Bernd,

Well I will be watching, my best work of advice, start with a good mechanism, something that runs reliably, and fits the purpose reasonably well. They take your artistic license and build the truck.

Les

Hi Bernd. I can vouch for Les' inspiration. His work made me wish I were doing On30 modeling many times. However, I model HO scale and thought some of these ideas may help you in HOn30/3 builds. http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/t...TOPIC_ID=36484

Right on Bernd! I'm a pretty big railcar addict myself ( http://www.railroad-line.com/forum/t...TOPIC_ID=41448 ). And you can't get much better inspiration than Les and Louis' work. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

-Cody

Thanks for the advice Les. I'll have to check out what I have. I know I've got a couple power units that need something built on them.

Bernd

Louis,

I just love those rail vehicles you built. The first two pictures are the best. I'll be prodding you for some "where can I get this" info.

Bernd

Cody,

I love your collection of rail vehicles. I have a VW HO scale bus. What was used to power them or did they come powered already? You got me thinking now about seeing if I can stuff some kind of HOn30 power unit inside one of those.

Let's see what happens when i get back home from the cottage tonight. I'm going to have to look for some of those power units and start planing.

Oh, by the way Louis, I have one of a Jordon Mack rail buses. That will need to get powered some time in the future.

So I guess I'm off on a kit bashing adventure.

Bernd

All my railcar are powered with Kato mechanisms (except the little brass Aru model), both the four wheel and two truck kind. I've converted the two truck version to single truck with a single axle but they have a little trouble with electrical pick up. They're also easy to saw in half to change the wheelbase. The four wheel version matches the wheelbase of the green VW almost perfectly.

I also have a Mack railbus to make into something...

-Cody

Thanks Cody for more choices.

Here's what I have available to me at the moment. I did some quick hacking on the modern truck cab. It was a dump truck. It's to modern but it gives me some ideas.



Front row from left to right. Bachman GP38 (I think), Bachman trolley, and a Lima F7. The chassis' are behind the shells.

Next row back. Three Kato 11-103 4 axle power units. They are going to be used to make three brass electric box cabs. And the WTD Plymouth switcher. It's not a good runner.

This is a 40 foot truck trailer and the Lima power unit. Notice it has only one truck powered using a clock work motor. Runs pretty good. Needs some clean up though.



I place the Lima power unit under the truck trailer and started to deconstruct an Athearn dump truck just for a visual.



This is a Rail Line HOn3 boxcar. Getting close.



Didn't look to good with that truck axle so I removed the truck axle and replaced it with the dummy truck from the Lima power unit.



I tried it with the 40 foot truck trail and the dummy power unit. Ahhh, no cigar.

Deconstructed another Athearn truck for the cab. Used N scale trucks under the front. Definitely no cigar.



The one I like the best is this one.



Now I need to find a HO truck body any where from the mid 1930's to around 1945. I was at a web site that nice trucks of around these years but can't find it again. Forgot the name and to place it in my favorites. Darn. So I'm on the hunt.

I'll post more as I get close to determining the parts I'm going to use.

Les, Louis, & Cody, thanks for the inspiration. This is lots of fun.

Bernd

Looks like fun! I like the mock ups you got going, the Rail Line boxcar is a good starting point. I've built a couple and it never occurred to me to make a railcar with it. Good call.

Looking forward to more!

-Cody

Had to test out my VW crew cab bus. Don't think it'll work with this one.



My first encounter with a VW rail bus was this picture.



So the search was on for more pictures. I did find more. Here's another one.



The Kato drive won't work for these. I'd like to make a couple of static models some day.

Now this one will work great with a Kato drive.



So the quarry line will have plenty of small vehicles running around. Oh, I need to build the quarry line first. :erm:

Bernd

See what you guys did to me. I can't stop posting.

I just happened to look up on a shelf in the shop. What stared me in the face but 6 trucks I picked up a while ago that I wanted to do some railtrucks with. So the first one is a bit to long.



And I have my cigar.



Next step, start trimming up all the parts for a nice fit.

Bernd

Bernd,

Nice design thoughts, did you look at combines or coaches...what era truck were you planning?

I used a RS3 Kato mech and the Bachmann Diesel...but then I slip a O scale superstructure over them.

Les

Thanks Les.

I'm not interested in the coaches or combines yet. But am thinking of what I can use. I have several Roundhouse Overton coach's that I might look into down the road. Right now I want to concentrate on something like what you built, only a three truck version. Other design's will follow.



I found the web site again. http://www.sylvanscalemodels.com/Vehiclepage%20new.htm Trying to stay around the 1930's to 1940's or so. Perhaps I'll make my own hood and cab some where along the line.

I discovered Kato has some good power chassis. I got those three Kato 4 wheel units off of E-bay right from the far-east. hey also have two truck units so I'm set there. Now for HOn3 I'll have to come up with something. Maybe use the Kato and expand the gauge on the wheels. I'll have to see how that works. But for right now for the first project I think I have what I need except time.

Bernd