HOn3 got quite a boost when Blackstone came along about a decade ago, but the recent news that Grandt would be shutting down was really depressing for us narrwgaugers.So I was happy to see that Kadee has a new HOn3 truck out, their first new one in that gauge/scale in many years.
https://kadee.com/htmbord/page724.htm
It's made with the HGC compound that adds weight while still being flexible. I'm trying to get breakfast ver and the day started, so don't have time t check my refernces, but IIRC this truck was the one used by the C&S or perhaps the UTLX tank cars on the Rio Grande. I'm probably wrong about one of those, but post up the correction...
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
That's a rather ingenious two piece design. I see they have regular HO trucks made the same way, I hadn't seen any of those.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
Kadee seems older than dirt because they are. But they do seem to always have several irons in the fire that serve to improve the hobby in some basic way. These trucks seem like they could be easier to assemble, which would be an improvement. With the jig, they're really not bad, but the jig is often forgotten, set aside or lost by the time it comes to build. Bear managed to hack one together, which takes more gumption than I have.
But these trucks seem to be jig-less. They also come with adapters or other means to mount them on the common types of bolster encountered in HOn3 narrowgauge.
Some further checking show they were mostly a Colorado & Southern deal, which often means some leaked out into the Rio Grande Southern in the last years of its existence.
That makes this an interesing choice in light of Micro-Trains marketng, then discontinuing their line of (mostly) RTR HOn3 C&S rolling stock. Those of course came with the M-T version of this truck. The two companies are run separately but the owners are all in the family so to speak and they have generally avoided duplication of efforts. M-T has been almost purely N - until the HOn3 adventure. Kadee covers the rest.
I'm guessing this means that the ball is back in Kadee's court to produce stuff other than couplers for HOn3, which is where it seemed things had stood in the division of labor between it and M-T previously.
Purely speculation here, but seems plausible...this just might be good news for what happens with the legacy of Grandt. I thought through the whole thing about who might buy Grandt and when I came to M-T, it just didn't make sense since M-T is outta HOn3 except for remaining old stock -mand never dealt with the rest of the scales/gauges. Then it occurred to me that what I just described might not now stand in the way of Kadee stepping in to do more HOn3 -- and Grandt would be a much better fit for Kadee because of its multiple lines in different scales/gauges.
And Kadee is one of the few places in the country whose mold and die people are in the same ballpark with Grandt in terms of skill and expertise needed to maintain what the Grandt family has built in terms of reputation. It would be a power marriage of modeling for the ages as far as the narrowgauge family is concered. If it doesn't happen it should, but it's not my money or property.