here I go again

  • Thread starter Thread starter nachoman
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nachoman

I love HOn3 because it forces me to kitbash or scratchbuild much of my rolling stock. I look at standard gauge cars and see opportunities. while going through a box of old cheapie standard gauge cars over the holidays I discovered this caboose. This is the "caboose" part of a life-like MOW flat car that had an operating spotlight. It may have been one of the first pieces of rolling stock given to me when I was a kid. The flat car portion of the car was missing, but the caboose part is the perfect size for a small HOn3 caboose. So far, i have shaved off some molded on details, and extended the roof on one end. I will have to make a new underframe- luckily I have plenty of scrap plastic bits to do that.

An aside here - this year could be a breakthrough year in HOn3. Several companies are starting to produce ready-to-run HOn3 models. Micro-trains will be releasing a few freight cars, and Blackstone Models is coming out with a K-27 2-8-2 for about 200 bucks. The freight cars will retail for about 30$. What does that mean for me? Well, couplers and trucks alone mean a scratchbuilt HOn3 car costs at least about 7$. Add a few detail parts like a brake cylinder or brakewheels, and I am spending about 15 bucks to scratchbuild a single car. Will I still scratch/kitbash my rolling stock even when RTR stuff comes on the market? You bet. :D

kevin
 

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my kinda guy:) i love to scratch build and bash things you might look to a line of HO cars called Industrial rail(think there still around)all the cars they make seem to be under sized for HO might bash up to some good HOn3 cars
 
Here is another unfinished project I pulled out of a box to finish up. There are still a few details I want to add, and do a little touch up on the painting and weathering, but otherwise, I think it looks good! It's hard to belive this started out as my very first piece of HO rolling stock, salvaged from a junk box I found in my parents' garage.

Kevin
 

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Kevin, that caboose turned out SLAP AWESOME!!!:bravo: , WELL DONE!!!:thumb::thumb::thumb::mrgreen: .
:deano: -Deano
 
Thanks guys. It really is something i just cobbled together. That's how I envision my fictional prototype would have done it, too. Some of those remote narrow guage railroad shop crews would make anything they needed out of junk.
 
I was just thinking about trying to find an HOn3 caboose for the D&RG and here you go and make one that looks better than anything I'll be able to find.
 
Trainnut - for narrow gauge in all scales, you may want to check out Coronado scale models in phoenix at about 16th street south of Thomas. It's not much of a "browsing" type store, but they have the most narrow gauge stuff you will find anywhere.I'd call first, because you'd never find the place without *detailed* directions.

There are no RTR HOn3 cabooses (not yet, but maybe in a few years), but there are a few good kits available. They areint exactly the easy "shake the box" type of kits, but they arent that difficult.

Kevin
 
:mrgreen::mrgreen::mrgreen: I was just in there a couple of days ago. I went in to buy some HOn3 trucks for some box cars I'm working on and also came away with a Blackstone stock car. There is a picture of it in this weeks photo fun... I'll edit the link in here in a second...
There is also the swap meets. I've seen a surprising amount of HOn3 scattered around over the last couple of years. There was one guy who had a bunch and I wish I'd snapped up the lot.
EDIT: Here's that stock car...
DCP_6646_copy.jpg
 
I'm just about to start a new layout in both HO and Hon3. It will be a few weeks before I get anything that trains can roll on, but my minimum radius will be 18" and I plan on making it so a k-27 can navigate. I live just a few miles from coronado. Now that I have a job that gives me regular weekends off, I plan on having a little railroad open house as soon as I get some track done :)

Kevin
 
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