1: Rio Grande 3000 series cars are the most modeled
narrow gauge boxcar across all scales. Photo courtesy
of BHI Publications, Tim Mulina collection.
1
and then to 40’, and then much larger and taller until arriving at
the sizes used today. Narrow gauge cars stayed smaller due to
using lighter rail and tighter curves than their bigger brothers.
I recently conducted an informal survey among narrow gauge
groups on the Internet and received some interesting feed-
back. The primary purpose of this survey was to determine the
mix of rolling stock individuals had, and to find out who the
manufacturers are in the different scales. On3 and larger scales
are not included.
On30
Boxcar kits are available from International Hobbies, who import
Chivers Finelines plastic, Boulder Valley resin, Foothill Model
Works resin, Bachmann plastic ready-to-run, On30IMA laser
wood, Deerfield River laser wood, AMS plastic, Accucraft plastic,
2: Sandy River and Rangeley Lakes boxcars 135 and
83 are examples of the two-foot boxcars. Photo cour-
tesy of BHI Publications from their Two Foot Gauge
Pictorial Guide Books, Peter Barney collection.
2
San Juan Car Co. plastic, S-Helper Service (S-scale converted
to On30), Wiseman Model Services, Mount Blue Models laser
wood, and Morgan Hill Models laser wood.
Several modelers replied that they scratchbuilt their cars and
some commented about the length of cars they model. Some
use the 18’ Bachmann cars while others build their own to 30’
long, with most of them falling in the 20’ to 22’ range. In my
research on car lengths, I found that most two-foot prototype
boxcars were longer at 24’ and 30’. Most of the respondents
stated that they follow no particular prototype.
Sn3
The modelers in Sn3, for the most part, are Rio Grande mod-
elers. P-B-L is the dominant manufacturer in this scale and
The Lite and Narrow Column - 2
MRH-Feb 2014
