Can anybody make a recommendation on a reliable HO locomotive chassis that I might be able fit a Bachmann ON30 trolley body on?
On3 or On30? The difference is around 0.1". For On30, it is a drop in replacement, for On3, it requires regauging or possibly new axles. I've long heard of Kato being mechanisms of choice for such conversions. Michael
Do you need the driving unit? I have had much success with Hollywood Foundry. I've used the units in my two 25-tons! Great! Look at his site, he makes them for trolleys too. Wolfgang
Thanks for pointing that out, I did not realize there is a difference. I've been searching for information on this, but only get more confused. I can’t find a straight forward explanation on the differences and have seen it used interchangeably on other forums. I have the Bachmann ON30 trolley and I’ve been running it on Atlas 100 flex for years without any problems. It is getting a little worn out and it never ran as good as I would like. Maybe that’s because it a cheap Bachmann motor. I would like to purchase a good running Atlas HO loco or anything reliable to replace the Bachmann motor. I might add that I know nothing about HO. I really like the look of the Bachmann trolley and I just can’t find anything else to replace it with.
Wolfgang, you just have a wealth of information, I’m impressed. I have not seen anything like this before. I’m going to check this out some more and get back to you. :thumbs_up: Ok, I’m back. I think this is what I want, but I have no idea which one I need for my Bachmann Christmas Trolley.
Glad to help. That's the point to have an own website. Well, after thirty years in the hobby..... :angel: Wolfgang
Here is the NMRA's standard for various scale/gauge combinations: http://www.nmra.org/standards/sandrp/pdf/S-3.2%202009.07.pdf On3 operates on 0.752" gauge track. On30 is 0.651" gauge track. Both are 1:48 scale. Scale is the reduction ration. For instance, a 1:1 me is 74" tall. An O scale version of me would be 1.54" tall whether on an On3 or On30 layout. Gauge is a reference to the distance between the rails. For instance, Fn3, LGB, 1:32, Aristo's 1:29 all use the same 45mm gauge track, but the trains are to different scales. In the United States, 56.5" gauge was the standard...with many variations throughout the 19th century (for a time, Ohio was 4'10", 5', 5'6", 6', and such were common). Then along came a guy by the name of Farlie. He promoted the future of railroading...the present railroads were over-engineered...with the gauge being the biggest problem. He managed to get quite a following here in the US...with some broad gauge lines switching construction to narrow gauges. Over 95% of this mileage was 36" gauge. Around 0.2% was 30" gauge. Traditionally, there were three types of O scale narrow gauge modelers: On2, On30, and On3. On2 and On3 modelers wanted accurate models of US prototypes...On30 modelers either modeled foreign operations (see Artin's HOn30 work) or they wanted to make use of HO mechanisms. Around 1999, Bachmann came out with their new, excellent On30 line. They liked the size of On3, but wanted to use their existing HO track...rather than paying for new On3 track tooling. And so, modern On30 was created. Some On30 models are of 3' gauge prototypes...such as the B-man 4-6-0 and the boxcar. Some are of 2' gauge prototypes (the Forneys, the IF 4-4-0). And some are of 30" gauge prototypes (the OF 4-4-0, the 2-8-0). As a footnote, most locomotives were "catalog" designs...so they weren't necessarily specific to any gauge. Today, the On3/On30 description is extremely common. It makes it darn near impossible to search on ebay for On3! Many, such as Wiseman Model Services, offer everything in either On3 or On30. When I ordered my On3 PCM Galloping Goose, the salesmen asked me several times to verify that I really did want an On3 model and not On30...as many On30 modelers haven't yet learned the difference and complained that the On3 geese didn't fit on HO track. confused: I've never had a problem with a Bachman motor. I'd recommend checking with the service department (which is first rate). Michael
Great Explanation! Hey thanks Michael, this is great information and the chart! Well I just don’t understand why it didn’t come up in any of my searches. I guess I just wasn’t using the correct terms. I think you should make an addition to Wikipedia - On30 and better yet maybe to Wikipedia - On3. Although, they are kind of have the same information as you have stated, I just didn’t get it until I saw it put as you have it here. I’m glad to hear that you think highly of Bachmann’s motors and I have to admit I have a couple of their cheaper locos that always ran good. This particular trolley came in the BACHMANN ON30 SCALE CHRISTMAS STREET CAR SET. It was absolutely perfect in my Christmas Layout at the time because it kind of fit my wife’s porcelain houses and I didn’t have any room for a train at the time. It was over 10 years ago so I don’t remember a lot, but it stopped working after a couple of weeks and I could not get any response from Bachmann. Actually, I believe I purchased it during an after Christmas sale and didn’t open it up until the following year. After numerous attempts to fix it, I discovered that it ran fine by itself on regular HO track, so I made a small oval and just ran it like that ever since. I still have the complete set, although I tried to repair the electronics myself without success. I figure that I might replace the reversing board with a third party board someday. If I thought that the newer streetcar was any better than the original one, I’d buy a new one right now. I am also prepared to buy a HO Loco, remove the shell and make any needed modifications to the chassis to fit the Bachmann trolley shell. I just need to know what HO loco would be small enough to fit.
I am not familiar with how they are set up. Is there any chance that the reversing circuit is in the track and not the trolley's circuit board? When B-man made the decision to produce their first On30 set, they expected that the porcelain Christmas Village market would be a major (if not the major) component of the sales. I don't believe they ever expected it to take off like this. I've had Bachmann stuff for 20 years (I'm 26, so that's most of my life!). I've been happy with all of the ones I've purchased in the past 10 years...but not really the ones I received before that. In my opinion, the Spectrum line is around half the price of its competition of comparable quality...HO, On, and such. When they enter a market, they tend to take it over. Whenever they take over a line, they tend to try to upgrade the old line as quickly as they can (previously they did this in Britain and Germany before doing it here). Michael
I don’t know for sure, but I tried experimenting with connecting only the end piece which is required for it to work and using an ohm meter to look for shorts or opens. I think it’s the card. As luck would have it, I discovered two huge dents in the Atlas HO flex in the rear of the layout which has always been a problem to clean. I probably dropped something on it. After removing the damaged track, I remembered that I have a CIRCUITRON AR-1 reversing card hooked up to a reverse loop on my N-scale layout. Tomorrow I’m going to hook it up to my Trolley line and see how it works. If it works, then I’m going to keep it hooked up and order another one for the N-scale layout. This is going to be great if it works, because not only will the trolley look better going back and forth, but it will open up more real estate for an O-scale siding I’ve wanted for a while now. Just to give a better idea of what I’m trying to accomplish, I‘m going put in a YouTube link below. This is from a couple of years ago and I trying to make it bigger this year by adding more track and replacing some of the buildings. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCKkNRBnPH0"]YouTube- John and Cindy's 2007 Christmas Train[/ame]
I installed the AR-1 reversing switch and it works good. I worked on the track a little smoothing it out and gauging it. I also replaced the power supply because I needed 12VDC to operate the AR-1 and only had 12VAC. So now I’m happy and I’m thinking of buying another Bachmann trolley. This opens up a lot of new possibilities since I don’t have to have a complete loop anymore.
