Natwerk Designs

what is the length of an average train carriage (boxcar type)?

I'm converting several train carriage into a restaurant for one of my university interior design projects, but cant find any information on the length of the individual carriages : preferably I would like dimensions of the old fashioned boxcar type of carriage, but other types would also be useful... Please help!

Public Comments

1. 53 feet.. I'm not sure of the width, but the containers are often moved over onto trucks, and they are almost always 53 feet :)
2. Firstly, there is no such thing as a 53 foot container. 40 or 42 foot max. Now back to your question. Are you asking about passenger carriages or freight vans? A passenger carriage would be roughly 60 to 65 foot long and around 9 foot wide. A freight van could be as short as 20 foot by about 8 foot, but they come in allot of shapes and sizes.
3. Agreed the "53 feet" answer is uninformed. After that, it depends on whether you are referring to American, European, or third world railroads, and whether you mean passenger cars or freight cars. From the mid-19th Century until the 1920s, the standard American box car ("goods van") was 36 feet long. During the same interval, passenger cars were usually 55 to 65 feet long. Most European railroads retained these sizes up to the present day, while American lines tended to develop longer cars. By the mid-20th century, the standard American box car had grown to 40 feet, and most passenger cars were 70 to 80 feet long. In the late 20th and early 21st Centuries, box cars grew to be 60 and 80 feet long. So you have a wide choice, depending on what effect you want to achieve. Huge amounts of information are available at your library or on the internet. Just run an internet search on "railroad car." Good luck!
4. The 53 foot container is an American domestic standard - there are thousands of them in use inside the USA! When you say "boxcar type of carriage" do you mean a square type boxcar for carrying freight? Those, depending on the country and age of the car, range from 24 feet (Europe, Japan, 19th century USA) to 80 feet long. Most common today in North America are 50 and 60 foot long versions. Passenger cars in the USA ranged from 60 to 85 feet long, in the 20 century.
5. till early 1900's the length was 30' till the 50's and 60's it was 40' now it is 50' to 60'
6. You have posted this question on the UK and Ireland Only site, so here's a UK answer. Most passenger carriages are now at or close to 23 metres long, some are longer and older ones are shorter. We don't have the "boxcar" railway vehicles and container flats are sometimes about 27m long overall.