I am thinking of building a narrow gauge layout. In HO scale I would like to model the Sandy River and Rangely LAkes lines from Maine. I cannot find any parts in the major supply outfits (Atlas,KAto,etc). Any hints? Second what is the easiest most realistic way of making snow? I would like to model late fall with the start of snow on the ground in the higher elevations. Again any suggestions? Thank you
The Maine narrow gauge trains were mostly 2 foot gauge, referred to as HOn2. You won’t find any such trains from any major suppliers, as narrow gauge is a small portion of the hobby. Specialized firms such as Train and Trooper in Phillips, ME import some narrow gauge stuff. It is not cheap.
An alternatve would be to model trains with 30" gauge - HOn30. A few models are available, and many modelers kitba***heir own using N scale mechanisms because N scale track scales out to 30" when used in HO scale.
Keep in mind these minority scales are specialized ones, without a whole lot of selection from manufacturers. Most suppliers are smaller firms without a whole lot of knowledge about them.
Do searches on HOn2 or HOn30 to see what firms you can find.
Bob Boudreau
My suggestion would be to go with HOn30 for a scale/gauge standard, then be prepared to do a lot of kitbashing as you convert N scale mechanisms to reasonably believable SR&RL lookalikes.
Your choice is definitely a modelbuilder/craftsman situation, since there is very little available in kit or RTR form.
As for small patches of snow, you can get the look with uncolored plaster of paris. The only problem will be keeping it reasonably pristine. Snow in the backwoods of Maine didn’t pick up grunge the way it did in NYC. ‘Snow’ in your garage or spare bedroom WILL pick up airborne dust.
Look at www.chiversfinelines.com -UK based, very small so production can be slow.
They do a selection of easy to assemble plastic kits in HOn30 and On30 starting at £10 UK pounds. They were available through MR, I think it’s International models or something similar. They also did a couple of whitemetal Forney kits to go on the bachmann 0-4-0 N chassis which I believe Bob Hayden used as a non powered loco on his latest layout. Look up the old MR articles on the Frary and Hayden layouts it might say in there.
Snow effectsscatter available from most of the scenic manufacturers like Noch and Woodland scenics.
more stuff
RC 820 28ft pulp rack car
Rc 821 flatcar
Rc 822 Gondola
Rc High side Gondola
Rc 850 WW&F Coach
Rc 851 WW&F Combine
Heres a helpful website
http://www.hon30.org/gettingstarted.html
also
I do believe that there is a train show next saturday in augusta and “Train and Trooper” may have a table there.
bill from lewiston
Here is the Train and Trooper web site http://www.trainandtrooper.com/
Maine Narrow gauge is being done as follows:
- HOn30 using N gauge track and mechanisms.
- Sn2 using HOn3 track and mechanisms.
- On2
- On30 using HO track and mechansisms - A lot in this scale is based on the 3ft gauge railroads in Colorado.
All of these scales/gauges have some commercial support, check the site above.
This is a bit of a niche interest so there isn’t a lot available hence the reason for basing on another scale gauge.
Enjoy
Paul
Narrow gauge is a fine choice. I like the look of narrow gauge.
Be sure to subscribe to the Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette (http://www.ngslgazette.com/) for a continuing source of great narrow gauge information.
Jaime
A very useful source is the magazine Maine Two Foot Quarterly, edited by Gary Kohler, with website at http://www.maine2footquarterly.com/
Additional sources of information are several Yahoo discussion groups:
HOn30 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HOn30/
Maine Two Footers http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MaineTwoFooters/
Maine Two Foot Quarterly http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Maine2footquarterly/
Maine On2 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MaineOn2/
Joining one or more of the above groups would be a good idea.
There’s also a website, maintained by Bill Kerr, which contains the answers to a large number of frequently asked questions about the prototype and models on Maine Two Footers at http://members.shaw.ca/twofooter/Maine2ftFAQ.htm
Bill also has a personal website for his own interests in On2 which is worth visiting at http://members.shaw.ca/twofooter/index.htm
Other sites of interest are:
The Sandy River & Rangeley Lakes Railroad Museum http://www.srrl-rr.org/
The Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum http://www.wwfry.org/
The Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad Company & Museum http://www.mngrr.org/
Edaville USA http://www.edaville.com/
And as mentioned in other replies here, International Hobbies at http://www.interhobmodels.com/ and Train & Trooper at http://www.trainandtrooper.com/ are useful resources. Also very helpful, although no website, is the Schwedler brothers at Coronado Scale Models, 1544 E. Cypress St., Phoenix AZ 85006 Phone 602-2549656 and e-mail at coronadoscalemod{AT}aol.com (Replace the {AT} with the appropriate at sign)
Additional links can be found in the “Links” sections of the websites mentioned.
Hope this keeps you busy for a while [:D]
-Ed
Here is a site with a lot of narrow guage links.
http://rgsrr.home.comcast.net/rgs/rgs_links.html
Rick