There are all sorts of O-tinplate operating accessories out there, stuff made recently as well as the vintage Lionel pieces.   For young kids that's what you want.   

So far as I know there are no "operating" On30 cars - On30 is O scale, narrow guage on 30-inch gauge track which happens to be the same distance between the rails as HO scale standard gauge.  You could use the same O-scale structures and the like with them, though. 

Surprised no one replied.

At some point in the 60s or 70s the clock tower was eliminated from the gas station dies.  Originals can be found at shows if you poke around, they're hard to find but easier than the Tyco gas station.

The reason for the omission is simply to avoid paying the rights to use the trademarked name in the kit.  It should be a fairly simple matter to find an old magazine with an Esso ad and use a color photcopier to reproduce and re-size the logo to the right scale to use on the building.

One other interesting thing about the gas station; the pumps (1940s-50s era) are really too big.  They shouldn't stand very much taller than the roof of a car.   What I think this was a result of is using the O-scale pumps with both the HO and O kits.  The N pumps are more the right size for HO, being scaled down from the pump in the HO kit rather than being sized for N-scale. 

Used to be able to find all sorts of Road Champs 1/48 vehicles in the stores for less than 5 bucks.  They weren't early-early, but a lot of '50s cars and trucks.  Maisto did some knockoffs, too, with friction motors.   I see a lot of stuff being made to 1/48th or 1/50th and I see a lot of those right in places like Wal-Mart.   You may need to pick and choose or buy newer era items as stand-ins, but for the prices of some of them it's hard to go wrong.


One of the vendors at Springfield had a line of O-scale storefronts only - over a dozen types of city buildings for about $12, but all you get is the front wall.  Lionel has some full structures, built-up, for $15-$35 - city buildings and houses that look pretty decent, they may need some tweaking here and there.   

All the vendors and people at the show and only two guys had any On30 to speak of - well, except for the Bachmann table display only pieces.  I was thinking about buying a Climax, the old version, and the only two there sold out by noon on Saturday. 

Which is about when it really gets impossible to get around, anyways - this year was worse than ever, it started right off trying to park when some clown damned near crashed into us because he couldn't wait an extra 30 seconds to park.. but then sits on his butt for like 5 minutes before getting out of the car.  By noon getting through was look for a hole you can get an arm into and just push.   

I guess it's okay, I see even with shipping I can beat that one vendor's price on eBay, but still...   at least I got to drool on some 4-4-0's.   

Actually, I answered my own question, I found someone had posted a 1983 Bachmann catalog online (that vintage HO site).  There was a version sold as a 4-6-0 with the shorty Vanderbuilt tender, in CN&W and SP versions. 

For what it's worth, a guy at a show I went to a couple years ago had a big bin of odds and ends, anything you wanted like a dollar.  So I grabbed an old S-scale die-cast flat car body in with the other things I bought, I think it's supposed to be a 40' steel flat car. 

It's about the same length as the On30 passenger car body (less steps), the same width as other On30 freight cars, the grabs don't look rediculously out of proportion, and it even took an On30 truck on one end using the screws that come with a set when you buy them carded.   So I have one more flat car for a total investment of about $10.   


I saw an eBay seller with an On30 engine and three of someone's HO ore cars with it, and they looked goofy.  Maybe if you took a pair of them and split them down the middle and put them back together so that they were the right width they'd be okay, but that's a lot of work.   

Another possibility for cheap cars would be to look at some of the 1970's Lionel O27 cars - often you can find them for sale pretty cheap and they were scaled down to go around the tight track - I've read articles where guys converted them to S-gauge and they sized out a lot more accurately - so they might work for On30 as well.   

So at a show last week I picked up what looks like the usual Bachmann USRA style 0-6-0, the older one with the split frame and pancake motor.  No tender, but some folks had a whole box of tenders and shells (looked like a leftover box from warranty repairs or something) so that was no problem.

Anyhow, this one has a 4-axle lead truck, making it a 4-6-0, and may have had another truck on the back - the seller told someone else it was missing a part.   Now I know this same basic engine was (still is?) sold as an 0-6-0 with a switcher tender and as a 2-6-2 using the tender from the Reading Consolidation - but was there a 4-6-0 or 4-6-2 version too?  I don't remember ever seeing one.   

I just nabbed it to repaint up for a local road and sell, I seem to have good luck with that, but it may just be that people like the looks of the quick and dirty paint jobs I give them.