1/72 Scale Narrow Gauge Modeling

[nkalanaga]

Harold:  I suspect that the Hecla and Torch Lake was the one I heard of, being only half an inch wider.  That's within tolerances for mainline track today.

[hminky]

Designed a direct replacement 1/72 cab for the Bachmann HO 4-4-0 and had a 3d print made.





3d printing is great.

Harold

[hminky]

There are drivers and axles available from places like Scalelink in the UK to reshoe our iron horses.

These are 12mm which will give us Scale172 36" drivers. Scalelink has 3mm self quartering axles for the newer Roundhouse/Athearn locomotives along with 1/8" for the older original models. Self quartering makes locomotive building easy.

The internet is great.



Correct drivers and a bigger cabs are needed to remove the HO look. This is a cab I built from styrene to convert the Roundhouse HOn3 2-8-0 to Sn2. Learning a 3d CAD modeling program and have the cab printed out probably would take less time.



Harold

[hminky]

What about standard gauge?

Sn3 cars scale out well as 34' standard gauge cars. On3 or On30 trucks can be widened to Scale172 gauge of .784. OO scale 12mm diameter wheels are close enough. The Bachmann On30 Mogul could be massaged to represent a standard gauge loco.



Harold

[Dave V]

Correct drivers and a bigger cabs are needed to remove the HO look. This is a cab I built from styrene to convert the Roundhouse HOn3 2-8-0 to Sn2. Learning a 3d CAD modeling program and have the cab printed out probably would take less time.



Harold

Since the Roundhouse HOn3 2-8-0 is naught more than their standard gauge M&PA-inspired Baldwin on a narrow gauge chassis, would the standard gauge version (which Athearn sold RTR for a few years too) be useful in 1/72?  I would guess yes, but I haven't really looked into driver size/spacing etc.

[hminky]

Since the Roundhouse HOn3 2-8-0 is naught more than their standard gauge M&PA-inspired Baldwin on a narrow gauge chassis, would the standard gauge version (which Athearn sold RTR for a few years too) be useful in 1/72?  I would guess yes, but I haven't really looked into driver size/spacing etc.

The 2-8-0 in the picture is the HO gauge loco not the HOn3, sorry if the caption was misleading.

The Roundhouse/Athearn model is the M&PA 2-8-0 which makes it a bad match for early rail as it is a 1907 design.

Harold

[Dave V]

The 2-8-0 in the picture is the HO gauge loco not the HOn3.

The Roundhouse/Athearn model is the M&PA 2-8-0.

Harold

Well that answers that, LOL...  I need to pay better attention!   

Those are handsome machines, though.  The Baldwin 2-8-0s of that era regardless of gauge are my ideal for a steam locomotive (save for a Pennsy D16sb 4-4-0, of course!).  They look like D&RG(W)/RGS class C-16/17/19s.

[hminky]

The Roundhouse/Athearn HO 2-8-0 scales really well against post-1900 narrow gauge 2-8-0s like this Southern Pacific narrow gauge 2-8-0.

Locomotive boilers got higher starting in the late 1890s. The SP 2-8-0 was built in 1905 and the M&PA 2-8-0 in 1907 so there is a closer match.



Harold

[hminky]

We can build a credible C-19 from the Roundhouse 2-8-0 with minimal bashing. The stock cab can be adjusted to make a taller one. The opening can be fitted with a new filler piece and all that is required is an 1/8 high skirt around the bottom. A new side panel would be added for decoration. Our crude mockup with a cab from another project.

S-scale C-16 domes are the right size to make our Scale172 C-19. Those domes are Tomalco but domes are available from Slim Gauge 3D at Shapeways. The motor mount just has to be adjusted and the cylinders have to be modified to lower the boiler.





Harold

[hminky]

The stock cab can be adjusted to make a late 2-8-0 giving a model with minimal rework.



Our cab doesn't go below the walkway because the walkways are at the base of the boiler where the examples are higher on the boiler.

Harold

[hminky]

Found this idea on John Ott's old time train site.

http://www.ottgalleries.com/roundhouse%20bash.html

The Tyco/Mantua Ten-Wheeler boiler can be fit to the Roundhouse old time mechanism.



Doug Tagsold used the MDC/Athearn/Roundhouse HO 2-8-0 for his Scale172 locos. The loco mechanism matches the first generation narrow gauge consolidations. 14mm Scale Link drivers give us the correct 40" driver size. A boiler from the Tyco/Mantua Ten-Wheeler gives us a boiler.



Locomotives were proportional the same setup can be used for a HO early era consolidation.



Have the mechanism running smoothly.

Here is the loco in large scale:

http://forums.mylargescale.com/15-model-making/14042-east-broad-top-3-rockhill.html

Harold

[hminky]

Was asked why not HO?

We now have our Scale172 trains running. Simple mods to HO equipment gives us narrow gauge in a larger scale in the 1870s. This was my reason for doing this. All the other scales can't give me easy 1870s narrow gauge.





Adding 28" HO wheels gives us Scale172 20" wheels and completes the look of early narrow gauge.



The far right wheel on the ore car is a HO scale 33" and demonstrates the difference. A really D-oh! moment, wondered why I had an extra wheel set.



The ore car give us an early coal car. The smaller wheels look good.

Harold

[hminky]

What about track?

We are using HO Kato Unitrack to represent our early era narrow gauge track. The funky alternate universe HO spacing looks great for our track.









In our HOn30 adventure we found that the track can be painted at the bench and blended in with "fur grass" or Sculptamold/latex paint mixture.



Old time trains always look better in black and white.





Harold

[hminky]

While searching for a suitable proto railroad was perusing books from my late brother's collection. Found "Milwaukee Road Narrow Gauge" and found these pieces of narrow gauge and near 1/72 scale drawings. The box matches the size of our Mantua with the same truck configuration and they had an 1880 caboose that is the same size as the Roundhouse caboose.





An early Granger road fits the available locomotives and rolling stock. Lots of them out there in the heyday of narrow gauge.

Harold

[hminky]

Haven't done this in a while.

Found these vintage 1/72 cars and trucks.





Go to:

http://tin-soldier.com/cars.html

Made me think about late era narrow gauge. If you extend the cab below the footboard with a 1/8x1/4 piece of styrene and add a new cab side like our mock up, easy late era narrow gauge.



Doug Tagsold  used the MDC cars with the HO trucks with 33" HO wheels. Substituting 24"(HO 28") wheels and shorter wheelbase Tahoe trucks makes the cars more "narrow gaugey"



Harold