HOn30 Steam Locomotive Review

[Mileswestern]

I just received the new BCH 0-4-0 "Minitrains" set, and I thought I'd give it a review.


Check it out!

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[Schraddel]

It looks like an resume of old Roco stuff.


Lutz

[railohio]

Grrr... Miles, if this discovery costs me money . . . *shakes fist angrily*

[Sumpter250]

Grrr... Miles, if this discovery costs me money . . . *shakes fist angrily*

and then, quickly forks over the dough so he can add another "industry" to his growing railroad empire..... :o

[nachoman]

Cool! I didn't know this was re-released. Some n-gauge locomotives are able to "re-gauge" to HOn3 by slightly pulling the half-axles out of their center gear. N-gauge is 9mm, and HOn3 is 10.5mm, so that means each half axle needs to be pulled out of the gear by only 0.75mm. Do you think one could do the same for this locomotive? If so, it may be relatively easy for me to make a representation of one of these:

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[Mileswestern]

Grrr... Miles, if this discovery costs me money . . . *shakes fist angrily*

HA! I'm having a great time with this little locomotive. You might want to ponder whether you want the 0-4-0 or the Plymouth Diesel, but either way they're surprisingly good.

Nachoman, I love the Magma Arizona, and what a cool prototype! I bet you could squeeze the drivers out a little to run on HOn3. Although the 4" difference in driver diameter might be noticable, and you'd need to extensively re-detail it to make it a worthy 2-4-2T+T

[railohio]

No question at all, I'd get the diesel. Now before I jump in I'm just pondering slightly more modern cars for it. Possibly refitting HO scale ladders and brake wheels on N scale steel hoppers.

[Russ Bellinis]

I'm not modeling narrow gauge, but the biggest disappointment to me is that in the pictures the locomotive and cars appear to still have the old fashioned "pizza cutter" wheels. In my opinion there is simply no excuse for a manufacturer to come out with anything without at least using rp20 wheels. With those wheels you are relegated to operating on code 100 track which is awfully large for narrow gauge. Makes a nice toy, but I don't think it is for serious narrow gauge modelers without correct wheels.

[Mileswestern]

Russ,

After playing with this set, I'm sure the pizza cutters are for mechanical reliability more than anything else. these cars are featherweight, and need all the help they can to track well. Plus, they're little 4 wheel jimmies, so they don't have the smooth riding capability that a 6-axle pullman car would. I agree in MOST cases prototype flanges are preferred, but I want this thing to run correctly and not just sit pretty.

[nachoman]

Does it look like the "pizza cutters" could be easily replaced by more scale n-scale wheelsets?

[Russ Bellinis]

I've read that rp20 wheel sets are more reliable than the old fashioned pizza cutters in avoiding derailmments as well as picking points, etc.

[Mileswestern]

Yeah, the pizza cutters are easily replaceable it looks like. The flanges on the steamers are actually not as large, so it's not as noticable. Remember that these wheels are pretty small, so it's negligible.