DoctorWayne,
Thanks for the photos. I suppose there are a few Train Miniature cars that are not quite up to correct height. There is some justification: I recall the olden days of wooden box cars and recall that while watching a freight train go by, there were noticeable differences in height between cars. In later years the height of cars seems to have become more uniform. But there are marked height differences between some Train Miniature cars and those produced by other kit manufacturers. When running trains, I try not to mix those that are too short with those that are tall. Here is a comparison of T-M with an older Athearn box.
-Ed
BTW, I found this website for Train Miniature beer car collectors: http://www.hobeercars.com/manufacturers/tm.html
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Both cars are correct. I think you're confused because you're assuming the woodsided car is older than the steel one, but it isn't!!
The Athearn car is based on a woodsided car built in the early-mid 1940's. By the mid-late thirties the the norm for new boxcar's height was 10'-6" like the Athearn car, so these were built to that height too. During world war 2 steel was limited, so new boxcars were built with wood sides -probably the first woodsided boxcars built in 15 years or more.
The Train Miniature car is based on a steel car designed and built in the 1920's when car heights were lower by a foot or more. In fact, when 10' boxcars first came out in the thirties, they were referred to as "high cars" because they were so tall compared to the then-standard 8-1/2 or 9' high house (box, reefer, stock) car.
BTW if you take a typical woodside caboose (MDC for example) and put it next to the TM boxcar, you'll see their roofs are about the same height, so someone sitting in the cupola could see ahead over the tops of the cars. Once the taller 10'+ cars came along, the view was blocked, so many RR's began using bay window cabooses and later extended-vision cabooses.