HOn30 rolling stock

Testing the waters of HOn30 and while I'm not against kitbashing a locomotive or two, what does everyone do for rolling stock? I don't really want to buy multiple $50 freight cars if I can help it. What's the best way to start?

 

Howdy from Texas. You seem to like HOn30, so you might want to scratchbuild some rolling stock. Kits for HOn30 cars are not cheap and some are just plain "cheap", so try making them yourself. Here and elsewhere, HOn30 modelers talk about "converting" available HOn3 RTR cars to HOn30, but if you want to do that, why not go HOn3 anyway. A K-27 loco on HOn30 track looks wrong (I'll hear about that!) and the rolling stock are too large and too wide for the gauge. There are plenty of plans for cars which work well in HOn30. You may spend 10 or 15 bucks on the raw materials for the first car, but then those supplies may yield 2 or 3 cars. Start off simple and you will get the "swing" after a while. Locos are another thing, look for nice running N scale locos, there are available HOn30 conversion kits for them, again not really cheap, but how many locos do you need anyway? I am not talking from armchair lurking, while I don't model HOn30 now (except for a couple of friends' stuff), I began HOn30 back when there was no N scale...old Treble O (forerunner of N) locos were used (crude stuff) and HOn3 trucks had their wheels squeezed in to gauge. I have watched HOn30 rise, fall, and now kind of "stable". You might check out the yahoo HOn30 sites, those fellows know what's available and some actually do build models! Good luck.
Woodie

 

http://www.mountbluemodelco.com/HO.htm
has some wood box cars.
Rick

 

Roger Chivers has been ill and has had to stop production. His sons has taken over some of the ranges and the HOn30 stuff will be available soon from SLIMRAILS

I've been doing stuff for my own railroad using 3-d printing. It's a bit experimental at the moment and subject to change but I've made it available to all from the people who do my printing - Tebee Models by tebee on Shapeways

Hopefully later this year I'll get it ready for commercial release.

Tom