It's more of an exaggeration because its two foot gauge,but there's a sort of proportion between track gauge and railcar size, eh?
Sounds like Roundhouse cars, either Overtons or the 50' ones, on narrowgauge trucks??
Yeah, that just won't look right...HOWEVER...
Narrowgaugers often take the carbody and roof in these kits and narrow them by cutting out material in the center, sometimes not much more than the width of the sawblade, then gluing it all back together. This will produce a car that looks much more in proportion to NG cars, although not perfect. Maybe this is what was done? If so, the d cut will be obvious from inside the car.
This can be a little confusing, but folks have already mentioned how NG cars tend to be smaller than their SG counterparts. However, before 1900 that difference was a lot less and the overall size of the rolling stock for the two gauges was still close. The EBT swapped trucks to run SG cars on its NG line and there were others before it in the northeast that did similar transfers. The EBT's transfer lasted well into the age of the all-steel car, which were very much larger than the NG rolling stock on the line..
Out west, the freight was usually transferred between cars of the two gauges, although often this involved NG cars used to transport raw materials, that were then processed, then the finished commodity was loaded onto SG cars. The Rio Grande did swap trucks on a few business cars, but other than that, everything was transfered and reloaded into their cars, NG vs SG, and shipped to wholesale distributors for local sales.
If you don't mind working with wood kits, check out LaBelle's many NG offerings. Here's a write-up I did on bashing a unique car from one of their combine kits that shows basic construction.
http://cs.trains.com/mrr/f/88/t/232196.aspx
I simplified the roof to match the prototype, but it's really not too big a deal to make the standard clerestory roof that the kit comes with.
More info here: https://www.labellemodels.com/hon3-passenger-cars-c-21_25.html?osCsid=rmj3i2ajl41jicm30ao8rbn6e0
They also do freight cars and there are various other kits, too.
Mike Lehman
Urbana, IL
I'd guess that the Roundhouse cars are the 56'-ers...
...but, as has been mentioned, they're standard gauge cars and too wide for HOn3.
There are a couple of photos here: http://bigbluetrains.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=542&start=180 of a narrow gauge car made from the MDC/Roundhouse car. (Scroll down to the bottom of the page.)
EDIT: There's another car shown on the current last page of the thread, too.
Wayne
You might take a look at Shapeways.com for 3D printed HOn3 equipment. I have not tried them, but am looking into HOn30 equipment for the 2' gauge part of Boothbay Railway Village layout. There is a large selection of designs for HOn30, so there should be a lot of 3' stuff as well.
George In Midcoast Maine, 'bout halfway up the Rockland branch
The Roundhouse cars you're talking about are probably their 34' "Overton" cars. They're I guess you'd say 'generic' models, but fairly close to real standard gauge cars of the mid-19th century. But narrow gauge cars aren't standard gauge cars with narrow gauge trucks. Narrow gauge cars are smaller - narrower, shorter, less tall than standard gauge cars.
http://www.athearn.com/ProdInfo/RND/450/RND84283-450.jpg
Well, D&RGW´s K36´s and K37´s had standard gauge boilers on a narrow gauge frame ...
Narrow guage railroad equipment was generally smaller in all dimensions than standard gauge. Only exception I can think of was the East Broad Top in Pennsylvania where they put NG trucks under standard gauge cars for interchange moves on their railroad. The original trucks were placed back under the car when it was delivered back to the connection.
I am not familiar with the Roundhouse products you mentioned but they were not always known for fidelity and may have done this to pass the equipment off on unsuspecting modelers who had never seen their prototype.
Charlie
I have re-entered the world of model railroading starting with HOn3. I recently purchased several Blackstone Models passenger cars but was unable to locate a set of their Durango & Silverton cars. I came across a HO set of D&RGW passenger cars which I purchased with the intent to change the trucks and couplers. When I compared them to the Blackstone Models cars, I noticed that the Roundhouse cars were much 'bigger' in proportion to the Blackstone. Where the Blackstone's seem to match the size of the locomotive, the Roundhouse seem to overwhelm the locomotive. Realistically, I cannot combine the two different mfg's on the same layout. So, my question is, which mfg's sell the closest-to-scale rolling stock? It has always been my understanding that HO is HOn3 with the only exception being the track gauge.