I was reading some of my old Gazettes from the early 80’s, and came across an article on bashing an HOn30 loco. The author’s name caught my eye: Tony Walsham!
Ray Dunakin said:Was that the 1980s?
I was reading some of my old Gazettes from the early 80's, and came across an article on bashing an HOn30 loco. The author's name caught my eye: Tony Walsham!
Guilty as charged M’lud. I used to do a lot of H0n2½ way back then along with the late Doug Kelly. We were basically the first to do that scale and gauge in Australia. Inspired by Frary and Hayden. I also had an article on our RR and other pics published sometime later in the Gazette, MR and RMC. This a double exposure of one of the pics in that article. I guess the term Ghost Train would fit.
(http://www.rcs-rc.com/pics/Models-OZ/Ghost.jpg)
Here is a pic of a scratchbuilt SP NG gon from the Owens Valley. All the doors work.
(http://www.rcs-rc.com/pics/Models-OZ/SP-NG-Gon.jpg)
I scratchbuilt many of their worktrain pieces. Doug and I formed a NG group that built a quite large modular display layout. Here are a couple of shots of my H0n2½ module. Most of the structures were built from (then) available kits.
(http://www.rcs-rc.com/pics/Models-OZ/Railbus-1.jpg)
The railbus was built from a Bachmann H0 tram with a Minitrix N scale diesel mech in the trailer for power.
(http://www.rcs-rc.com/pics/Models-OZ/Station.jpg)
My then 10 yo son painted the figures.
(http://www.rcs-rc.com/pics/Models-OZ/Yard.jpg)
Those pics were scanned before I knew how to scan properly and I made them too small. Now I know how to do it I don’t have a scanner. Great Scale, Lots of fun. I ended up making H0n2½ kits of OZ and USA narrow gauge equipment under the Puffing Billy Models banner until 1987, when my marriage broke up and I had to sell the business. I eventually made the module into a stand alone layout and luckily found a buyer after showing it at a big train show about 2 years alter.
Travel by TARDIS.
Tony I knew you were in HO2-1/2 in those back issues but YOU were Puffing Billy? I used to drool over some of those kits.
My stuff never came out as nice as Tony’s stuff, I still have most of it in a box, I’m still looking for the old Joe Works Miniland kits, remember those? yeah I know they run like crap, but what didnt back then? 0 or 40mph that was your two speed options 
I recently got some old AHM Minitrain engines and cars, now thats going back aways.
Beautiful models, Tony! Very nice.
Hayden and Frary’s work, plus the various Gazette articles, got me interested in HOn30 too. In the mid 80’s I started building a layout in my garage. Had all the benchwork in and a few feet of hand-laid track. Then I had to tear it all out in order to build an addition over the garage. Never got back into model railroading until I started my current outdoor layout in 2006.
Tony:
Very nice work!! The pix really show off your superb modeling talents.
I modeled in H0n30 when I lived in England during the mid-1970s. I loved the scale / gauge combination that allowed a ‘complete’ operational railroad in a very small space while using widely available H0 and N scale components. I built a portable layout that went to several UK shows, and learned a lot about making models appear more realistic from some very talented British modelers.
Good times to remember.
Happy RRing,
Jerry
If anyone else still has there HOn30 models, I’d love to see some pics of them here.
Thanks for the compliments guys.
Quite a lot of the locos and railcars were actually brassmodels.
I do remember the old Joe Works junk. Could never be made to run well no matter what.
I also rebuilt some H0n3 mechs to 9 mm gauge including a C21 that ran like a watch. I probably have the original pix around somewhere.
The railbus poking out of the station above was a brass model.
Likewise the small 2-8-0 at the coal loading dock started life as a H0n3 model with the motor in the tender driving a shaft to the loco itself.
Great scale to model in but way beyond the limits of my eyesight nowadays.
TonyWalsham said:Ditto that! When I got into large scale, I sold off my limited collection of HOn30 stuff. I hadn't even looked at it since it went into storage nearly 20 years ago. That's when the difference in my eyes really became apparent. All that tiny stuff seemed quite reasonable back then, now I could barely see it even with my glasses.
Great scale to model in but way beyond the limits of my eyesight nowadays.
The “joys” of aging.
Hey Tony, that Joe Works stuff still sells on EvilBay for over $200, routinely. 