Is it reasonable to assume that if I acquire an HOn3 rolling stock kit that everything except the trucks will be HO & I can convert it to an HO item by replacing the trucks with an HO set???
Or is not that simple?
Thanks
Tanked
Things are not that simple. The scale of course of the items is the same: 1:87 (or 1:87.1). But narrow gauge freight cars tended to be both narrower and shorter than their standard gauge equivalents, and had lighter loading capacities. Coupler heights also differed even accounting for the smaller wheels and trucks. A railroad would be failing to take advantage of the higher load capacity of standard gauge if they simply put standard gauge trucks under narrow gauge cars.
I am aware that the Rio Grande modified some downgraded standard gauge cars (gons or flats, I cannot recall) for narrow gauge purposes. It might be possible to go the opposite direction and model a more old fashioned standard gauge car from a narrow gauge car - but you’d want to have some basis for the measurements and not just swap out the trucks on any old car. I cannot recall if they made those cars more narrow or not. Someone on these forums knows the answers.
Most narrow gauge cars were purpose built and would look decidedly odd if simply equipped with standard gauge trucks. Again perhaps using a 1920s narrow gauge boxcar to model a very early 1870s boxcar (ditto stockcars or tank cars) might look plausible but I suspect that is not what you are talking about.
This is not what you asked but on the internet there are pictures of what standard gauge cars looked like when the East Broad Top would lift up the car and put narrow gauge trucks underneath. They looked like a hippo in high heels, very odd, and a special coupler was needed. The point however is that the width standards were so different that the cars simply don’t look right together even if the gauge issue is addressed with different trucks.
Dave Nelson
Sorta, kinda, no.
If you are modeling the 1870’s then maybe. Narrow gauge cars are narrower and lower than standard gauge cars, noticeably so. 1850-1870’s cars had about the same dimensions. You will have to find short wheelbase standard gauge trucks (5 ft or less) to avoid hitting the underframe and sill steps.
The problem is that most narrow gauge kits are for 1920-1930 era cars which means that the grab iron placement, hardware, lettering, etc, is completely wrong for an 1850-1870 era car. Plus they will proably be “too long” for the 1850-1870 era.
So the answer is you can do anything you want, but it won’t really be a good fit.
it would work the other way around, many narrow gauge lines would swap out the standard gauge trucks for narrow gauge trucks, The 3 ft gauge East Broadtop did it at Mt Union with a big overhead crane.