2024 On30 ANNUAL: What a time to be a modeler, especially in On30! We’ve added even more value to the On30 Annual, delivering amazing models, layouts, and building projects in O scale for 2024. Now in its 19th year of providing modeling fun and accessible narrow gauge for everyone, the On30 Annual is your definitive guide to O scale narrow gauge modeling. Order your copy today!
Adjustments to the Annuals’ Schedule
With the introduction of the new Garden Trains Annual, the print schedule for the On30 Annual gets shuffled around a bit.
The J.B. Logging & Mining Railroad
Using some modules built in California to create a permanent On30 model railroad in a new home in Georgia.
Scratchbuilding with Scale Lumber: Evanoff Pattern & Foundry
Sometimes less is better. Model buildings are too often weathered to the point of total decrepitness, as if the whole world is ancient and crumbling into disrepair. Surely there must be some recently built, or at the least, some well-maintained structures in our miniature world? Rather than simulating peeling paint and rotting lumber, this O scale structure was modeled in a state of relative newness.
Speeder Shed Plans
Now that I’m concentrating mostly on On30, I thought it would be neat to duplicate the speeder shed in O scale and see what photos I could take of its interior using my current digital SLR camera. I drew full-sized O scale plans with a small CAD program on my computer and printed them off to use as templates for the model.
San Juan Car Co. O Scale Parts
After getting a few pairs of the excellent On3/On30 passenger car trucks, I was pretty excited when San Juan announced they would be doing a Jackson & Sharp coach. I was equally disappointed when they announced late in 2012 that the coach project was suspended indefinitely.
RS Laser add-on deck for Bachmann freight cars
Both kits from RS Laser include two custom fitted plywood decks with double sided tape applied to attach the deck to the host car as well as Grandt Line O scale brake wheels and ratchet and pawl castings for two cars to replace those removed when new decks are installed. The kit for the tank cars also includes Standard Oil Company decal sets to add to the tank of each car.
Creative Laser Design’s Schulz & Sons Kit
Creative Laser Design’s latest O scale kit is based on an actual light manufacturing facility located in northern Vermont. The Frank J. Schulz & Sons Precision Manufacturing Company has manufactured carved wood deep sea fishing lures for decades in Sutton, Vt., at their gambrel-roofed plant.