Page 17 - NMRA Roundhouse January-February 2020

listed in a couple of places as the contact person for some narrow gauge options. There’s also the Slim Gauge Circle, which supports the modelling of North American narrow gauge here in the UK; you can also contact the SGC via myself as I am the membership officer.
There are also a number of specialist clubs and societies in the USA, such as the Rocky Mountain Railroad Club and the Rio Grande Modelling and Historical Society, if you’re a Colorado and D&RGW fan. There are groups for the East Broad Top (EBT) in Pennsylvania, Sandy River Railroad, and for many of the better known California logging lines such as the West Side Lumber company. A few moments with Google will locate such groups, though do note that a fair few of them these days work via Facebook, so you may need a Facebook account to get the best of that. Last is the many communities on the Groups.IO site, covering prototype and modelling subjects; ones to call out here are the HOn3, EBT, DRGW and RGS groups.
What’s Available?
Unless you are entirely happy with building everything, you’re going to need to rely on the trade to a greater or lesser extent for at least the basics of wheels, locomotive mechanisms, track parts and so on. So let’s start to take a look at the common narrow gauge options in HO, and see what’s available for them.
Options for accurately modelling two-foot gauge are a bit limited. 24inch in HO (3.5mm to the foot) is 7mm gauge. The nearest commercially supported gauge to this is the 6.5mm used by Z-scale and also by Busch for their German-inspired Feldbahn range, however, none of these are really much use in HO Scale US narrow gauge modelling unless you are prepared for a lot of work.
9mm gauge is regularly used for modelling two-foot prototypes in HO, and there is quite a lot available. The track gauge is a bit wide, coming out to about 2’7” in HO, but for most people this compromise is more than acceptable, and the end result is usually referred to as HOn21/2, or HOn30. There’s a good source of information at http://www.hon30.org, though this site appears not to be currently maintained.
HOn30 track is available from Peco, sold as 009 track but acceptable for HOn30 (see below for comment on their HOn3 track). This comes with code 80 rail, so it is quite chunky. The range is extensive, covering both industrial rough trackage and more mainline options. Track is also available from Roco and Bemo, mostly to European standards, as well as from various other sources, mostly still with code 80 rail. However, if you’re up for it, code 55 and indeed code 40 rail is available from Micro- Engineering, so handlaying track in HOn30 with more scale-sized rail is not difficult.
There’s also a fairly wide range of locomotives and rolling stock available. I’m not going to list every source here, but the probable leader in RTR is the Minitrains range. They have a number of quite useable locomotives and rolling stock items, mainly aimed at the modeller of plant and extraction railroads rather than common carrier equipment, and there are also some passenger cars which look to me to somewhat theme-park prototype based.
In the past there has been quite a lot of Sandy River-based equipment made in brass from companies like Car Works and Train and Trooper – itself based in Phillips, Maine, where they operated. Much of this brass is very nice, and runs well, though you would be advised to find a copy of Chris McChesney’s HOn30 Locomotive Handbook to get the best from it.
There has also been quite a lot of kits for HOn30, locomotives and rolling stock of US prototypes or US extraction. Brass kits from the likes of Backwoods Miniatures, and many ranges of resin and wood kits from people like Funaro and Camerlengo, which will often make up into superior vehicles with care.
You’ll also find a growing range of 3D printed HOn30 items on Shapeways, loco bodies, passenger and freight car bodies and frames, truck frames and detail parts.
One great source for all of these here in the UK is the 009 Society’s second hand stand, which can be seen at many UK narrow gauge shows and exhibitions. While the bulk of what’s offered is of European extraction, it’s always worth having a browse of what’s there – they often have new Minitrains models at decent prices, as well as a lot of previously loved and some sadly previously maltreated stock. And of course everything can be found on eBay, though sometimes at ridiculous prices, but mostly ridiculously expensive rather than ridiculously cheap.
HOn3
By far the most common way to model North American narrow gauge in HO scale is to use HOn3. This accurately represents 3’ gauge using 10.5mm gauge track and components. And there is a far greater range of material available.
Let’s start with track. There are two complete ranges of HOn3 track available. Peco have code 70 flex track and #5 turnouts with their new Unifrog design available, and these work very well. The gauge across the checkrails is somewhat tight, but properly gauged wheels will pass through without any issues.
Micro-Engineering have a huge range of HOn3 track – flex track is offered in codes 70, 55 and 40, and plastic base #6 turnouts in code 70. In the past they have also offered code 55 wood-based turnouts, which with care can be made into very acceptable items. On top of all that, they also offer dual gauge (HO and HOn3) track, but no turnouts. You may also come across Shinohara brand HOn3 and dual gauge track. This is all code 70, but in my opinion is to be avoided, partly because the frog flangeways are too wide and rolling stock bumps badly over them, and also because the rail they used seems to tarnish much faster that that from either Peco or ME and needs much more regular cleaning.
When it comes to locomotives and rolling stock, again, there is plenty to choose from, though in all fairness it is biased towards Colorado, followed then by California logging railroads.
Photo: Blackstone Models RGS K-27 2-8-2 engine (courtesy of Blackstone Models)
In the ready-to-run arena, outside of brass, the leading range is that from Blackstone models, who are a subsidiary of Soundtraxx. Blackstone have a large range of D&RGW freight stock, one coach, and an East Broad Top hopper car, all complete with extremely
ROUNDHOUSE - January/February 2020
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