I’m interested in hearing from others who model or are interested in narrow gauge. People of all scales, prototypes, freelancers, or others just interested in narrow gauge modeling are welcome to share their modeling experiences or interests.
From your name I take it that you model On30 as I do. I liked narrow guage for years but the investment in HO over 40 years put me off. Bachmann came out with that On30 shay and I was done. I sold off most of my HO and went On30.
I am enjoying the change to O scale.
There are a large number of narrow guagers in my area, I just didnt know it. Hope you are having fun with it too.
Dave
When Bachmann announced the On30 Forneys, based on Maine 2-foot locomotives,
that was all the push I needed to jump into On2 Scale! [:D]
Here is what I have done so far:
http://gold.mylargescale.com/Scottychaos/On2index
it isnt much yet, but it will get there!
Scot
Thanks for the replies. Yes, I model in On30 as my secondary scale. It used to be my main scale until I built a logging caboose and some rolling stock, that I originally built in On30, in Large Scale. I got hooked on LS due to the ease of working with it and the fantastic detailing potentials, however, I still like On30 - especially all the great, affordable locos that are available. My solution to this dilemma is to model in both Large Scale (indoors) and On30.
Thanks to my choice of prototypes, I model narrow and narrower gauge in HOj (1:80 scale):
Japan National Railways (September 1964) - 1067mm (3’6’') gauge.
Kiso Forest Railway - 762mm (2’6") gauge, modeled as Kashimoto Forest Railway.
Kurobe Railway - 762mm (2’6") gauge, modeled as Harukawa Electric Railway.
HOj is a compromise scale, closer to OO than HO, but using 16.5mm (standard HO) gauge, so it’s not an accurate reduction of the prototype. (Purists in Japan are now building 1:80 models to run on 12mm gauge, which is a lot closer to correct.) HOj is still readily available - in Japan, at prices that make me flinch. Fortunately, I acquired about 98% of everything I am likely to need many years ago, at much more reasonable prices.
HOjn30 on 10.5mm (HOn3) gauge track was a 1960’s experiment which is no longer popular in Japan (having been supplanted by 1:87 scale 9mm gauge, aka HOe.) As a result, I will have to do a lot of heavy-duty scratchbuilding and kitbashing to fill out my rosters.
While narrow gauge by US standards, the transition-era JNR (steam lasted until 1975) was a heavy-duty high traffic operation, much more like the PRR than the Rio Grande narrow gauge. These days it has been ‘privatized,’ but the various successor companies still have to deal with huge traffic volumes.
The Kiso Forest Railway (closed 1975) used very light rolling stock (their “big” diesel was about the size of a Volkswagen minibus) on a mountain route complete with serious bridges and long tunnels - as well as temporary branches built on spindly trestlework cobbled together from substandard logs harvested on the spot.
The Kurobe Railway was built to support the hydroelectric development of the Kurobe Gorge, including having to handle all the generators, turbines, transformers and transmission line components. A rather large percentage of its route is in tunnels, and a lot