@prrhorseshoecurve Thanks for the help- know that you know your intermodal very well from my constantly checking the intermodal primer. Also, if IRCC you went to the last Renninger’s meet- in case you didn’t know there’s one this weekend.
First, regarding the K-line TTAX spine cars- do you mean short as in the car itself is short in length but will accommodate 48’ containers? I only ask because they do indeed fit 48’ containers. I checked the two pics shown below of my K-line 77022 2-unit TTAX Spine with a 40’ OoCK & 48’ SP container(side note-setscan be expanded to 5 units) vs MTH pictures 5 unit and 2 unit and sets-the 48’ looks the same on both
This picture is off the K-line 5 unit set from the 2000 Catalog
MTH Spine car pics from the internet- the BN American up top is obviously the 48’. The container doesn’t appear to be any longer on the Spine car than the K-line
Also, MTH 2-car Spine sets with 48’ containers, same thing as above
Regarding the K-line well cars I’m a bit better acquainted(Spine cars just came 2 days ago- prior to that I had the early 90s Lionel 2 unit set). I have 2 K-line well cars- APL Thrall and a CSX Gunderson. Unfortunately, I believe this K-Line Thrall is one of the few(only?) K-line Thralls that is scale length for a 40’ container but has the 48’ measurement on the side:
K-line APL Thrall K-7752 with K-line 40’ container on bottom and Atlas 40’ container on top. “48” next to the APL is incorrect as are the measurements along the brim of the well showing “40’, 45’, 48’” on the side is in correct as the well does not fit a 48’ container.
K-line K-7764 CSX Gunderson- APL 40’ Container on bottom, BN 48’ container on top. As pointed out by @prrhorseshoecurve notice the lack of ribbing. Also notice the orange “5th wheel” on each end to accommodate a trailer(you’ll have to remove the mud flaps if you have a K-line trailer, at least I couldn’t make it work without doing so). Again, same measurement problems as with the Thrall above
below is the Menards well car between the above two K-line cars:
I noticed how that pic makes the Menards car look smaller than the 16.5” K-like cars. Looks can be deceiving. As advertised my Menards their car is 17.5”, see pic below. At top of phot the end of each car is Lined up, the difference in length is displayed at the bottom of the pic
Now, finally a picture of the K-line Thrall with proper identifying measures regarding the well size. From the 200 or 2001 K-line catalog, the 2 unit TTX articulated Thrall set at the bottom of the pic has a nice, big “40” indicating the proper length of the well:
So, @Csxcellent, for K-line well cars they are scale length for 40’ containers. However, they often incorrectly indicate that their wells are 48’. Despite this incorrect detailing, the cars are still well made and prototypical for a 40’ Thrall or Gunderson. IIRC K-line had actually made decals or some corrective ‘cover’ to show the correct measurements on the sides of the wells.
Unfortunately, I can’t help you with Atlas as I haven’t bought any Atlas well cars despite having a great place to go for them with an abundance of the 3 car sets which are cheaper there yet still expensive($210 when on saw) and containers. Hopefully, one of these days I’ll get myself on of those sets as I know they’re prototypical in both scale and detailing.
