I’ve been looking around at various manufacturers for 1:20.3 rolling stock and engines. Not looking at kits at this time. All I’ve come up with is Accucraft and Bachmann Spectrum. Do you know of others? What do the new Piko products scale out to?

Just looking for some variety.

Thanks.

It does seem that mainstream product is limited to those two mentioned if you want true 1:20.3 NG RTR at mostly “reasonable” cost. And yes, their current and past productions are a touch Colorado & logging centric but they do offer a wide range of locos and stock options. Out of production items are readily available on the 2nd hand market (Ebay, etc’) which might throw up a bit more choice, check out the “archive” section on Accucraft’s site. Even here in the UK !

If you are willing to be a bit more flexible on scale and mix and match then there is plenty of 3 ft NG product from LGB, HLW, old Aristocraft and there is the Bachmann Big Hauler range too. At the top end there is Berlyn. Most of these are going to scale out at between 1:22.5 and 1:24 dependent on prototype modeled. Same will hold for Piko.

Kit wise, when you get there, there is Gal line, Ozark minatures and Hartford. The UK based Rio Grande models seems to be moribund at this time but offered some interesting variations on D&RGW stock as conversions to AMS product and did offer RTR, at a price. As far as lineside stuff goes Piko and Pola do a lot of US NG stuff where true scale (IMHO) is academic. Hope this helps. I dare say there are others here with a far greater depth of knowledge that will post later. Max.

Hey Joe, I thought I’d add a couple more to the list.

Rich Yoder does several of the EBT Mikados at a fairly comparable price to Accucraft. Especially for what you get. He also offers all brass hoppers and a caboose.

Iron Horse Engraving makes several 1:20 kits that are very easy to assemble. I know you said no kits now, but I just figured it wouldn’t hurt to have him on this thread.

“Is that all there is” could be said for all of large scale at least where new product in concerned !

Thanks guys. Do you have any tricks to blending 1:22.5 with 1:20.3? I’ll have to install Kadee couplers at the same coupler height as my 1:20.3 stuff. I would probably install metal wheels if they are plastic. How about shimming between the trucks and body to increase the overall height, or does that look silly?

I’m starting to add operations to the layout so I would like all my rolling stock to be compatible.

Thanks!

Joe, I think you are thinking the right way already. Adding shims should help the height, perhaps a slightly higher wheel to fill the gap. I would also consider the placement of cars in the train. Put a flat between the 2 different scales so the heights and widths can’t be compared so easily. My 2 locos and 5 hoppers are all 1:20.3, but I have a 1:24 flat and coach that I will run at the end of the train since the difference is much less glaring there. Eventually I’ll build some things to take their place and sell or repurpose the smaller 2 cars. I enjoy scratch building, so for me the lack of RTR stuff is not a huge problem.

Hi Joe -

Being a 1:20.3 operator with limited budget I’ve needed to take advantage of some of my smaller scale stock in order to round out my roster. One thing you can do is to up-scale smaller stock. I did this with a 1:24 reefer to create a short 1:20 box car…

The build thread for this car is here: Up-Scaling a Delton Classic to FN3

When there isn’t enough time or ambition for such a project, a simple coupler conversion can put a smaller scale car in service. I’ve done this with a few 1:24 Delton Classic cars. I accept that they are much smaller and justify that with this prototype photo…

I found that body mounting Accucraft couplers on the Delton Classic cars was pretty easy…

I don’t worry too much about the under-sized details. They could be updated with aftermarket castings if they bothered me.

From a distance in operation they look much like the prototype photo…

There is a thread on body mounting couplers to the Delton Classic cars here: Thinking about body mounted couplers for my Aristo/Delton cars

Since I can’t even think about buying any Accucraft 1:20 passenger cars I settled for body mounting Accucraft couplers to some Bachmann Jackson Sharp cars for passenger service…

Again, I don’t let the size difference bother me. When pulled by my 1:20.3 Porter, they look about right…

For some the scale discrepancy is too much to bear, but for me it’s acceptable until such time as I can throw money at the problem!

I find selected use of Kadee couplers helpful when getting everything standardized onto AMS/Spectrum stock height. The USA Trains work train crane and tender car (and others in the series like the bunk car) look very effective in a 1:20.3 consist. Just stick a couple of Woodland Scenics figures on there and they look the part. I just put Kadee’s at either end of the set and kept the standard ones to link the 2 USAT cars together. Spectrum stock comes with alt’ knuckle couplers at the correct height for their Big Hauler lines to aid mixing and matching.

It is interesting to see the growth of laser cut wood kits, even to replicate metal bodied stock. We are seeing it a lot in the UK now for 16mm scale stuff. Low cost to develop and tool and only the need to produce on demand. Its probably what’s going to give us the range of subject matter in this area in the future. That and 3D printing, as the technology matures, for the more complicated shapes involved in locos. Just a thought. Skill up time. Max