I’m really enjoying building my Sn3 8-ton Plymouth DDT model, but am currently stalled while waiting for an air tank I ordered to arrive.

In the mean time, I found and ordered an On30 Storage Battery Locomotive which I believe I can modify into Sn3 with a little work.

I was just wondering if anyone could identify this specific Storage Battery Locomotive and direct me towards pictures of the prototype;

http://www.ebay.com/itm/360579327619?ss ... 1439.l2649

I’m thinking that it is an Atlas Type C locomotive, but could be wrong.

It would be ironic if it was an Atlas locomotive since the mine I’m building is going to be named the D’Anconia Resources WhiteHorse Lead Mine No.1 and the name ‘D’Anconia Resources’ is taken from a prophetic novel entitled ‘Atlas Shrugged’.

There was a GE of the same type as that Grandtline model you show at the Independance Mine State Park in Alaska and also one at the Empire Mine State Park in Cal. They have different sized Battery Boxes as well. Photos halfway down here...
viewtopic.php?t=19090

I have only prints of the two I saw at the above mines not digital and not on my computer sorry.

Chris
in New Zealand

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Alive and Well....for now

I have one of those models, the powered version. It sucked, the drive mech is beyond rediculously noisy and the thing could hardly even move itself. I got an old Bachman SF Cable Car model and took the drive mech out of that, glues it in, and it runs fine. If you are powering it. If it's just for static display then the model is actually not bad. No idea what, or if, there is a specific prototype. I will look at my instructions tonight and see if they mention one, but I think it's simply generic. If there is a mention of an exact make I will let you know.

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jdr

Hi John,

It arrived and looks like it’ll be a really fun model to build.

I contacted North West Shortline when it arrived yesterday to see if they’d be able to provide me with an Sn3 drive and, initially, they said that they could. Unfortunately, I’d asked if they could fashion an ‘S-scale 36 inch gauge drive’ and they initially thought that I was asking for a ‘scale’ (as in Standard Gauge, 4’8.5”) drive, which they could provide, not a narrow gauge drive, which they can’t provide until they release their new drive system ‘sometime in the future.’

I was kind of hoping to start work on this project, so I was wondering if you could tell me if you think the cable car drive you used could be narrowed to Sn3 and if the axle width lined up well with the wheel positions on the model?

Thank you in advance…

Sn3 uses HO track, correct? i model, but not narrow gauge. I like it though. I am a novice, so I have no where near the skills to scratch-build everything. Do you use regular HO track (if it uses it), or specially made track with correct tie spacing? I know someone who just takes out every other tie in N scale track for his quarry/logging layout. He has the Glacier Gravel pit, and he uses the narrow gauge to supply the rock to the crusher on his HO layout. The narrow gauge is just for operating interest, like the line for the stacks of finished lumber outback of the sawmill. He also has a coke oven setup, near a mine that uses some narrow gauge stuff. He is modeling the "roaring 20's". He even has a tie plant with a small railroad to transfer the ties from the creosoting retorts to the drying yard, with a dual gauge switch and crossing.

Dave, HO gauge track used in S scale is 42" or 3'6", widely used to in NZ model our Cape Gauge. O gauge track is used in 9mm Scale to do the same. Sn3 and HOn3 are therefore narrower than the trainset track. Using N scale track in HO scale works for 30" gauge.
Some modellers in Europe and the UK are into G scale using N gauge track for modelling live steam riding railways.

JJHill, have you considered the NWSL magic carpets for your model?

Chris
in New Zealand

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Alive and Well....for now

Cape Gauge

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I don't have all the answers.
I don't even know all the questions!

On3 is O scale on HO track, correct? I know HOn2.5 is HO on N scale track- 2 foot gauge. I know Nn3 is N scale on Z scale track. Sn3 is S on HO track, then.

Dave, the "n3" addition to a scale is for modelling 3 foot gauge.
HO gauge is 16.5mm, HOn2 is 7mm, HOn30 is 9mm, HOn3 is just shy of 27/64" or 10.5mm, Sn3 is 9/16" or 14.3mm, On3 is 3/4" or 19mm. O scale on HO track is On30 (2'6" gauge prototypes) as is HO scale on N scale track. Hayden and Frary made popular use of HO on Nscale track to model the Maine 2footers easily without having to regauge the drive mechanisms.
Are you with me now?

Chris
in New Zealand

_________________
Alive and Well....for now

kind of. It is hard for me to make the conversion from the Model track to the prototype track. What would the prototype gauge for the track be?

Dave,
check back several posts to Doug's Cape Gauge Wiki link: there on the righthand side of the page is a bar graph of rail gauges and a colour chart showing the different Countries that use those gauges. I find it interesting that the Wikipedia has no reference to 2ft, 22", 20" and 18" gauges, all common to the Mining industry.

Chris
in New Zealand

_________________
Alive and Well....for now

JUST TO CLEAR THINGS UP.

Sn3 (aka. Sn36) is marginally narrower then HO.

While I’ve been building S-scale models for a while, I’m reasonably new to Sn3, having decided to add a White Pass and Yukon narrow and dual gauge line to my module layout. Unfortunately, the company that was going to make me several turnouts and the “merge” necessary to bring in the narrow gauge line has been putting me on repeated backorder.

In the meantime, I started working on my exclusively Sn3 mine since other companies manufacture Sn3 turnouts and these are available.

While both the mine and the WPY will be Sn3, they will not connect, since ore was trucked from the mine to transfer facilities where it was loaded into the WPY.

I’m determining the wheel width, track gauge (it’s hand laid track), coupler heights, and all other standards using three NMRA gauges, so I’m not calculating things , so much as I’m making them to a standard.

To bring my HO (standard gauge) Plymouth DDT to the Sn3 standard, I had to narrow the axle width significantly, so much so that I had to shave away some of the center frame in order to make room for the electrical pickups.

I’ll be sure to keep you guys updated on any progress I make.

PS; Once I finish the Plymouth (add a tank and paint it) and the Storage Battery Locomotive, I’m going to see if I can modify an HO 0-4-0 or 0-6-0 into a compressed air locomotive…

Cool! Pictures of the layout would be neat! (I, for one, would love to see a track plan. I like to study other people's track designs to see how they compare to my own)

OK this is from memory, so I could be off a bit.


Standard Prototype gauge is 4 feet, 8 1/2 inches or 56 1/2 inches

HO is 1 to 87, or 12 inches equals 87 feet.
HO is roughly Half-O.
O gauge is roughly 1:43
N gauge is roughly 1:174 or half HO

Narrow gauges
HOn3 is a Prototype 3 foot gauge modeled in HO. Specificly 36/56.5 or 63.7 %, therefore larger than half sized. n2 = 24/56.5 or 42.5 %


Model Gauges are not rocket science and there are tons of resources to find this basic information. A bit homework before asking a question on a web forum will go a very long way.

_________________
I don't have all the answers.
I don't even know all the questions!