1/72 Scale Narrow Gauge Modeling

[hminky]

Found this idea on the net but was written up in Kalmbach's "Model Railroad Planning 2018". The issue featured Doug Tagsold's Colorado & Southern. The premise is using HO gauge equipment to represent 1/72 scale narrow gauge.

http://smallmr.com/wordpress/doug-tagsolds-colorado-southern-narrowgauge-modelrailroad-modelrail-train/

 Liking out-of-the-box thinking this is my take on the idea:

http://www.chainsawjunction.com/172n4/







Thank you if you Visit

Harold

[hminky]

Got my copy of "Model Railroad Planning 2018" and Doug Tagsold's Colorado & Southern is a really great layout. Scale1/72 gives inexpensive almost ready-to-run narrow gauge.

The Roundhouse/MDC/Athearn equipment looks really great.

Went into the seventh level of my ungodly abyss of a train room and extracted some Roundhouse cars:









What more can I ask narrow gauge 4-4-0's and C-class 2-8-0's? Cheap, available narrow gauge in a large enough small scale to permit viable layout building.

Thanks Doug for bringing this brilliant idea to light. Can smell layout building.

We have a scale to download:

http://www.chainsawjunction.com/172n4/172scale.pdf

Thanks if you visit the website.

http://www.chainsawjunction.com/172n4/

Harold

[hminky]

Doug Tagsold's Colorado & Southern layout is really outstanding.

Looks great!



Harold

[hminky]

This idea really does work.



If you have imagination and not rigid in thinking.

Harold

[hminky]

Our work-in-progress beta Mantua early boxcar conversion, $11 toy train box car to 24 foot 1880's narrow gauge boxcar buildable in an evening.



Finally, affordable and easy 1880's narrow gauge. Wooden cars and iron men!

Harold

[hminky]

We need moguls for early narrow gauge.

The Roundhouse Mogul has two versions the more common high wheeler and a scarcer low driver version which has a 1/72 43" drivers. They mechanically match early narrow gauge moguls .



The boiler is easily lowered and smaller drivers applied. The cab is the right size.



Harold

[hminky]

Cleaning up my train room I ran across this Bachmann HO ten-wheeler.

Looked Tweetsie, having a plan already in my bin I printed out a 1/72 scale drawing.



Yep, with a little bit of work we can be in the blue ridges with room to have real mountains.

Harold

[hminky]

Bigger 1/72 cabs are required to remove the HO look. That is a cab I built for making the Roundhouse HOn3 locomotive Sn2. Learning a 3d CAD modeling program and have the cab printed out probably would take less time.



Harold

[johnb]

Sorry, but it doesn't look right. I can see HO equipment as a stand in for Sn3, since the gauge in S would be 41.5"....about the same difference in  the opposite direction as On30

[hminky]

Sorry, but it doesn't look right. I can see HO equipment as a stand in for Sn3, since the gauge in S would be 41.5"....about the same difference in  the opposite direction as On30

It is all about having fun.

An easy to do inexpensive format to make narrow gauge.

Model trains shouldn't be taken seriously.

Harold

[hminky]

Sorry, but it doesn't look right. I can see HO equipment as a stand in for Sn3, since the gauge in S would be 41.5"....about the same difference in  the opposite direction as On30

The question is "Why not S Scale?". Then we lose our C-16, our 1880s 4-4-0, our one evening 1870s box and no evening 1880's box. The HO equipment doesn't translate to S Scale. Can live with the gauge to have that equipment.



Been there done that in S Scale narrow gauge. S is really limited in equipment. The available HO equipment to rebuild to S is shaky. The Tyco ten-wheeler hasn't held up well over time. S scale is very expensive. Just using the equipment on HO track as Sn3.5 doesn't change anything.



Just sayin'
Harold

[hminky]

Back to the fun!

The Tichy HO ore car would make a great coal "jimmy". Can be had for $5 a piece on the street.



Always wanted to find a use for these great little cars.

Harold

[nkalanaga]

16.5 mm in 1/72 scale is just under 47 inches.  There was at least one 48.5 inch gauge railroad in the US, but I can't remember where it was.  The story I heard, long ago, was that they built the line to standard gauge, but the loco builder screwed up.  Instead of 4'8.5" gauge, they built it to 48.5 inches, and it was quicker and cheaper to regauge the track and cars than to rebuild the loco.

So, while very rare, this 1/72 narrow gauge does have a prototype, at least as far as the gauge itself.

[hminky]

The Helca and Torch Lake was 4'-1" gauge and even had a Camelback loco.

The Arcata and Mad River was 3'-9-1/2". There were a least five railroad near four feet in the early days of narrow gauge.

Harold

[hminky]

"Objects aren't  "N, HO...S, O, etc. SCALE". An object is what it measures."

Wanting a engine crew for my 4-4-0 I found some Bachmann Branchline OO Scale figures from the UK.

Things are sometimes better than what the box says. The second guy from the right is our new OO scale Bachmann Branchline figure. The guys on his right and left are Preiser 1/72. The guy on the far left is a Langley Victorian OO.



Sometimes you need little wins in life
Harold