Has anyone converted an N gauge power truck to Hon3? Looks like you could pull each wheel out about .020 to fit the HOn3 rails. If you have, what would be a good model to start with? thanks
I have rebuilt some old atlas 0-6-0 locos to HOn3 gauge. I just placed washers between the wheels and chassie to eliminate sideplay and avoid the gauge to go back to 9 mm… It has worked really good!
Jerry,
I did that when I converted a Liliput diesel from HOe (Eurospeak for HO narrowgauge on 9mm N gauge track) to HOn3 (10.5mm). In this case, conversion wheelsets were available to take it to HOm (12 mm gauge), so I simply regauged them to the in-between measurement of 10.5 mm.
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/215880.aspx
Liliput and Bemo offer a number of items that are convertible in this way between HOe and HOm, most of which can slo be set to HOn3.
Years ago (by which I mean, decades ago) Model Railroader ran a piece – it might have been a staff workshop article rather than a full article - about converting the then-new AHM Minitrains HOn30 or HOn2 1/2 Plymouth diesel to HO and HOn3. That little engine has been reintroduced by a different importer but it might be the mechanism has changed enough that the article would only be partly useful now.
Dave Nelson
The new version reportedly has a much improved mechanism, which would make it a much better loco to convert. Like Dave, I’m not sure whether previous regauging solutions apply to the current model.
Widening the gauge from 9mm to 10.5mm might be as simple as simply moving each wheel outward .75mm on the existing axle, or might require new, longer axles and truck frame spacers depending on how the specific truck is assembled.
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
At the February Great Scale Model Train Show in Timonium MD., I purchased an Athern HO SW-7 that had a very creditable conversion to HOn3 (more dificult than an N conversion. While I do not use diesels, I was not going to leave it on the table for $20.00.
I have ideas about just such an N gauge power truck kit bash as mentioned above. Nice to see a few HOn3 folks chime in on this. Any recommenation on a great N scale model that uses a smooth running power truck as a base unit to convert?
I would think anything made by Kato would be a good bet
I don’t know anything about the possibility of widening a N scale Kato loco to HOn3, but narrowing HO to HOn3 results in a mighty fine loco…
I found the article - it was by Gordon Odegard and is in the February 1966 Model Railroader (longer ago than I recalled). The article says the engine is “easily” converted but that was by Odegard standards and it would be a more complex project today, but basically he had to cut away the metal frame that covered the wheels, cut away the plastic casting that looked like an outside frame (Plymouth had both outside and inside frame versions of the two axle engine so this is prototypical. Gordon made new axles out of 1/16" drill rod stock. He turned down the rod to .060" in a lathe rather than bore out the wheels and gear because it is harder to do that with precision. He used 26" wheels “available from several suppliers” – hmm, maybe back then they were. He used Howell Day 26" spoked wheels.
So he did not pull out the wheels on the original axles but made all new axles. He used small washers to fill up the empty space due to the widened gauge but he was converting to HO standard gauge, not HOn3, but his article says the same techniques would be used for HOn3.
I assume copies of the article are available from Kalmbach for those who might want to give it a try now that Mini Trains are being imported by Big City Hobbies.
I was thinking N to HOn3 only because it’s only about .040" difference. HO to Hon3 would be aprox. .175. Seems you would have to narrow the whole drive unit to push the wheels in that much, & would be easisr to pull each one out .02. I agree that you would have a much better model with an HO drive. I’ll have to look up TT gauge, that may be closer.
Yeah, it sounds that way at first, but in practice is easier to make something narrower, up to a certain point, than it is to make them wider. Think of a piece of rope. If you need to make it shorter, cut some off. But to make the rope longer is a bit trickier…
Most N scale wheelsets have axles that come just wide enough. Spreading the wheels out causes the axle to be only halfway on the axle or worse by the time you’ve gained what you need to be HOn3.
The key to making HO mechanisms work in HOn3 is to find those with a narrow enough gear box that the wheels can be pushed in.
FYI, TT = HOm = 12mm gauge. That’s why I mentioned Bemo earlier, as they specialize in HOm, pricey but vey well made. There are a few TT mechanisms around, but I know nothing about them.
The fellow that modified the SW-7 HO Athern to HOn3, cut the sides of the power trucks flush on both sides and then milled the remaining central portion on each side to create the correct space for reattachment of the outer truck sides to make the model HOn3. He seems to have used some sort of bottom strap to reattach them. I will not run the loco on my layout normally, (wrong era), so I put it aside for future study at some length. Blue Box Athern diesels were never known as being fabulous runners, but I’ll find out soon how it runs as a conversion.
I have a large attached building that is not devoted to MR at all, but I did make a 4X8 table (naked plywood) with cork road bed into a large, dual gauge, simple oval (HO-HOn3). It resides in the ceiling, able to be dropped easily via pulleys. I use it for test and run-in for any new purchases or testing repairs, etc. It is capable of both DC and DCC in both gauges. I will lower it to run the SW-7 and to work on a friend’s brass HO Hudson that is not doing well.