any suggestions on where to start?
any company out there make craftsman quality kits for transistion era freight rolling stock?
where do I buy stuff like detail parts, trucks, etc?
I searched and searched but all I find is On30, pre-World War II, or sites that google ‘thinks’ are saying “O gauge” when they are actually saying “HO gauge”
thanks a lot
Walthers makes a “large scales” catalogue that I believe has the O stuff in it now. O used to have it’s own catalogue but I think it’s in with the G stuff now. They don’t put the large scales one out every year, but you should be able to find a recent one.
Or check Walthers online. www.walthers.com.
Also, the Atlas website’s forums has a separate O scale forum.
www.atlasrr.com, click on “forums”.
When I was in O 20 years ago it was primarily a craftsman kit hobby (or tinplate). Now there’s more RTR stuff and a lot of O scalers are now “hi-railers” - running 1:48 scale equipment on three-rail track.
Looks like Quality Craft kits are still around - although looks like many are not currently in stock at Walthers:
You could try Ye Olde Huff N Puff too:
You might try Googling “O Scale” instead of “O gauge.”
Try P&D hobby http://pdhobbyshop.com/, they have some All Nation kits.
48/ft has a shopping guide page http://users.foxvalley.net/~osn/find2-railoscale.htm which may provide some other sources.
Enjoy
Paul
If you are looking at scratch building the cars then just about any plans can work. You only need to convert the scale measurements. I would think O scale would be much easier to make than smaller scales. You should be able to find brass stock that can be used for frames and still use wood for,…well wood.
thanks to all
You also might want to try visiting the OGR forum.
Check out San Juan Car Co. http://www.sanjuancarco.com/p_standardgaugefreightcars.html
IIRC they offer both normal (5’ gauge) and P48 (56.5" gauge O-scale) versions of their kits. The couplers are a real beauty as well.