A lot of folks think of modeling in narrowgauge as involving exotic techniques and labor-intensive practices from the Neanderthal stage of model railroading. That's usually not the case nowadays. Most know of Blackstone, a sister company of Soundtraxx, which produces exquisite RTR narrowgauge locos and other rolling stock that you just unbox. Some grumpy ol' folks grouch that it's just not like the old days, like when they rode dinosaurs to school...
What many narrowgaugers think is that it all gives us more time to build stuff, while still having enough rolling stuff on the track that it doesn't feel like modeling an abandoned line.
But you don't really need to be all that handy to quickly acquire a variety of interesting models through converting them to HOn3 narrowgauge from common available standard gauge items. That's the topic of this thread. If you have one or more you'd like to offer up, please, jump right in, this can be a useful resource for those thinking about narrowgauge in any scale, not just HOn3, which I primarily work in.
Here's my latest conversion, a Walthers Jordan spreader.
This is a good pic to size up how this works. I operate a number of converted diesels whose loading gauge has been taken into account already on my lines. Yes, there's a little more overhang, but this Jordan spreader, although likely wider than the narrowgauge ones used on the Rio Grande, it's probably not far off from fitting to spec.
All in all, the initial testing run from Durango to Silverton went well, requiring a minor adjustment in a couple of spots, but it never derailed or turned over. It also negotiated some tight yard trackage. The fact that the wings would STAY folded was a good thing, among the many fine features of this Walthers model.
Before you think it's a big deal to get this fine model working at pushing back snow and ballast on your HOn3 pike, I can tell you it was one of my simpler conversions. I took off the SG trucks and added a pair of Grandt Line Rio Grande 4'8" Delrin trucks.
I left the SG coupler on the front to make things easy as it does barely engage with a HOn3 coupler at its correct height and that's good enough for moving it around the yard. The pushing end needed a block mounted in the SG coupler pad, with the underside of it providing a suitable mounting height for a 714/705 coupler. This does project out from the back of the spreader a little and I worried initially that it could cause issues on curves but it has plowed on.
The trucks required a couple of red Kadee washers under each to raise it enough to clear everything near the track. If I can figure out a way to light the headlight, I'm good. Basically with these very minor mods, it's easy to put a Jordan spreader to work in HOn3.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
Nice-looking spreader, Mike, and it fits right into your good-looking layout, too.
Mine is the earlier version, in standard gauge HO, from Walthers, and is modified somewhat to make it operable to a degree. It's shown below spreading ballast, but it's pretty-much useless as a ditcher, especially with Durabond patching plaster over aluminum screen forming the trackside terrain...
Wayne
Great looking model Mike!
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Wayne and Kevin,
Thanks for the kind comments on my Jordan spreader. Another comment or two on it. I considered repainting it in a more standard silver, but didn't want to gum anything up with paint. The Four Corners Division is far enough away from Denver we can get away with some non-standard paint. The spreader was originally decorated for the Pennsy. I soaked a q-tip in acetone and wiped away the old lettering, then applied DRGW decals for (what I believe to be ) mythical spreader 050. The stripes on the blade helped make its basic black more visible, which are the basic Rio Grande hood unit nose stripes. I wish it had the higher cab used on several roads for snowfighting, but there's an excuse since I use it on the Silverton line. The lack of windows in a high cab are due to the rocks...
The Rio Grande couldn't use a rotary to clear the line due to an abundance of rocks in the many snowslides that blocked. Slow business meant the often didn't need to clear the line, leaving the citizens of Silverton to endure without communications to the world at large for weeks at a time in the past. Changing climate may alleviate this, plus there's a road (which itself gets blocked for shorter times than the RR did in the winter) now. Heavier traffic on my Silverton Branch dictates the line be open as much as possible in the winter, thus the need for 050 there. Finally, the tall profile may make it seem too large for NG, but if you've seen the drifts there it will be called on to neutralize it needs all that height.
Now onto another piece of MOW equipment similarly easy to convert, although building what's above the trucks is more of a challenge, my OZ wrecking crane.
The OZ was built by Industrial of Bay City, Michigan and was a 70 ton capacity crane equipped with both SG and NG trucks. It was self-propelled when on its NG trucks. It was usually home-based at Minturn and saw relatively little use on the NG, where wreckers OW and OX provided for those needs. It was sold to the US Gov't in 1942, who asked that the NG trucks be converted to 42" gauge prior to delivery. Then it mysteriously disappeared into the mists of history. I've speculated that it was shipped overseas, but was sunk by submarine attack on its way there. It's a little hard to misplace something this weighty, but you never know...
This info is from Narrow Gauge Pictorial Volume VII, with text by one of the living deans of Colorado NG history, Jerry B. Day.
In physical shape and form, OZ was virtually identical to the 150 ton crane kit now sold by Tichy. It comes with plastic wheels on metal axles. Presto, with a little care and a NMRA gauge, it's easy to slide the wheels in to HOn3 gauge. I recall a bit of fiddling to get coupler height where it should be, but it was simple to do.
I made a few changes to increase the resemblance to the few pics of OZ that exist and painted it in the silver MOW scheme, which it never wore in real life, only the black and white scheme until shipped out to its unknown fate from Burnham Shops in early 1942. On the Four Corners Division, OZ made it back from gov't service after the war and expanding traffic on the NG brought it to be based at Durango.
It's the action part of the wreck train it supports.
The kitchen/bunk car is a bash of my first ever NG passenger car, a MRGS coach kit that I did a lot of learning on. The boxcar is a MOW version that Blackstone produced. The idler flat was built on a Blackstone flat. Nothing too hard or fancy about any of it, mostly bashing and building fun from commonly available items.
I don't get OZ out much. No self-respecting RR wants to be cleaning up lots of wrecks. However, it has to track well and it does so long as the boom is properly oriented to the rear.
This one is super-easy. It's the Eastern Car Works depressed center flat car. I'm not sure it's still in production, but kits should show up in the usual places.
In this case I used some brass HOn3 trucks, I think they were PSC. Add in HOn3 couplers and you're good. That's all there is to it, other than checking for ride height and coupler height and adjusting by adding the usual Kadee red and gray washers at the bolster.
Let's turn to locos. Here's one that's a little hefty for some lines, but is a good all around performer if you have tonnage to haul, the Kato NW2.
I call these conversions by the designation NW2M. The HOn3 conversion is easy. Press the wheels in on the axles to fit. It also helps to adjust the contact bars that are the electrical contacts on the trucks. A few small adjustments to the 714 couplers being right and that takes care of operating on HOn3. It's a powerful little loco and provides a solid base for dieselization, if that's the way you're going.
I also modded it to be more versatile. No longer a switcher, for road service I added dynamic brakes and a small steam generator under the hood I modded by cutting out a straight section from another spare shell to replace the usual slanted cowl next to the cab. This provided a little more room to squeeze in a decoder, since most everything under the hood is full of metal in the original model, accounting for its hefty tractive effort. The conversion to HOn3 makes for a reliable loco that can outpull just about anything on the layout. It's als worth noting that the way things are on the Kato makes for easy conversion to virtually any gauge between HO and HOn3.
This entry is a common-as-dirt one, the Tichy ore car, which comes in a 2 pack kit.
While billed as an HO car, this one is so small and light it almost screams narrow gauge prototype. Again, slap some HOn3 trucks on it and set the coupler to the proper height is pretty much it.
Nice work Mike. I also converted a few HO gauge cars these last few weeks. I converted a bobber caboose by removing the 2 axle truck and installing two HOn3 trucks.
20200801_173749b on Flickr
I also converted a model power pre-1900s car. I will repaint at some point.
20200801_173912 on Flickr
This week, I trimed a Pocher passenger car by 15 scale feet using a razor saw. I am still working on the roof to hide the joint. The HOn3 trucks were installed directly on the bolster using 2-56 screws and bolts.
20200801_172631 on Flickr
I need to add the couplers and paint. So three easy projects done on used cars for fun. I haven't converted any diesels, but I'm tempted now looking at Mike's work...
Simon
Simon,
That caboose came out well. The Rio Grande actually did the same thing, converting some of their 4-wheel bobbers into relatively better ride two-truck hacks. I've got a couple of 4-wheel cabooses and they are, coincidentally, easy to convert to HOn3.
This one is an old AHM bobber frame that I built a new superstructure on. Simply pressed the wheels inward to 10.5 mm gauge on the axles.
This one maybe should've been narrowgauge to begin with the way it just naturally hunkers down to the track behind the rest of this rolling stock, but it was also an easy press-the-wheels-in task to make this John Allen Gorre & Daphetid classic offered by the NMRA into HOn3.
The various old-time car offerings by several mfgs are good candidates for conversion as yours shows. The aren't very big to begin with and look suitably cozy.
Your Pocher conversion turned out pretty well, considering the weird geometry of that model. It reminds me of my MDC Overton conversions. I don't count them as EZ, though, because a radial saw is involved... Yep, I cut the body right down the middle. With a little sanding, that narrows them just about right to look right on the 3'. The roof is narrowed by carefully cutting/sanding the edges until it looks right. IIRC, the cupola came from the original body that sat on the AHM bobber's frame.
This car is not quite so common, but still an easy conversion, the 3400 series Westerfield ore cars.
https://id18538.securedata.net/westerfieldmodels.com/merchantmanager/index.php?cPath=104_403
It's a resin kit, but don't let that scare you, as it's a relatively easy build. While SG prototype, it's diminuitive size makes it an ideal conversion.
This one is another easy trucks and couplers swap out.
Although I have never done any work in NG, those models you have completed are superb!!
Don; Prez, CEO or whatever of the Wishram, Oregon and Western RR
Yes, Mike's work is impressive for sure... What's nice about NG is that it can be pretty much all you want it to be if you are flexible with time and space. What I like about NG is that it was often used by small operations, where local staff would adapt standard gauge equipment to NG, and would create all sort of oddball engines and cars. It's a great avenue for modellers who like to scratchbuild and kitbash rolling stock that are "believable" - and in some cases prototypical without one knowing it! So far, we've only posted HOn3, but there is also HOn30 that offers the same enjoyment. 3D printing has really opened a whole new world of possibilities there.
This past weekend, I was going through my junk box and I landed on a part that is a remnant of my very first toy train... I decided to use it to create a gas engine critter. The wheels and frame are actually from 0-6-0 N scale engine that was also sitting in my junk box. I just removed the (broken) motor, the centre wheels and linkages, filled the wheels with putty to hide the spokes. I already had some motorized gondolas - I can just change the engines and era with the same cars. I will strip the paint and add some brakes. Can anyone guess what part I used to create the gas engine?
20200803_184017 on Flickr
And here is the same motorized cars pushing a Porter engine made from a 3D print
20190501_214822b on Flickr
tankertoad135,
Thanks for the appreciative comments. I have some skills, but nothing like the MMRs and others I hangout with online. I shoot for a convincing overall effect. Probably the one thing where I have a little skill is in designing for believability.
Nice work with the HOn30. That's actually where I started in narrowgauge, back when Frary and Hayden were doing the Elk River series in that other mag. It still has its place. Neat concept disguising the motive power as rolling stock and pushing the dummy along.
Like your ore bin, too. I used three of those Grandt Line kits building my Haymarket tram.
An overall view.
Wow, that's a nice ore complex. I wish I had the space for something like that...
About HOn30, I find the main challenge is getting good performance, especially with the two axle engines. I kitbashed the ore cars by using a Japanese mechanism (two passenger cars, with one motorized). I also added power pickup on the second gondola for extra reliability. So I just swap the engines, which is OK given that this is an ore branch line. Swapping engines allows me to switch eras, from 1800s to 1940s, which I like doing on my layout. Here is a pic of an old minitrains engine, with the motor removed, connected to the motorized gondolas.
20200806_122322 on Flickr
Recent productions by Minitrains run a lot better. For these, no pusher cars are necessary. Below is a sawmill scene I am working on as well, with a fine running Minitrains engine.
20200806_121804 on Flickr
The pic of that little Plymouth brings on a wave of nostalgia. If they had only run better, I always thought. I eventually gave up on that with my crude 70s skill set. I sold what I could gather from my n30 roster and sold it for a pretty god price right before the new Minitrains arrived. I've heard they're much superior to the original.
Nice work on the mill scene, too.
We return to motive power this time and a bit different form of conversion. Instead of starting with a standard gauge loco, we start with one in HOn30. Everyone is probably think some kind if little steamer...but that would be incorrect. Instead, it's a very modern diesel cab unit.
This starts out as a Liliput Gemeinder diesel. It is a HOn30 (9 mm gauge) unit that also has available a HOm (12 mm gauge) conversion kit. HOm also happens to be TT gauge if you happen to need a loco for that. But what we want is a HOn3 (10.5 mm gauge) loco.
How to do that? Get the HOm gauge conversion kit and narrow it to 10.5 mm gauge. If you have also bought an extra HOm kit, you'll now be able to run this loco on three different gauge tracks after a 5 minute or so swap of drive wheels.
BTW, this loco runs great! It accepts a 21-pin decoder and is also set up to add sound. For ~$200 - and some paint for your favorite road - you can dieselize and take some strain off those historical steamers.
There have been some great photographs posted in this thread.
Thanks for sharing this amazing work.
Kevin,
Thanks for the kind words. Plenty more where these came from. A couple of more views of #82.
Some may be thinking that standard gauge items tend to look "wrong" or oversize if operating with narrowgauge prototypes, so when I found a nice comparison pic of one of my converted NW2M it was worth revisiting that part of the thread. Here's #100 coupled to a typical Rio Grande caboose.
While it looms a little bit over the caboose, #100 doesn't seem out of place due to its size.
mlehman Some may be thinking that standard gauge items tend to look "wrong" or oversize if operating with narrowgauge prototypes {snip}
Some may be thinking that standard gauge items tend to look "wrong" or oversize if operating with narrowgauge prototypes {snip}
Worth noting that the DRGW did this when they built the K-37s. I always liked the look of standard gauge designs modified for narrow gauge-- the real-world out-of-proportion elements always struck me as charming. Plus, there are some great photos from the dual gauge areas of standard gauge locos switching narrow gauge cars, like this. That said, yours look totally believable and not out of place at all to me.
Thanks for sharing these awesome projects, Mike, I'm really enjoying seeing them and looking forward to more!
Phil
Hi Phil,
Thanks for the kind comments.
The pic you linked of Alco 110 and its multiple couplers is a great illustration of this. Someday it may be possible to rig one of the sliding coupler variants with a servo or something like that. Until then, it is possible to mod a loco to have an arrangement like 110 has by using a Kadee 714 for the standard gauge coupler in the middle, then using a M-T 1015 or similar for the side-mounted narrowgauge coupler. They have to be tightly mounted close together for this to work. I have several standard gauge switchers set up this way for use on my dual gauge track.
I also have a pair of the Rio Grande Models coupler idler cars that I built which have similar arrangements.
Due to the way that the physics of mass and size don't scale well, I've found that using the switchers works better than the idler cars.
Up north in Newfoundland, the CN had converted diesels for the narrow gauge system set up on the island. And I agree, the low hanging and wide look of these locos gives them a lot of character...
Mike, I always thought that your dual coupler arrangement was brilliant. I often wondered if it affected coupler performance though...
snjroyMike, I always thought that your dual coupler arrangement was brilliant. I often wondered if it affected coupler performance though...
They work when everything is lined up right. Given the nature of the mount, they can get bumped out of alignment, so the more solid you make the mount, the better.
I learned which ones to use and how to arrange them by building the RGM idler cars.
Mike, I think your Kato NW2 conversion works well. Here is a photo I took in '09 at the Georgetown Loop. The engine is huge compared to the 3 foot gauge DRGW refrigerator car next to it...
Chuck - Modeling in HO scale and anything narrow gauge
Chuck,
Thanks for that. I hazily recall hearing about this loco, but don't remember seeing pics of it before.
Here's a couple of conversions that aren't so common, but the kits they are based on are easy enough to find and purchase.
Both are heavy equipment moving flats. The theme is a riff off of similar cars based in the logging areas of the Pacific Northwest. The first starts with a Funaro and Camerlengo HOn3 kit to build East Broad Top steel flat #73. The original deck is only a little over 7 feet wide in stock configuration. I added some steel deck extensions so that it is over 9' wide. I also weathered the original decking with some Floquil paint markers.
While the 10' wide loading gauge may seem a little wide for 3' gauge, it's the width of my ex-WP&Y depressed center flat's load platform. So this one actually isn't even a regauged car, just something that fits the spirit of this thread.
The other one is a conversion from SG to 3' and it's deck is exactly 10', while it's a short 30' long, the F&C PRR F23 flat car kit (which comes as a pair of cars.) Here a pic is the best explanation.
At the left side is the original SG configuration for both the coupler mount and the frame around the bolster. On the right side, the coupler mount has been trimmed so that 714 couplers can be mounted.
The frame around the area of the bolster and coupler mount has been trimmed to allow a 3' gauge truck to swivel properly. Add two red Kadee washers and the coupler height is ideal once 714s are mounted.
The end result is another heavy flat sized appropriately for HOn3 loads.
All you need are some narrow gauge trucks and standard guage cars - the tough part is figuring coupler adapters ala EBT
https://forums.mylargescale.com/243488-post10.html
speaking of the EBT - they should have had one of these
https://www.midcontinent.org/rollingstock/builders/ramseys_cartruck.htm
BEAUSABREAll you need are some narrow gauge trucks and standard guage cars - the tough part is figuring coupler adapters ala EBT https://forums.mylargescale.com/243488-post10.html
Yeah, we've got that covered...
This mod requires a Kadee 714 for the SD coupler and a M-T 1015 for the NG one. It's based on the Rio Grande Models DRGW idler coupler cars design.
The Ramsey transfer worked OK for swapping trucks between cars of relatively equal design form-factor, but as SG cars grew in size relative to NG devices like the transfer crane at Mt. Union on the EBT worked better for the limited traffic handled in this manner.