I'm new around here. Name's Dan. I'm testing the waters of switching from N scale to On30. I can see sourcing locomotives can be a real pain but I'm patient. And yes, I know sourcing anything in the scale is tough but I'm set up with a laser and 3D Printer and have scratch built many a structure and even some On18 rolling stock and a critter. But actual On30 locomotives are beyond my skill set.
However, while looking around the parts store I noticed it looks like you could build certain locomotives by purchasing the major sub assemblies and putting them together, namely the 4-4-0 Inside Frame. Am I missing something, or more to the point, are those sub assemblies missing something like critical detail parts or important sub assemblies? It looks more expensive than just buying a 4-4-0 but then again, you can't buy them new anyway. As I said, I'm patient and can wait to find what I want on eBay, but if desperation sets in can this be done?
Thanks and hi!
It looks like all the parts are available to "build your own" from the parts store. I've done this with some 'Thomas & Friends' locos that went out of production, but the parts to build one were still available. As you noted, it's more expensive than buying a complete loco. But the alternatives are doing without, or buying a pig in a poke on eBay.
Len
Yeah, not a lot of good options besides watching eBay. I'm interested in a couple of DCC Porters too. I could easily get a DC pair right now but it looks like a slice of you know where to convert to DCC. When I feel like risking a few hundred bucks, I might grab the parts for a 4-4-0 and cross my fingers but until then, I'll just keep looking online for what I want.
FYI, I have built a couple of On30 passenger cars plus one or two freight cars, but never locomotives, by utilizing parts from the On30 kitbash section. Bachmann was selling passenger car bodies, frames and roofs for reasonable prices. I was able to put together two passenger cars - minus trucks and couplers - for less than $30 dollars each. After I added Bachmann cast trucks and Kadee couplers, my cost was still less than $50 each. At the time, I had posted on this forum but its been a while now. Right now, I think they only have a couple of car bodies listed in the kitbash section. Hope this helps.