[Don Chovanec]

I saw a great Shay the other day in a Train Shop that was HOn3. It had a number of cars and was very detailed. I understand it runs on HO. That it is similar to a narrow gauge scaled to HO standard. Another words larger then HO. I was very impressed. Comments?

 

[Boston&Maine]

Welcome to the forum!

According to Wikipedia HOn3 scale runs on 10.5mm gauge track compared to regular HO which runs on 16.5mm gauge track... HOn3 models the three foot prototype gauge... I think that the size of the actual train cars stays the same between the two varietys of HO scale, but hey, I model O scale

 

[Don Chovanec]

HOn3

I did not know that. The guy at the store said that it would run on HO with no problems and did in fact run the Shay for me on and HO test track. It is larger then HO though. It was really neat. I know that I have seen narrow gauge HO years ago and that track had to be hand layed. One thing though they had a layout that had a cut-in that had a standard HO with a 3rd rail for the Narrow Gauge to run on the same line. Just a small section but they made it work!

 

[Boston&Maine]

Are you sure it was HOn3 and not OO scale? OO scale runs on HO track but the train cars are a little bigger (1:76)... Of course look at my source, not the most credible, but I do not see why someone would mess around with model train articles

As far as OO scale goes, it uses the same width (gauge) track as HO scale, but the actual trains and cars are slightly larger than HO scale trains... OO scale trains are 1:76, in comparison to HO scale trains which are 1:87...

According to Wikipedia:

OO scale uses the same track gauge as HO scale (3.5 mm to the foot, 1:87). However, the large propulsion mechanisms could not fit into the small British prototypes, so the scale was enlarged to 4 mm to the foot without altering the gauge.

 

[Don Chovanec]

It could be, I just went by what the train store said, and the other was many years ago with an layout the ran all brass. I am not an expert. I am going to go back to the store and see if I can get more info as I really liked it a lot.

 

[shaygetz]

More than likely it is On30---O scale that runs on HO gauge track. Bachmann has put out both a Shay and a Climax in that scale. The confusion comes from interposing scale/gauge.

Scale is the model to prototype size ratio, i.e. 1:48 = O scale, 1:87 = HO scale...etc.

Gauge is the distance between the two rails, regardless of scale, i.e. 1 1/4" = O gauge, 9mm = N gauge... HOn30 and On18 run on N gauge track, OO 4mm scale and HO 3.5mm scale run on HO gauge track.

It gets even more fun when you get to the Proto 87, Proto 48 and G gauge crowd

 

[Don Chovanec]

I went back to the store and found that the clerk had misinformed me. On checking the box for the Shay it was indeed O gauge. Sorry for the confusion. I still like it although there is not a lot of stuff out there. They have complete rail sets in O but not many other mfg embracing it. Sort of undecided but still considering it.

 

[stationmaster]

Equipment is limited, cars, engines and such. But no one said that you had to have 1000 cars and engines. I have seen these setups only at shows. I have no real experience here.