Questions: New to O gauge - modeling steam

[Brutus]

Hi, my kids and I have done a little modeling with an HO set, but I'm interested in doing an O gauge mainline with a passenger train and (maybe separate On30 gauge) some lumber industry, maybe a shay, all steam power for sure.

Does anyone make a sanding tower?

Also, are the Bachman On30 shays any good? Our HO sets were both Bachman (Hogwart's Express and the Clinton-Dewalt set) and it seems like they are a little lacking in quality. They make a lot of grinding noises and the cars derailed a lot at first....

Thanks for any info!

[Dr. John]

Hi Jim!

You did not mention of your O guage interest was scale or high-rail or traditional Lionel. The Lionel diesel fueling facility has a sanding tower, though it does not represent an accurate model of the prototype. I'm not sure about O scale models of a sanding tower but I imagine there is one available. You might try a Google search.

Bachman's On30 equipment is part of their Spectrum line - higher quality with a higher price tag. I have their On30 Porter and 0-4-2 and I'm very pleased with them. While I do not own the Shay, I've read many good reports on them. The one drawback is that they sometimes derail on extremely tight curves (under 18" radius). There are some on-line articles that detail how to correct this.

[spankybird]

HI Jim,

Welcome to the CTT forum


I can’t think of any Sanding towers. I have water towers, and also coaling towers. Maybe someone will find one for you.

Can’t help you much with the On30. It’s too much like HO (uses HO track) for me.

tom

[palallin]

Korber markets a sanding tower kit that works well for the steam era.

Bmann On30 is good stuff. Also consider BLI's C-16 2-8-0.

[daan]

If you think about hirail (3rail 0 gauge) you don't have to be bothered too much about derailments. It's simple, they don't do that easily (except on some switches).
I think that if you want to enjoy them with your children that 0 gauge is the better way to go. Buy a "postwar" lionel steamer, which are good value for money (if you choose a model which is not scarce) and almost undestructable. The electrics are simple and easy and you can add better engines in time when the children grow up (or when they are asleep).
You'll see it's a complete different way of modeltrains with the big heavy stuff! Enjoy!

[Brutus]

We haven't bought an O gauge set yet - this is just in the preliminary dreaming stage right now. Thanks for the welcome and also for the info!

I'll check out the korber tower - thx!

I think 3 rail is fine, especially with the black middle rail. I probably would not use the old old style Lionel track my dad had. I've looked at realtrack, fasttrack, and Atlas track. I think the Atlas would be good, because they have flextrack and they don't have the plastic balast.

I have the bachman EZ command set, so was thinking of doing dcc with an On30 shay and then maybe a separate TMCC or DCS setup for the mainline.... I'm just starting to research the different control systems. We will want to be able to play with everything first and then upgrade to a higher level control system for the mainline later. Would probably set up the EZ command for the shay right away, since I already have the controller.

Again thanks for the info and please let me know if there is anything special I need to think about with O compared to HO.

[fwright]

My interest is modeling a standard guage/narrow guage interchange in a very limited space. I designed an HO/HOn3 layout to fit a 4ft x 5ft space. The standard guage was just an oval with a passing siding on the back side, and a spur to the transfer platform on the front. The narrow guage went from the transfer platform to a switchback on the back side, with the switchback tail crossing the standard guage in the corner. Then there were several spurs on the narrow guage at the top. My figuring said I just might cram in a wye instead of spurs at the top if I used handlaid track with 15in radius.

Then I saw some On30 stuff at the hobby store and thought doing the same layout in a combination of high rail (using Atlas track) and On30 might be a lot of fun. The radius of the narrow guage is the key to the width of the layout. I ended up figuring a 5ft x 8ft would fit the O/On30 just fine, with 18in radius for the On30.

Looking at suitable equipment, it seems the availability is opposite from the HO scene. I can find suitable smaller locomotives in HO standard to handle the 18in radius curves just fine - and for almost any era I want. But there is almost nothing reasonably priced (below $200) in HOn3. The Roundhouse steam kits and the Grandt line diesels are the only exceptions. But the Roundhouse HOn3 is out of production, and my guess is highly unlikely to return.

On the O/On30 side, there is plenty of suitable On30 equipment, but precious few reasonably-scaled models of older steam equipment or rolling stock (again talking reasonably priced - I can't do $500 per locomotive). MTH did do a suitable low-end 2-6-0 and 2-8-0 but I haven't seen any for sale in a while. And I'd love to see a 1900-era 4-4-0 (please not another grossly over-sized General) or small 4-6-0. The Atlas 36ft reefers would be a good start for rolling stock, and the General passenger cars would work. I just keep thinking how much fun and more appreciation I have for the stuff I can see with my aging eyes. And adding 2 spurs in the corners to put some of my favorite Lionel accessories that would fit with the layout theme - the reefer icing station, the stockyard, the horse corral, and the milk platform would all fit with the theme and be lots of fun, as well.

But the real reason that kept me in HO instead of the O/On30 was not the train size, but the size of somewhat scale buildings, trees, and terrain - even 1880 prototypes. Basically, to keep layout size small, you end up doing caricatures of buildings, trees, and terrain instead of anything approaching scale. Just the transfer platform (12ft x 88ft free-lance prototype for a 1880 2 car transfer platform with crane) scales out to 3 inches x 22 inches. Depots are similarly big, unless extensively compressed. Even if I had space on the layout, I wasn't ready to build such big structures.

Then I visit my favorite hobby store, and I get weak in the knees at the sight of the Bachman Porters or Shays (or now Climaxes). And I go home and play with my Lionel cattle car and stockyard, and wonder why I still bother with HO.

Decisions, decisions.

[phillyreading]

There are many manufacturers for O gauge with Lionel being the most popular
since WW2, a good bargain can be found at a local train show. Some less
familiar brands are Williams, K-Line, Atlas, Mike's Train House(MTH), Weaver.
I don't own any Atlas or Weaver so I will not say anything about quality of them,
but I know that K-Line has some nice locomotives with a good price tag new, and they back up their product with a creditable warranty, Williams is good price
and quality. Far as buying used BE CAREFUL!!

Lee

[Anonymous]

Dear Jim,
As Daan said, Lionel postwar and modern steamers (as long as they're die-cast) are pretty much indestructable. I've dropped mine off of an elevated section I once had a lot of times. It still works just fine. This would probably be a benefit. K-line makes a nice line of O-31 4-6-2's, 2-8-2's, and 2-8-4's in a number of different railroads, and the price is good (especially for the detail and quality--you'd pay more with Lionel, and an MTH steamer like that wouldn't go around anything less than O-54). I would splurge a little, and get the locomotive you really want (seriously, take a look at those K-Line 2-8-2's).

I don't know what railroad strikes your fancy, if any, but look around.

MTH's DCS is (according to their advertising) compatable with TMCC, but not the other way around. Williams only makes locomotives with traditional AC-control.

Sincerely,
Daniel Parks

[Anonymous]

Jim,

Korber Models makes a sanding tower. Check it out at korbermodels.com

They also have a lot of other nice steam era strcutures.