Prototype Standards

martinvk

since 10 Aug 2002
I've found many sites on the web that describe railway standards for model railways but since there is often some compromise in small scale models, just converting back to prototype sizes doesn't always work.

What I'm looking for are general rules and basic dimensions to help build better objects.

Track gauge is easy but what is the center height of various couplers?
What are the heights of various car buffers and how wide apart are they?
Are there preferred heights for passenger platforms?

These and any other design rules would be greatly appreciated.
 
Martin those measurements are going to be uniform within one railway system, but are different for almost every railway.

A quick google produced this page which shows just some of the differences in UK, European and US measurements....

Andy :)
 
Thanks for the link. After a quick look around, I found this
Couplings, buffing and drawgear
139 Any buffers between vehicles should resist buffer locking. Buffers and drawgear systems
should resist overriding and relative rotation to keep vehicles upright.
140 Mechanical couplings should withstand the normal railway loads between the vehicles of a
train and retain integrity if misalignment or overload occur in the event of a derailment.
141 Where couplings are locked/latched in position, there should be a visible indication or other
detection that the locking mechanism has worked correctly.
142 Vehicle end load performance, buffing strengths and heights of all trains using a route should
not to give rise to danger due to the different performance of vehicles.
143 The buffing gear of trains should be compatible with the buffer stops or other arrestor devices
in use on the railway. The possible loads imparted by such equipment in foreseeable collisions
should also be taken into account.
But conspicuously absent are any real dimensions. Although not every railroad will be identical, those that have any interchange have to be close enough or they couldn't

I'll keep looking.
 
Cool, that clears up some of the confusion about couplers, at least those in the US.

Now how about those end buffers on European rolling stock? Does anyone know the min - max height of their center above the top of rail? The min - max center to center distance between the left and right side buffers? The size of the buffers?

I guess some of the confusion stems from the fact that every piece of rolling stock in Trainz will couple to every other piece whereas in the prototype world, interchange is very much limited to specific types. :(
 
Hi,

I can give you some data from german regulations.
Elevation for buffers above track: min: 940 mm, max 1065 mm
Horizontal distance between buffers: standard: 1750 mm; min: 1740; max: 1770
Lenght of couplers min: 450 mm; max: 550

The rule books and regulations are published and can be found in any better library. I assume this will go for other European countries as well.

Cheers,

Konni
 
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