Tuesday Tip: Useful Dimensions - Proto & Model

I'm still pretty new to freight car detailing, but have really enjoyed learning on the door-and-a-half Accurail boxcar I've been working on. Since I am a relative newbie though, I needed to know what size wire to use for the "scratchbuilt" uncoupling levers I wanted to add. Well, instead of just measuring some uncoupling levers that were already installed on other cars (which would be way too easy & make way too much sense), I decided to work the Google on the Internet Machine (with apologies to my friends at AML) and input "freight car uncoupling lever wire size." I got some very good hits - so I thought I'd share them here for this week's Tuesday Tip.

First hit was da trains! Standard Dimensions page:

As you can see from the screenshot clip, there are - as you'd guess - standard dimensions for all sorts of things in all sorts of scales:

And as if that wasn't enough, da trains!'s site included a link to a site to warm any OCD modeler's heart - the "Rivet Counters and Nit Pickers Treasure Trove"

All the dimensional data you'd ever need can be found at these two sites - at least they had all I needed for this project.

But I suppose I needn't have gone so far afield  . . . My Google results included a page from The Resin Car Works blog which is right on my blogroll (see the list at the left). The page, appropriately enough considering I was installing uncoupling levers, was titled "End Sill Details."

It never ceases to amaze me how much helpful prototype modeling information can be found so quickly with just a few clicks of your keyboard. Let me know if you find these links helpful - and be sure to share your own favorite helpful and useful sites!