The HOn30 (aka HOn21/2) Minitrains have recently been re-released and are advertised as having new mechanisms. I have read the reviews by MR, but am curious if anyone on the forum has tried these new sets.
Back in the 1960s, I expanded my 4’x8’ layout of the time by running a spur off into the corner of the room and setting up a loop of these narrow gauge trains to shuttle coal down from the mine to the HO standard gauge. I had both the Plymouth diesel and the 0-4-0 saddle-tank steam engine. Those locomotives had two speeds: Off and very fast, and it would often take a touch or a bump of the table to get them started from that off position. Still, the little trains were fun to run and caused me to try my hand at scratch-building a boxcar and a bobber caboose using general Maine 2’ dimensions.
While there is no room on my current shelf layout for an narrow-gauge industrial connection, I have to admit that I am tempted by this re-release. One could certainly craft an interesting industrial micro-layout (a la Ian Rice style) using these. Any reports on whether the mechanisms are indeed upgraded to the point of being dependable operators?
Those Minitrains locos are, IIRC, made by Roco in Austria, and I doubt that the changed them over the years. They are most likely to have retained their incumbent electrical pick-up problems, which is due to their light weight and small wheels.
Actually, the DID change the motors and stuff. There was a review of them in Model Railroad News a month or two ago. They’re still light, and the wheelebase is short, so clean track is an absolute must. There have been some upgrades since the originals though. Remember also N scale was sort of in its infancy in the 60’s when they first came out. In the old ads in MR the referred to them as using 000 track - originally it wasn’t called N scale.
I have seen one of the new ones running at a recent train show. Very nice little things. Run very well and very quiet. If I had had the money I might have picked one up, don’t know why because I will not have a narrow gauge line on my modern line but it was cool.
The gauge is very close to the 2" gauge mining operation used at the Empire Gold Mine in Grass Valley, CA. during its heyday. My HO scale Yuba River Sub has a mine complex somewhat similar to it, the Champion, and I’ve laid the mining track with N-scale (okay, a little oversized, but what the Heck). I saved one of the old Minitrains dump cars for the trackage, and though the mine track will be non-operational, I plan on acquiring some more of the Minitrains dump cars for the complex.
Frankly, I’m glad to see them back in production. Who knows, I might even make the mining complex operational if I get really ambitious. [:P]
Here’s one of their little dump cars on the tailing trestle at the Champion.
HOn30 is used to represent 2 foot narrow gage in HO scale. If you look at what is available, much of these are models of the Maine 2 foot railroads that ran from the mid to late 1800s to around 1930. The 30" gage is used because the track gage coresponds with N scale, so the locomotives can be built with N scale locomotive mechanisms, rather than having the manufacturers design and build costly 2 foot gage mechanisms for this small niche of the market.
I had a MiniTrains set featuring the 0-4-0T steam engine, an assortment of cars, and an oval of track – from when AHM was selling them off at bargain prices when the line was discontinued. Additional cars were rather cheap and each came with a length of N scale straight snap track. I think I paid $4.98 for the original set!
My little 0-4-0T was a bit noisy and yeah I recall the lack of speed control. But if you remember back to the 1960s, that same lack of speed control afflicted N scale train sets and at least part of the problem was the rectifiers of the time were really intended for HO and HO amperage levels. It took a while for MRC and others to come out with rectifiers that were really aimed at N. My hunch is that even the old AHM MiniTrains would benefit from the modern era of electronic controls – and I have read that the newly reissued versions have improved motors. I was tempted to buy a set at this year’s TrainFest because I always intended to have a litlte separate layout with a quarry scene. Now it seems like yet one more project out of a thousand.
Was planing a small HOn30 mining layout, however because of poor running they have been sidelined for years. Maybe now with better motors would be fun to build.
Yes, I meant two-foot gauge. Hit the right key the wrong way, LOL! It was quite an extensive operation above ground at the Empire Mine, run with overhead wire. Even had a crossing signal where the line crossed the county road between the mine and the tailings area, that’s how frequent the train traffic was during the mine’s heyday. The Empire lasted until the very late 1950’s, and is now a California State Park. Unfortunately, the little two-foot railroad was taken up when most of the machinery was sold off, but a buddy of mine and I used to go up there and walk the tracks a lot when we were in high school. The mine personnel didn’t mind, just as long as we stayed away from the Main Shaft.
