Hello again! Thanks to all your help, I think I found a pretty good set. I ended up getting my husband a Bachmann Spectrum On30 Glennbook Valley Train Set from Ebay of all places. It is a beautiful set, and I think he is going to love it. Now I have two more questions....
1. Where can I get more track and what size do I need to buy? I am still a little confused about the whole On30 thing!
2. Where can I find buildings? I want to get him a station to start out his layout, but I am not having much luck. Do buildings come in kits or can you buy them premade? Also, do they come in a scale or are they all pretty much the same size?
Thanks again for all your help!
Leah :)
On30 trains run on HO scale track, and all the sets come with an oval of Bachmann Easy Track. They use the nicer nickel-silver track with the grey plastic "ballast". Any decent hobby shop should have some basic pieces of this (curves, straight track, switches) in stock to expand the set. Since it's HO track, it doesn't really look like narrow gauge track, but it's a great way to get started.
Micro-engineering and Peco both make On30 flex track and switches for when you're ready to start a serious layout.
An interesting chioce of scale for a first train... http://www.bachmanntrains.com/home-usa/catalog/
You can go to this Bachmann site under On3O section to see what else is available. Your kind of limiting yourself to what's readily available with that gauge. They are nice though...
He's a lucky man to have such a great wife.
Now that being said,
try
http://www.walthers.com/
click advanced search on the left side.
For track select "TRACK AND Accessories" and "On30" as the scale. Be sure to note that you will want to get the same height rail head. IE: If the bachmann comes with code 70, you'll want to buy code 70. Otherwise your track height will be different. You can call Bachmann at 215-533-1600 and they will be able to help you find additional track.
For buildings select "Structures" and "O" as the scale. Under keywords, put "station"
You'll find things like this:
http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/151-6901
Don - Specializing in layout DC->DCC conversions
Modeling C&O transition era and steel industries There's Nothing Like Big Steam!
Everything about On30, except for the trains themselves and the track, is O scale.
That means figures (people and animals), automobiles, buildings, trees--they're all O scale; you may know this size as "Lionel." So, you can use buildings and people made for the big Lionel trains for these, if that's easiest to find, or look for scale models (which may be sold as 1/4" scale as well) for a little more realism. There are plastic structure kits (in fact, there's a line called "Plasticville") or you can find similar already-built-up-structures or more complex wooden kits.
Your set comes with Bachmann HO scale EZ Track. The fastest way to expand on it is to buy more HO scale EZ Track at a hobby shop or toy store, or even a lot of craft stores.
Any O scale buildings will work. The On30 trains are early 1900s era. So keep that in mind when choosing structures. I searched on "stations in the O gauge section of ebay and found this.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ATLAS-6901-PASSENGER-STATION-O-SCALE-BUILDING-KIT_W0QQitemZ370003929372QQihZ024QQcategoryZ38279QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Very nice station and would go with your trains.
DigitalGriffin wrote:For track select "TRACK AND Accessories" and "On30" as the scale. Be sure to note that you will want to get the same height rail head. IE: If the bachmann comes with code 70, you'll want to buy code 70. Otherwise your track height will be different. You can call Bachmann at 215-533-1600 and they will be able to help you find additional track.
It's easy track, so it's most definitely code 100.
On30 is O scale which is 1:48, 1/4 inches to one foot. The trains are models of early 1900s narrow gauge equipment who's prototypes were smaller than standard gauge. A 30 foot flatcar would be 7.5 inches in both On30 and O standard gauge. The track geometry, wheels, and coupler height follow the NMRA standards for HO standard gauge. You can use Atlas Snap Track to get started. If you take out every other tie, it would look more realistic as the tie width scales out to about six inches in O scale. Most equipment will negotiate an 18' radius but the bigger the better. The code 100 rail will scale out to 4.8 inches in height. When you start to build a more permanent layout, Micro-Engineering makes very realistic flextrack and turnouts in both codes 83 and 70. Litco also makes turnouts for On30. Of course you can use HO turnouts as the standards are the same for both scales. Most people use HO Kadee #5 couplers that are just the right size for the smaller equipment but some, especially modelers of D&RGW, prefer the Kadee On3 couplers.
Google in On30 as there is a lot of information about this scale/gauge combination. The Narrow Gauge and Shortline Gazette, and Light Iron Digest are two excellent magazines for modeling narrow gauges in all scales. You'll enjoy modeling in O scale as everything's almost two times bigger than HO and you can see the details.