Bought at Lancing show for no better reason than they are interesting and cheap - a pair of On3 mine tubs are sitting on my workbench.
If you've not heard of On3 before - 7mm scale modelling 3ft gauge prototypes. The track should be 21mm apart and for no reason other than they haven't grown up enough to use metric units, our American cousins prefer to describe this as 1/4" scale.
Anyway, this pair of Grandt line kits are a nice enough looking in the box. I have no use for 3ft gauge mine tubs, but since no-one had relieved the kind vendor of them by the middle of the day, it seemed only polite. Such is the way my cupboard fills up with stuff...
It is sad to hear that Grandt Line appear to be calling it a day
ReplyDeleteCorrection required re the On3
ReplyDeleteOn3 American, is generally based on 1:48 scale ( 6.37mm ) and therefore 19mm or 3/4" gauge
7mm British, is 1:43 and therefore 3ft is 21mm
Hopefully, someone will snap them up. There's a well-respected range there.
ReplyDeleteThe On3 bit is interesting, too.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I can gather (mainly from some US forum sites, where I'm a member), On2 ("quarter scale"; 2 feet) and On3(ditto, but 3 feet) often seem to be about models of real (or at least credible) prototypes.
Meanwhile, On30 (same scale - but representing 30" gauge) sometimes seems to be more "generic" - basically guys having a bit of fun using secondhand HO chassis - although, for a while, Bachmann / Spectrum produced some rather attractive models in On30 at affordable prices - and this probably helped popularize the scale / gauge combo.
Incidentally, the "quarter scale" malarkey relates to the number of inches representing a foot on the prototype.