Scale7JB Posted April 4, 2010 Share Posted April 4, 2010 Hi all.... My dad had a great deal on a Bachmann Spectrum Forney at the Ally Pally show in London last weekend, but he wants to know... What is the difference between On3 and On30? To be honest, I'm a little confused too.... JB. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve K Posted April 4, 2010 Share Posted April 4, 2010 OK, I'll dive in, if only so that others can shoot me down... The first refers to a 30" gauge prototype, and the second to 3ft (36"). So you'd be looking at 18mm and 21mm (very approx) gauge for your model. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crewe North Posted April 4, 2010 Share Posted April 4, 2010 On3.......is American O gauge (1/4"=1ft) running on a dead scale 3ft gauge track ie 3/4"...........like S7 for narrow gauge. On30 is the same American scale but running on standard HO track at 16.5mm gauge giving a prototype track gauge of 2ft 6ins (30") O/16.5 uses 7mm scale on the same 16.5mm track to give a prototype track gauge of 2ft 4" Hope this helps Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve K Posted April 4, 2010 Share Posted April 4, 2010 Ah - I got my British and US 'O' gauges mixed up, but I was nearly there! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scale7JB Posted April 4, 2010 Author Share Posted April 4, 2010 Thanks for that...! I shall pass on the information... Happy Easter! JB. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
bertiedog Posted April 4, 2010 Share Posted April 4, 2010 Don't worry too much, all US commercial O narrow outline gauge basically runs on 16.5mm, even if at O scale it should really run on 3 foot track.......a compromise. There are strict scale versions as always, some use hand made scale 3foot track with O scale, and also O scale 2 foot gauge. In the UK O scale, 7mm to the foot, usually use 16.5 as the gauge, but also there is 14mm (2 foot gauge). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium BR60103 Posted April 5, 2010 RMweb Premium Share Posted April 5, 2010 On3 at 3/4" track gauge is very close to P4 (19+mm vs 18.83) but I haven't known anyone yet to try the interchange. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Tony_S Posted April 5, 2010 RMweb Gold Share Posted April 5, 2010 The Forney is a nice model. It will go round quite tight curves but the back end swings out quite a lot. My ON30 layout is now end to end not roundy-roundy as there was a piece of track where the Forney used to derail whatever it was hauling round. Only other piece of information I can think of is that ON30 models use the HO height for couplers. Also If you want to crew the locos, Tamiya 1/48 soldiers can be "carved" into crew figures quite nicely. Tony Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold ngtrains.com Posted June 9, 2010 RMweb Gold Share Posted June 9, 2010 On3 at 3/4" track gauge is very close to P4 (19+mm vs 18.83) but I haven't known anyone yet to try the interchange. I have. Trouble was my 0n3 K36 [a 3foot gauge 2-8-2 about the size of a 9F made a right mess of the P4 scenery. Runs OK on plain track but P4 standards for things like check rails aren't compatible with RP25-110 wheels used on 0n3 stock. Paul Martin EDM Models Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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