Small Scale Military Headquarters

are there any scale trains that could work close to the scale of xd? thanks in advance

* Kevrut could tell ya' ,.. he's putting together a military RxR dio using Buddy L for the train. Look for his thread in the Customs Forum under "Buddy L " .



Mitch v MG

The Buddy L trains seem to work the best as they are the large and closest to 1:18. Certain G scale train cars will also work. In both cases, you will have to have a tolerance for using different scale items together as there are no perfectly 1:18 scaled train cars.

* Here's a link to "kevruts" {XD/Buddy L RxR} thread. It's 5-pages.


viewtopic.php?t=6203&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0


Mitch v MG

thanks all

G scale varies from 1/22.5 to 1/32. The larger 1/22.5 trains are the closest you're going to get to 1/18, as long as you don't mind the scale difference.

Just be sure when you're buying something 'G' scale that it is the larger 1/22.5 and not the smaller 1/32 scale (one is european, one is north american......don't know which is which).

Bachmann makes steam engines and rolling stock in 1:20.3. Their website is www.bachmanntrains.com. You can usually get their products a lot cheaper than the MSRP.

right, i forgot about 1/20.3 scale......it's the so called 'F' scale. Much closer than 1/22.5, although i don't think variety is nearly as good..

aferguson wrote:right, i forgot about 1/20.3 scale......it's the so called 'F' scale. Much closer than 1/22.5, although i don't think variety is nearly as good..

Actually, there is a very good selection of 1:20.3 stuff. It all depends on what XD you want to use.

There is a bunch of equipment in 1:20.3 that was used by the White Pass and Yukon in '42 and '43. Several steam locomotives, flat cars, etc. The USATC took over the White Pass during this era, so XD and those trains work well together.

There is also 16mm scale (1:19). Mostly British prototypes running on O-scale track. The RAF had several underground ordnance storage depots that had 2-foot gage trains, and there are even 16mm loco kits that are perfect matches of RAF engines. Also, 2-foot gage trains were used in the Maginot line.

The Buddy L stuff is good for getting close to standard gauge, but its mostly older equiment that isn't as detailed as newer stuff.

If you really want to go extreme, look for 3.5" gauge track that is used for ride-on equipment. Not much selection there.

Pretty much if you look hard enough, you can find some theater that had a railroad in it that used G/O/etc track. Just takes some time to research.

On a tangent, 1:20.3 equipment is available to recreate teh Dunn and Duffy Circus train from Indiana Jones

Hey, here's another auction for Buddy L trains. It ends July 21st.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Buddy-L-Train-Set-E ... dZViewItem

It has a high starting bid.

I'd be surprised if it goes very much over the 2K mark.

Only one extra car with 5 pieces of track isn't much to bid on.

I thought I'd keep all of the train auctions on this thread instead of the E-Bay thread.

Kevin.

Just a side question, but falls into the same topic. If a company made trains for us in the 1/18th scale, would you guys want them for display or motorized? I was thinking of that the other day. I know you can ask that about armor and aircraft too, but trains fall into their own little click. I'm really not into the model railroads, so I don't know much about them, but do they sell these large scale engines without motors for the ones that like to include their own? And vise versa, do they sell the motors without engines? Just wondering if it would be cheaper for the ones that wanted a few just for display dios. Thanks for any help.
momaw nadon

T-Reproductions made good copies of the original Buddy-L trains in 1990. Those locomotives do come up on E-Bay once in a while. I have seen a few that had an electric motor added to them. There's a small lawn-tractor battery that goes in the coal tender and a wire connects to an electric motor mounted under the locomotive. The motor is a screw-drive that turns the drive wheels. These are a bit more expensive than the regular locos. They don't make new ones any more.

If anyone made new ones, I wouldn't need them to be gear driven. I use mine for display. I just build all of the scenery for my dio.

If they were just made out of plastic, that would make them alot cheaper.

I'd only be interested in steam trains, not any modern ones.

Kevin.

If a company is going to make a train model, power it to get the interest of the train crowd. But, if someone didn't - no biggie. There are plenty of display models that have been released in various scales that are easily modified into powered units, if desired.

again i thank you all!