Page 25 - September October 2017

produces a “Galloping Goose”. Bachmann produce a smaller west coast model and a two car eastern rail bus. There are a variety of kits and conversions to modify commercial models or commercial chassis.
Bachmann also do a range of interurban cars (trams) and I recently discovered Smallbrook Studio on the Isle of Wight who produce a range of narrow gauge models including some American designed Brill Trams.
Structures
Fortunately, there is a plethora of American O gauge 1/48th scale buildings out there, as kits or fully built. If so inclined you can buy interior furnishings and lighting kits too. Names to look for include Woodland Scenics, Banta, Mt Albert, Stoney Creek, Morgan Hill Models and EDM. Many of these are craftsman kits, wood, and/or gypsum plaster construction with resin, white metal/pewter, plastic and resin bits. If you’re coming from HO the reality is that the buildings are twice as high, twice as wide and twice as deep as an HO equivalent– that’s a lot of volume and potentially a big footprint.
Accessories
Again a lot on offer, from traditional model railway sourc- es. However 1/48th scale modelling is also a growing area for military modellers and so there are quite a few vehicles, figures, bits and pieces that translate easily over to railroad applications.
On30 layouts do not have to be big. You can put together a simple inglenook layout 12 “ (30cms) deep on a 6’ or
7’ (1.8 or 1.9m) length, and using short wheelbase locos and stock fit a continuous run layout with a run round and couple of spurs on the traditional 6’ x 3’ baseboard (1.8 m x 0.9m). It also works really well as a shelf layout.
References
These days, the internet is always going to feature exten- sively. For example an image search for On30 structures will produce an amazing selection of photos. Youtube has a lot of On30 Material. Printed and free on-line maga- zines like Model Railroad Hobbyist have plenty of adverts for On30 products. The Narrow Gauge and Short Line Gazette is highly recommended. For starters maybe buy a recent copy of the On30 Annual which has up to date advertisers – many small firms have sadly disappeared in the last 10 years.
There is a module specification heavily influenced by a European Fremo On30 standard and based on DCC – it includes a really excellent common data bus specification that works with most DCC systems. Some of the com- mercial baseboard suppliers will now supply modules to this spec if asked.
The spec can be found at https://bearwoodamrg.files. wordpress.com/2016/11/fremon30_standard_final.pdf
The spec is intended to be a living document, that covers an advanced and a basic level specification. Its champion Kathy Millatt has handed it on and if anyone has any proposals for change please get in touch. Ideally any changes should be evolutionary and not make old modules extinct overnight.
John Levesley
Options and Standards
So far as track is concerned, there are two principal sup- pliers of ready-to-run On30 track, Peco and Micro Engi- neering. San Juan Car Company produces On3 track. Peco and San Juan track is code 100, ME track comes in codes 83 and 70, turnouts are #5 size. Peco turnouts are shorter and tighter radius than ME. Some On30 model- lers have always made their own and now companies like Fast Tracks provide all you need to build your own, with metal templates and kits for On30, On3 and On2 track and turnouts in 5 sizes. Of course some On30 modellers just use HO track, which is not always a cheat as some narrow-gauge lines do/did have short thin ties set very close together. Personally I just wish Peco would look again at their O-16.5/On30 track based on code 83 track and templates. It sounds far-fetched but they have some- thing similar with their OO9/HOe track.
October 2017 - ROUNDHOUSE 25