and 3,5 for an electric one

[Morian Miner]

Cool. Time to add another project to the workbench (don't have enough ) Thanks for all the help, guys.