I noticed Bachman selling and the O mags reviewing On30 stuff in the O gauge magazines. As they run on HO ( I think), are you in favor of them being covered on O gauge sites or do they belong on HO sites? Anyone have opinions?
They do use 16.5-millimeter track, the same as HO. This corresponds to 31.2 inches in American 1/48 O scale; so they might as well have called it On31 as On30. Thirty inches was very uncommon if not unknown as an American gauge.
Bob Nelson
I'm not for it to me yes supposedly ( and guess it is) O scale but from what I understand narrow gauge. If I wanted to run HO track I would be running HO trains in my book.
Now with that said yes theres a place for it but not on my railroad. I've seen where they have compared it to O scale trains and its not even close in size but then were talking standard size trains in scale and narrow gauge trains in scale and they wouldn't be. To me I just look at it as a way for Bachmann to try and break into O scale back years ago and yes it did Okay but to me never took off like the rest of O gauge. I believe 2 rail O had a hard enough time and then Bachmann came in with On30 and it just made it harder for either to really emerge as a superior scale. To me its something in between S and O. But then again to each there own and I guess another problem with me is I've never really seen an On30 layout. now Ive heard of guys that would switch back and forth between On30 and HO just swap buildings out when they switched from one to the other and they already had the layout done. just my
Life's hard, even harder if your stupid John Wayne
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It just seems to belong in an HO magazine. Model railroader is full of HO and CTT and the "other" are the only places for O and S. It just seems to be Oversized HO and belongs in their mags. Is Bachmann's purchase of ad space primarily for On30 suggesting they wish to nudge O railroaders to HO?
Considering the fact that Bachmann owns William's I doubt it.
I think that you get a lot of bang for the buck with On30.
I've got a couple of Bachmann Spectrum pieces that I've purchased:
- a new 0-4-2 porter and 6 ore cars for about $100 (about half of the list price)
- a new Climax purchased for about $90 (less than half price). Couldn't find an O Climax for less than $600!
The Bachmann Spectrum line has great detail and often receives pretty large discounts on top of the reasonable starting prices.
Haven't yet incorporated the engines onto the layout, so I will probably use them as flat car loads in the meantime.
Jim
It also provides some old-time standard gauge cars for S. Just swap the trucks. I have seen this done with the passenger cars, but you could do the freight cars as well. They're a little over sized, but not too much.
Enjoy
Paul
I am strongly considering converting to On30 making it the primary scale/gauge while making my Lionel the minority. The only issue I have is ther are no operating cars or mechanisms to make them operate. Hopefully, Bachmann will be able to remedy this.
As for where they belong sitewise. I would say, "O" and/or "S".
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