My wife wants me to build a layout and I'm thinking of doing an On30 one with small Porter sized stock. Now the Bachmann Porter provides a decent steam loco in a couple of variants and I've just done a range of short and 4 wheeled cars on Shapeways - there is also the Slimrails range to give a little variance and possibly the new Bachmann 18ft cars. But diesel critters - the only decent running one I know of is the Bachmann Davenport. I haven't got one of these but I'm sure I can pick one up from ebay, but I'd like a little more choice. Now I can do a body or two on Shapeways but I'm out of touch with On30 - what decent HO 4 wheeled donor chassis are there these days ? Most of the ones I know are out of kids starter sets and the running leaves something to be desired. Is there something better now - maybe something out of one of the Thomas ranges ? Ideally something that's fairly easily obtainable and likely to remain so or a while. Tom
Those Davenports are nice little critters and would make a good chassis. But, they do have the famous Bachmann flaw- Some have drive gears which split. Mine has run fine, so far. If you can find something HO, perhaps non-Bachmann...
Tom-yes, the dreaded "split gear syndrome" plagues the Bachmann On30 Davenports. You might cleck out the other Bachmann HO small diesels, a 3 axle job can be modified by taking off the center wheels for a 2 axle platform. And if you want something with a built in sound system, find an old Athearn "Hustler" (cheap on the net) and then get an Ernst gear kit for the loco from Walthers. With the Ernst kit, the Hustler runs nice and slow and would make a good start for a critter in On30. And I have seen some fairly decently running On30 critters made from the horrid old Model Power MDT with a big old funky motor driving one axle. You would have to get one that ran OK from the start. There's a simple "fix" for the Bachmann Davenport if anyone is interested. Good luck, what you want is out there somewhere, Woodie
