Prototype for B-man's On30 Boxcar

There are many model railroad scales and gauges. Gauge is a reference to the width of the track. There were three basic classes of gauges (in the USA):
-standard gauge (56.5" gauge) Nearly all 20th century railroads
-broad gauge (mostly pre-1880 railroads...4'10" in Ohio, 5' in the South, the 6' gauge Erie Railroad).
-narrow gauge...99% was 36" gauge...with some 42" gauge in Pennsylvania...a touch of 30" gauge in Hawaii, and 24" gauge mostly in Maine.

Scale refers to a miniature scale drawing. The original naming convention was #2, #1, and 0. 0 was believed to be the smallest possible scale in its day...1:43.5. #1 was 1:32 and #2 was 1:22.5. For whatever reason, most likely Lionel failing to correctly read Marklin's specifications, the US scales became 1:48 for o scale...not zero anymore, but the letter "o". A new scale was introduced that was half the size of European 0 scale, 1:87.1, which became known as H0, half-0. This is the most common scale in the US...HO.

My On3 trains (1:48 scale, 3' gauge track) run on 0.75" gauge track. 10 years ago, an obscure gauge O scale became popular, On30...which combines O scale with HO gauge track. The manufacturer whom really made this mainstream is Bachmann. Their initial offerings were a 2-6-0 mogul, passenger cars, and freight cars. I have a couple of their moguls, a passenger car, and a couple freight cars. The moguls are a nice approximation of a Colorado & Southern Brooks mogul as it appeared after 1900...and I've converted one of them to On3. The passenger and freight cars have been mysterious to me...too small to be moder, yet featuring a mix of post-1908 saftey hardware with 19th century brakes.

I have discovered what I consider to be the prototype for B-man's boxcar. The current issue of the Narrow Gauge & Short Line Gazette has plans for Ohio River & Western boxcar #605. It is nearly identical to the B-man car. The only difference I can see is that the B-man model lacks the end stirrup steps and the Eames Vaccuum brake diaghram faces the wrong direction. Otherwise, both are about 25'4" long and 7'3" wide. The trucks are the same. The safety hardware is the same. I will probably regauge mine to On3 and letter her up to be #605.