HOn30 questions - and perhaps a layout build?

[Dave V]

Thinking about dipping my toe in HOn30 as a means to fight the On30 bug (I have room for the former, not the latter if I choose to keep the two layouts I've already built).

@timwatson 's Wild West HOn30 project has really piqued my interest: https://www.therailwire.net/forum/index.php?topic=53305.0. That, coupled with my almost obsessive fandom of Dave Meek's Thunder Mesa Studios makes me really want to do something even more "Wild-Westy" and fanstasy than what I'm doing now in HOn3 and N.

So, and I'm thinking @Chris333 right now since he's probably the most active HOn30 guy modeler I know, a few questions:

1) What's available for locomotives? It doesn't look like much has happened with Marsh Creek Miniatures lately. I like his Bachmann 0-6-0 conversion but I don't see a tender.

2) Does anyone still sell those cool MinitrainS Fiddletown & Copperopolis sets? Or did I miss that boat entirely?

3) Can I survive in HOn30 as a dabbler without having to buy my own 3D printer? I mean I might, but not right away.

4) Rolling stock (freight and passenger) appropriate for a turn-of-the-twentieth-century (give or take). What's out there?

I'd plan on using the Peco HOn30 system...to the extent I can find it. Based on eBay browsing, it'll cost me a premium. But that's OK. I trust and rely on Peco for my other two layouts.

Theme would be an Arizona copper mining operation, perhaps a more common (uncommon?) carrier but otherwise based loosely on the United Verde & Pacific. Red rocks country...think Big Thunder Mountain Railroad at Disney. It may sound derivative (i.e., Dave Meek) but I've wanted to do something like this since visiting Sedona decades ago, and more recently Monument Valley and Moab. Era would be 1890-1930 inclusive.

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Nice. Finally a chance for those banditos!

[Chris333]

https://www.shapeways.com/product/LCVFPBD2N/united-verde-pacific-5-boiler

Not much available in any scale. Everything is sold out. Toma Model Works makes the Porter you have in HOn30. The Marsh Creek guy stopped playing with trains.

If I didn't have a printer I doubt I could be in HOn30.

This place might have some Minitrains stuff: https://www.central-hobbies.com/products/minitrains.html

But hey don't let me talk you out of it. 

[Dave V]

https://www.shapeways.com/product/LCVFPBD2N/united-verde-pacific-5-boiler

Not much available in any scale. Everything is sold out. Toma Model Works makes the Porter you have in HOn30. The Marsh Creek guy stopped playing with trains.

If I didn't have a printer I doubt I could be in HOn30.

This place might have some Minitrains stuff: https://www.central-hobbies.com/products/minitrains.html

But hey don't let me talk you out of it. 

Heh, he has exactly nothing in stock.

[Chris333]

Without scaling it to HO and printing it out. There are drawings of the UV&P #5 in the May 87 Gazette. It looks like a newer Bachmann 0-6-0 chassis might work.

[Chris333]

What if you did something like the Arizona Copper RR using the tiny Porters with stretched cabs and a truck under the rear. Like what Vern Niner was doing in On30.

[Dave V]

Okay, now that my DCC panic with that HOn3 RGS brass engine is over, I can circle back here.

@Chris333 , I'm not looking to model the UV&P literally. Those 3-dome moguls with Vauclain compound cylinders were...an acquired taste. A taste I've yet to acquire.

Nah, really just the locale, era, and gauge (even merely being required to be less than standard) are all I'm looking to emulate.

What if you did something like the Arizona Copper RR using the tiny Porters with stretched cabs and a truck under the rear. Like what Vern Niner was doing in On30.

Tempting, although I'm not sure I want to go super cutsey either. I would love an excuse to run a mixed with a shorty combine or driver's caboose, and Porters aren't exactly road engines! We'll see. I just bought one HOn3 brass engine this week and and I have another in California getting electronics, so my spendin' cash is a little low for now.

When the National Narrow Gauge Convention is here in August, my HOn3 layout is on the tour. But I do plant to sneak away to the convention center and buy some stuff. Hoping there might be a little HOn30 there too.

[timwatson]

You can 3d print this little guy? Make whatever you want.

Edit: sorry I just saw no 3d printing. I do think without it things have gotten much more difficult. If you do decide to print you can use my tie strips as well.

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[Dave V]

For now I think I'll double-down on improving my HOn3 layout. Honestly, I like the scenery better on my N scale Colorado Midland, and so revising the scenery on the RGS should keep me busy. It won't be "Wild West," but hopefully a better depiction of Colorado's Western Slope.

[timwatson]

I’ll make some more progress on the mini and see if we can “bring you back”!