Help!!! 3 Questions

[TheYardBoss]

another new guy with questions......ive been looking through here a bit i just found it and MRRing again, i dig alot of the pictures in here, so i think u all know what your doing... i thank u all in advance for any help u can give me on this lil venture im getting in to....
Neil


1st Q--------DOES ANYONE KNOW WHAT YEAR OR YEARS...THIS IS (I THINK ITS A BALDWIN) . the pic below is the the unit i got on sale. its a Model Power Santa Fe 0-4-0. im going to model late 1800s to 1906 or so HO main line & Narow Gauge log/ore busness line. so i want to know if it will fit in..... my NG line will be HOn30/Ncheater.... i think....lol

#2 if a car in HO is 9 to 10 feet wide... how wide is a HOn30 box or flat or loco chasie on avrege??? i guess basic dimention's in feet is what im looking for... L x W x H..? i know imgoing to be building em short to handle tight turns...

# 3 i know N wheel sets r kinda small but if i can maby use the 3 wheel trucks on newer pasenger linners minus the center wheel with home spun arch bar sides?? is there a big wheel for N to switch with...... i want it to look right but im not sure on some things. can i get a moter truck from some place and build the rest or ummm what.... stck with the easier N lil cheeper N HAcK n BasH......???????

ok ummm one more... what size are NG tie's as compaired to standard ties.....?..
lol im guessing shorter.......hehehe


thank u again
Neil

 

[pgandw]

Dedicated 0-X-0 yard switchers were not generally built until the 1890s. Before that, the older road engines were generally used for switching duty. Also, the model shown has piston valves. Slide valves were standard until at least 1895 also. My guess is the model has no specific prototype but is reasonably typical of small switchers built 1905-1915. It could easily have served 30 years after being built. Steam engines were often rebuilt and modernized during the rebuilding. Most HO models of older prototypes are actually models of the modernized version - a prime example is the Bachmann Spectrum 4-6-0. True as-built pre-1900 locomotives are very difficult to find in any scale outside of brass. Just before WW1, 0-6-0s began to dominate new switcher orders. The extra sand dome was a Santa Fe character trait, but was not limited to Santa Fe.

HOn30 is generally a free-lance gauge or modeled after 2 ft gauge prototypes. Most who want to model 3ft gauge prototypes use HOn3. So a lot of HOn30 rolling stock tends to be 2 ft gauge dimensions or slightly larger, but typically smaller than HOn3. This is an area of much more debate in On30. Do you use On3 loading gauge or something smaller - loading gauge being the horizontal and vertical clearance required for the biggest rolling stock? 3ft gauge prototype cars were seldom more than 8 ft wide, and I believe - could be wrong - 2 ft gauge prototypes were around 7 ft or less wide. Look at prototype plans of narrow gauge equipment to get a better idea of dimensions.

Standard gauge ties were generally 8 ft long in the era we're speaking of. Typically a 6"x8" cross section. 3ft narrow gauge ties were 6ft or 6'6" long, section ranged from 5x7 to 6x6. Many ties of the period were rough-cut or hand-hewn with an adz. Ballast was pretty minimal to non-existent outside the Class 1 main lines. Creosoted ties were just starting about 1900. I don't know the track standards for 2ft gauge prototypes.

Hope this helps.

 

[Drew1125]

Hi Neil!
I think Fred answered your questions pretty well, but since I'm currently building an HOn30 layout, I'll add my 2 cents worth on that...
So far, I've bashed all my eqipment out of N scale stuff...I build everything to a width of 7', & length ranges from 12 to 23 feet...I also use N scale trucks, wheels, couplers & track...I just started this venture a few months ago, so I'm still kinda new at it...
Here's a link to a thread about my layout...
http://www.the-gauge.com/showthread.php?t=17017

 

[jim currie]

Drew thats what i have been doing for my HOe . trying to make 2-4-4-0 out of a 2-4-0 and a 0-4-0 using N scale locos but having trouble making the piston housing look right.