7mm Narrow Gauge. Modelling on a budget.

[Mountain]

Use cheap Hornby 0/4/0 loco chassis. Remove cab. Fit a taller chimney and some 7mm scale loco crew and you have your start in narrow gauge modelling!
Old cheap 00 gauge plank wagons (The less detail the better!) make ok waggons for narrow gauge conversions. One can cut off buffers and simply repaint.

[Mountain]

Did write lots more but lost it when I tried to submit post, so excuse simplicity of post.

[Mountain]

A few advantages of 7mm narrow gauge modelling.

1. Wagons can easily be scratchbuilt.
2. Fits in a small space due to the ability to negotiate tight corners.
3. Short trains are the norm. A typical short train is less then half what most 00 gauge trains are.
4. Readily available donor locos at cheap prices obtainable to either convert via a RTR bashing or to convert via a kit (Smallbrook Studios do such kits and more).
5. The prototypes had a feel of "Anything goes" to them and often, it did! Hence one can build a freelance model and get it to blend into the scene with no issues.

[Emettman]

Just found, while looking for something else...
Nice little Gnomy layout, with seriously tight curves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnWLy9VkBq0

[Mountain]

Nice. LGB. That's G scale. But it looks more like 7mm narrow gauge... Umm. Are Gnomy trams G scale? Thought they were smaller. Do they come in two sizes?

[Emettman]

The Gnomy's work better as 7mm scale.
G figures in the trams would be approaching the RHDR appearance once more.





I of course loved the "breaking the rule" tight curves.

Chris

[Emettman]

Nice. LGB. That's G scale. But it looks more like 7mm narrow gauge... Umm. Are Gnomy trams G scale? Thought they were smaller. Do they come in two sizes?

The Gnomy's were smaller push-along toys...
Gnomy coaches and loco on an LGB wagon.
Tram was a bit wider, but not higher.




Chris

[Mountain]

Thanks. Thought it was rather strange the layout described as LGB...

[Emettman]

Thanks. Thought it was rather strange the layout described as LGB...

Well it was,just not LGB G scale. The 4-wheel railcar was an impressive bash of a couple of coaches and a couple of Gnomy vans..

This chap's very nice work:
http://www.saarwalter.de/gnomy.htm

Chris

[Mountain]

Nice. Shame these fun things are no longer available.

[Emettman]

Nice. Shame these fun things are no longer available.

They turn up on eBay, sometimes for silly prices cheap, sometimes for silly prices dear.
Most often from Germany so that can need a deliberate look on the German site, and then often asking about postage.


Chris

[Johnny2A]

Use cheap Hornby 0/4/0 loco chassis. Remove cab. Fit a taller chimney and some 7mm scale loco crew and you have your start in narrow gauge modelling!
Old cheap 00 gauge plank wagons (The less detail the better!) make ok waggons for narrow gauge conversions. One can cut off buffers and simply repaint.

1. You end up with a OO locomotive with a ridiculous looking appearance.
2. They don't - they're still too narrow and won't look right.

A few advantages of 7mm narrow gauge modelling.
3. Short trains are the norm. A typical short train is less then half what most 00 gauge trains are.
4. Readily available donor locos at cheap prices obtainable to either convert via a RTR bashing or to convert via a kit (Smallbrook Studios do such kits and more).
5. The prototypes had a feel of "Anything goes" to them and often, it did! Hence one can build a freelance model and get it to blend into the scene with no issues.

3. That can depend. A full length rake of slate waggons behind a double fairlee would be very long.
4. Decent donor mechanisms for O-16.5 locos (such as Hornby Pug and Electrotren 0-6-0) are not really cheap.
5. Basing them on reality, like modelling standard gauge, helps. You can't just stick a big cab on a standard gauge locomotive and call it narrow gauge.

[b308]

009 went through this stage in the 70s when many modellers did the same as 1 and 5 with N scale locos. Yes it can be done, but not quite as simply as Mountain says, as you can see from the many 0-16.5 layouts knocking around with "modified" Hornby 0-4-0Ts!

However to defend what he said, if you are careful, it CAN be done by using larger chimneys and domes and a new cab and running plate. Smallbrook Studios do conversion kits for that chassis (and similar)...

http://www.smallbrookstudio.co.uk/produ ... rrow-Gauge

There is no reason why, with some work and some plasticard, that any modeller couldn't do the same as the kits at a fraction of the cost.

I would shy away from the old "larger chimney and new cab" attitude to narrow gauge railway modelling, I've seem far too many cringeworthy efforts in 009 and, more recently, 0-16.5, but done right with a feeling for the Real Thing there is no reason it can't be done very cheaply...



Though the same applies to 009 and it takes up less space!

[pete12345]

I've seen a conversion in an old magazine that used a Bachmann class 08 to make a nice-looking centre-cab diesel loco. It was basically a wider footplate and bigger cab (along with cutting up the old body) but it looked good and would have run equally well. I think it depends on the choice of donor loco whether this sort of thing works or not.

[Mountain]

It worked OK for me. Its not quite finished yet as I have yet to fit the homemade buffer/couplings. All I did was to build a cab with some internal detail and find something to work as a chimney. This chimney came from an old ink cartridge.

Use cheap Hornby 0/4/0 loco chassis. Remove cab. Fit a taller chimney and some 7mm scale loco crew and you have your start in narrow gauge modelling!
Old cheap 00 gauge plank wagons (The less detail the better!) make ok waggons for narrow gauge conversions. One can cut off buffers and simply repaint.

1. You end up with a OO locomotive with a ridiculous looking appearance.
2. They don't - they're still too narrow and won't look right.

A few advantages of 7mm narrow gauge modelling.
3. Short trains are the norm. A typical short train is less then half what most 00 gauge trains are.
4. Readily available donor locos at cheap prices obtainable to either convert via a RTR bashing or to convert via a kit (Smallbrook Studios do such kits and more).
5. The prototypes had a feel of "Anything goes" to them and often, it did! Hence one can build a freelance model and get it to blend into the scene with no issues.

3. That can depend. A full length rake of slate waggons behind a double fairlee would be very long.
4. Decent donor mechanisms for O-16.5 locos (such as Hornby Pug and Electrotren 0-6-0) are not really cheap.
5. Basing them on reality, like modelling standard gauge, helps. You can't just stick a big cab on a standard gauge locomotive and call it narrow gauge.