Is anyone here building On30 kits? I am thinking of steam era stuff, rail cars, branchline passenger, railtrucks, etc. for some of my modeling endeavors. I have looked at the Backwoods Miniatures produced offerings and I like several of them. I am looking for some other ideas as well. For motive power I am mostly thinking of dress-up kits for existing models or new shells/shell replacement sorts of kits based on existing HO or On30 mechanisms.
Exactly that. I am looking for names of manufacturers. I have done a bunch of Google searches and I have a few.
Errr... was it? I don't remember. I know you sent me a bunch of information on groups active in On30 and that sort of thing.
Yup. I sent those. But also manufacturers stuff off my Favorites accumulation. If I can stay awake this evening, I'll try and sort through a few that I have found to be interesting. Perhaps they would be for you. Boxcab E50
There is an organizational meeting coming up in June to see about having an PNW On30 nucleus in the Portland/Vancouver area and everyone is being asked to bring one On30 model. I'd like to avoid bringing a stock RTR item if I can.
Is that the meeting Gil Hulin is putting together? If I had enough spare cash, I'd be working with one of the BVM kits, such as the Shay. If he ever did a Climax lokey, that would catch my interest very quickly! Boxcab E50
As in manufacturer Boulder Valley Models? I just found their site from running a couple searches on your recommendation. I am going to check them out. It looks like they have some neat kits. This is the meeting that Gil Hulin is putting together. If anyone in the area roughly outlined by the stretch from Chehalis, WA to Eugene, OR is interested in coming to Portland in June on a Saturday I can put you in touch with him. The hope is to have a regional On30 group where we can have On30 meets anywhere in the PNW region. Thanks! Adam
I like their Dunkirk locomotive kit, too. Nice! I think for a first foray into On30 kit-bashing/-building I will work either on a freight car or a critter. This place has several nice options.
About four years ago, there was an outfit which was going to produce critter shells useable in On3/On30. Their pre-production stuff looked great. But the prices proposed were through the roof. They disappeared, and likely because of those prices they had discussed. Too bad, but... There are others making freight cars, such as San Juan. But they are a bit more in cost and some are rather nicely scale- Which means they also must have a very large radius or else the trucks hit underbody details. If only there were a few folks around here interested, I might just start moving away from N scale a bit more quickly! Boxcab E50
I think I will be ordering some sort of mechanism and a critter shell next week and get going on this. By the June 4 meeting I would like to have a critter and maybe a couple freight cars to show.
I have my kind of crummy camera that I will take. It's the same one that brought those kind of blurry shots from the Pacific Model Loggers' Congress.
That's a great looking kit. The only thing that gives me pause is the lack of robustness of the Bachmann gears, which are the crack-under-stress plastic type. I thought someone somewhere said that there were aftermarket replacements, but I haven't found them.
North West Short Line make replacement gears for the On30 Bachmann Shay: On30 Bachmann Replacement Gears
It's true those NWSL gears are available- However, I believe the BVM kit uses an HO scale Bachmann Shay, not On30. My Bmann On30 Shay went for repairs about ten days ago.... Boxcab E50
Well, better than nothing. Better than not being there! Gil is a known photographer, so perhaps he'll snap a few photos. Boxcab E50
Funnily enough they also make an HO scale Bachmann Shay replacement gear set... ;-) Bachmann HO 3-truck 8-ton Shay replacement gears Presumably you wouldn't be using the 3rd truck. I have some BVM On30 ore hopper kits to make but I've been delayed by my lack of a pin vise, I need to get that sorted so I can actually finish them.
As I understand it, it's mostly an organizational meeting, so there may not be much to photograph. Everyone is being asked to bring a model. Some will likely bring a fresh-out-of-the-box Bachmann loco or something like that. Some will build kits. Some will make some very interesting mostly scratch-built things. Hopefully, there is some chance to get some photos.