SoCal Chris
Member
The S&VR is my first exploration into HOn30 modeling, inspired by many trips to Utah/Arizona canyon country and Thunder Mesa Studio. The layout is a simple loop of track with a dummy siding and dramatic red rock scenery, designed to fit on a narrow Ikea bookshelf. Coming from N scale, I'm excited to get a little more ambitious with detailing and building in a bigger scale.
It all started with this N scale Kato Pocket Line set which runs beautifully for a 4-wheel power unit (it's actually powered by the first passenger car, the loco is just a dummy) but I always thought looked a little too clean and toylike. Some hacking and slashing with random bits from the parts bin led to this HOn30 Porter-ish loco (rivet counters don't look too closely!) and an HO overland coach from the train store bargain bin was sacrificed for the coach/drive unit conversion. The tank car is a shortened N scale starter set car on a basswood flat car frame:


I'm happy enough with how this little experiment turned out that I decided it needed a layout to run on and it all started to snowball from there. The "benchwork" is 1/8" MDF on 1"x4" risers soon to be covered by carved foam rockwork and terrain with Peco 009 flex track. The turnout is obviously nonfunctional...four wheel N scale power doesn't like frogs and I don't plan to operate this layout, I just want to watch trains run smoothly and reliably. The stamp mill is a kitbashed Grandt Line kit, the two town buildings are bashed from a single Woodland Scenics kit, and the tiny station is scratchbuilt from the stamp mill leftovers. I'm enjoying making these HO structures so much I'll probably end up sandwiching a couple more in sooner or later!




Much more to come!
It all started with this N scale Kato Pocket Line set which runs beautifully for a 4-wheel power unit (it's actually powered by the first passenger car, the loco is just a dummy) but I always thought looked a little too clean and toylike. Some hacking and slashing with random bits from the parts bin led to this HOn30 Porter-ish loco (rivet counters don't look too closely!) and an HO overland coach from the train store bargain bin was sacrificed for the coach/drive unit conversion. The tank car is a shortened N scale starter set car on a basswood flat car frame:


I'm happy enough with how this little experiment turned out that I decided it needed a layout to run on and it all started to snowball from there. The "benchwork" is 1/8" MDF on 1"x4" risers soon to be covered by carved foam rockwork and terrain with Peco 009 flex track. The turnout is obviously nonfunctional...four wheel N scale power doesn't like frogs and I don't plan to operate this layout, I just want to watch trains run smoothly and reliably. The stamp mill is a kitbashed Grandt Line kit, the two town buildings are bashed from a single Woodland Scenics kit, and the tiny station is scratchbuilt from the stamp mill leftovers. I'm enjoying making these HO structures so much I'll probably end up sandwiching a couple more in sooner or later!




Much more to come!