HOW MUCH HOn3 IS USEFUL?
December 9th 2015 I was surprised at much is actually useful; especially if model the WW 2 era and before.The best I've found are the Micro Trains C&S cars. Unfortunetly they are currently out of production. These cars and any of the D&RGW boxcars (Precision Scale, Blackstone and Rail Line) make good wooden boxcars if you build your own underframes. I prefer styrene channel stock, but brass would work as well. Precision Scale and Blackstone tank cars are excellent, even for modern era. ( I saw welded 40 ft tank cars with friction bearings in chemical service even in the late 1970's. They would bring out lead compound for gasoline to the refineries in LA in Dupont tank cars on the Santa Fe. They had leaded gas then!)It would be hard to model passenger cars though. I'm thinking about using wooden sides kits and flipping them inside out and using the smooth side, using two kits to get one 80 ft car. of course I model modern in TT so this is problematic as to era. But these could be used for MOW cars. What I'm most impressed with is the wheels. After buying some TT cars (HP, Kemtron, Gold Coast and Zeuke) is the Hon3 wheels are a really good match. MDC is the best as are Micro Trains/ Kadee. I put them in the Hon3 Bettendorf trucks and they look good. Precision Scale, Blackstone and Rio Grande Models are a bit too wide. I use them for my Hon3 models.Example: A Rio Grande Models Vulcan truck with Micro Trains wheels (axle spacers added) look good and the RGM wheels will be used for Micro Trains or MDC archbar trucks. Synergy! MDC wheels look good on Zeuke tank cars. You just have to spread the wheels to 12mm, file down the axle ends. Some of the HP wheels I have have larger flanges then some of the others. I wonder if the larger ones are older? Anyway the smaller ones look OK and the Kemtron wheels seem to in scale. But I mix things up depending on the look I want and the type of cars it is. So far I am very happy in TT scale. Who would've thought going back to the future would work for me. After all the hi-tech stuff recently I find it rewarding to actually model stuff...
