On3 locomotive engine shops

[Bill Nelson]

I was visiting an antique mall, and stopped to help one of the booth owners unload some stuff. In there he had a couple boxes of train stuff including some prewar Lionel cars, and some o gauge tinplate, as well as a lot of yard sale quality Ho stuff.


I was pulling things out of the boxes, telling him what they were, and approximate values, when at the bottom of the box I came across an On3 Balboa C-21 that was missing it's tender. He had told me what he had paid for three boxes of train stuff, and I offered him more for the locomotive than he paid for the whole shebang. I told him he might be able to get more on the internet, but the missing tender would get into any value. I knew no one in town plays with on3.


I posted on the Yahoo On3 list that I had the locomotive, and did any one have any ideas for the tender, and Lee, from Lee town models wrote me and said he had a brass shell for a On3 C-21 tender. I paid twice for the tender shell than I did for the locomotive, but this project is still very cheap for ON3 brass, as I have about $110. in it so far. the tender shell is PSC, and is very highly detailed


The locomotive has a big Sagami motor, that will run very slow. I have added electrical pick up on the insulated wheels, which is so much easier in On3 than in HOn3, as there is so much more room down there, since everything is twice as long, twice as wide, and twice as tall, there is eight times more space to work with.


The Balboa locomotives have somewhat sparse detailing and are not as high dollar as some of the other importers. The mechanism on this one is awesome, and it just crawls running on jumper cables; starting a about 7% throttle with just over 2rpm

I have added electrical pick up on the insulated side, so it ought to run off the rails now without a tender. I have to order some suitable trucks for the tender, try to find a good scale drawing, to allow me not to mess up the tender frame too much when I build it.

this thing is going to make me have build some Labelle woodworking company On3 coaches If I build two, I'd have more in the kits, couplers and trucks than I have in the locomotive. I have built some Labelle kits in HO and HOn3, and I have seen the on3 kits, and they are awesome.


Bill Nelson

[Bill Nelson]

I actually have this monster running on the test track power, instead of jumper cables, and the tube connecting the motor shaft to the gear tower was slipping. . I did not have any replacement tubing that was usable, it was all slightly too big, so i put some construction adhesive on the shafts, and then put a piece of heat shrink on them, and heated them up with a torch to shrink them down on top of the adheasive, which will prevent them from slipping on the shaft. then I put the new tubing over the shaft with the heat shrink tubing, and now I had a tight fit.

problem corrected.


Nelson

[modelman55]

Keith Wiseman helped me out with a deck and underframe for a C19 tender, Brass, nice detail. He has a couple but may have sold out. Although the C21shell looksa bit longer.
Peter

[modelman55]

I also got a couple of built On3 Labelle coaches from Bill Davis, for about $90. He's always got interesting stuff.

[Bill Nelson]

Keith Weisman has a lot of interesting stuff, I was thinking of using one of his urethane kits for a C-16 shell before Lee, from Lee Town Models contacted me about the tender shell I now have. he included front and rear beam castings, so as soon as I can research the truck mounting locations , and locate a pair of close enough trucks, it would be easy to solder up a close enough frame out of brass structural pieces, and plank it with wood from my miniature table saw.


I am working on an HOn3 Labelle woodworking Hon3 parlor car Alamossa. I have an Ho combine that Dr Tom saw at a train show we attended once, and pointed out to me . It was very well built, with interior detailing, painted brown and lettered for the Bonanza & Rawhide RR. I repainted it Green to match a coach I had built back in the mid 1970s. I eventually would like to add a postal car to have a four car train to go behind my very fine Blackstone C-19.

I was getting pretty close to trying to do something small in ON3 on the side, but now I have some good running HOn3 locomotives, doing anything other than some messing with equipment in On3 is unlikely unless I stumble into more space and time.


Bill Nelson