Since I started building layouts in On30 about three years ago, I've been doing minis with 10 and 12 inch radius curves. I could get away with running full size Bachmann cars on the largest, the Frazier Borate, but even that one was best suited to 18 foot and shorter equipment -- and the two more recent minis were absolutely limited to short equipment, and not much of it.
Now that I have a bigger layout, I'm realizing I need more freight cars -- some bigger ones, and a lot more variety. The freight train in some of my progress photos -- a Bachmann boxcar and two gondolas -- is about half my active roster of "full size" cars.
Other than that I've got a ventilated boxcar lettered for South Pacific Coast, and randomly, a pulpwood car, and a string of v-dump cars. Plus two Hawthorne Village boxcars I never got around to repainting.
I'm putting the Hawthorne Village cars on my to-do list, since I have them on hand. I'll strip the paint, spray them with Tuscan red, and letter them and the other boxcar.
While I'm at it, I'll probably repaint this open excursion car, likely also in Tuscan. I bought this one cheap online; it had a roof, but the shipping company beat the hell out of it and the roof supports got broken. I probably should have returned it, but for the price, it didn't seem worth it. I like it better as an open car, anyway. But I'm not a fan of the bright red color.
I also have a couple of Hawthorne Village passenger cars I've been meaning to repaint in Aspen Gold since my wife and I rode the Durango & Silverton two years ago. So lots of stripping and painting to do.
Going forward, I need to be looking for some other types of cars for variety -- a few high side gondolas or other ore cars, a couple of flats, and at least one each of a tank car, refrigerator car, and a stock car.
7/1/25: Test running trains today, I realized just how bad the stock couplers on these cars are. Lots of drooping mounts, lots of missing knuckle springs. I need to buy a batch of Kadee 148's and maybe some offset shanks, and replace a bunch of them.
7/19/25: I stripped the two boxcars and in a day or two I'll repaint them, and the excursion car.
Early Bachmann On30 cars, including the Hawthorne Village cars I'm working on, ride very high on the trucks, probably to help them negotiate tight curves. Later Bachmann-branded cars used a different underframes, so they sat lower. Compare the Hawthorne car on the left with a later Bachmann car on the right.
I want to lower the older-style cars. Bachmann sold the new style replacement underframes, but those are difficult to find these days. You could accomplish the same thing, I think, with some surgery on the old underframe. I may wait and see if I can find some of the replacement frames, or maybe try modifying one of the Hawthorne cars and see how it goes.
7/21/25: I put decals on an old Hawthorne Village boxcar that I repainted some time back, but never lettered. Still needs a coat of clear flat and some weathering.
It's interesting how lettering this car, and for that matter the locomotives, adds ... I'm not sure what to call it ... depth or texture to the individual models and the layout as a whole. It does make me think about making up some logo decals
Meanwhile, I came across this kit, which seems like a pretty good use of one of my extra Hawthorne Village passenger cars:
Banta Modelworks Wood Cupola for Bachmann Combine, #T-2125. Price: $32.00.
7/21/25: Last night as I was idly browsing online, hoping to find a set or two of Bachmann replacement underframes, I spotted a Bachmann passenger car in the Bumblebee paint scheme, but unlettered -- something I hadn't seen before, and perfect for my needs. Trainz had it for $29 and change, a good price. So I ordered it, and a stock car for good measure.
Instead of painting my two Hawthorne Village cars in the Bumblebee scheme, I'm now thinking I'll order the Banta cupola kit and use that for the combine that I have, and then a Mount Blue parlor car body for the coach. The Bumblebee car I just ordered comes with both standard and observation railings, according to the listing, so I'll use the observation railing with the parlor car.
7/23/25: I set up the airbrush today and sprayed the two boxcars and the excursion car. The boxcars are Badger Air light Tuscan; the excursion car is dark Tuscan.
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| The color on the cars I just painted is quite different from the older one on the right. It's been several years since I painted it and I'm not sure what color I used. That's okay; after they're weathered, the difference will be less noticeable, and anyway, some variation makes it more interesting. |
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| I like the rich, almost maroon color on the excursion car. It looks good next to the Pullman green cars, and it's a close match to the side door caboose. Unfortunately, since I reassembled it, it's been derailing on the 18 inch radius curve. |
7/26/25: I realized the camp car that I've never used had a low profile underframe and low archbar trucks, so I took the frame from that and put it on one of the boxcars. Very nice. Wish I could find some more of these underframes.
I took a close look at the excursion car, and figured out that the wheel flanges were catching on the back corners of the coupler boxes on tight curves. A little filing, and that problem is solved.
7/27/25: New arrivals today are a stock car, lettered for Pennsylvania, and a coach in the Bumblebee paint scheme.
Here's the coach in a Durango & Silverton inspired excursion train with the Bumblebee 2-6-0, the excursion car, and my D&S caboose.
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7/29/25: I ended up swapping the low underframe from the boxcar to the stock car. I removed the letterboards, cut them in half and moved them to the left side, and decaled them with the L&SE initials. All these cars need a clear flat coat and some weathering.
7/30/25: It took long enough for the decal paper to get here, but once it arrived, it worked pretty well.
If you look very closely, the decal is a little ragged around the edges, and the film is rather thick. It did end up snuggling down pretty well into the cracks between the boards, I think with a clear flat spray and some weathering it will look pretty decent.
8/13/25: I had been looking for a tank car, and this Bachmann car came up on eBay for a $10 minimum bid. I offered $10, and nobody else bid, so here it is.
The juvenile humor of the "Flatulene" name isn't really my style, and even if it was, the red lettering on a black car doesn't work (there's actually some red lettering on the reddish-brown flatcar as well). But it's just decals, and I can easily remove them and reletter it more appropriately. Well worth a $10 investment.
8/15/25: Here it is with the decals removed. While I had it taken apart, I also added an ounce of weight inside the tank. It runs fine and looks decent, though it still needs at least some minimum decals and weathering. I need to rummage through my decal collection, and if I don't find anything on hand, K4 decals has some tank car sets that could work.
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