I had a tip come in that an On3 2-8-0 had been spotted on eBay that might have a Nason 2-8-0 frame. On checking it out, I bit the bullet and purchased it. It was being sold by a museum, I believe it was part of a batch of vintage equipment donated to them. Paid a bit more than I would have liked to, but now I have a very nice Nason frame I can potentially work something out with.

OO and On3?

Backing up a step, the Nason frame is sized right in the range to make a nice On3 locomotive, and was used I believe multiple times for that purpose. American OO and On3 of course sharing the same 3/4″ gauge. Below is the engine as received.

Comparisons and thoughts

This first comparison photo shows the overall size with a Scale-Craft 4-6-0. It is similar, but of course the On3 engine has a bigger cab, etc.

The important photo is the one below. With this one, you can see the Nason frame. With it I have posed two of the original Nason cylinder blocks, showing the same casting markings and a 300 series number.

The builder made a few changes, it has a tender drive (the boiler being full of lead!), but the most important change are the new drivers. They are not Nason drivers, but also they don’t scream On3 at you so I think I can use this setup to build a nice OO 2-8-0 on it. They are very solid and I believe the drive will run very well when done.

I do have some other Nason 2-8-0 parts — I have another frame that is missing the “bottom” (that holds the drivers in) and has been modified in other ways. For that frame I have an almost usable set of drivers, plenty of rods and such (thanks also to Jeffs OO, more here), and two boiler castings. One is seen below.

As much as anything I’m pondering options now. The sheet brass boiler in the photo is modified from Scale-Craft 0-6-0 boilers (more on that here) and might be a better choice in terms of what I hope to do, but maybe it is better to keep the model as “pure Nason” as possible, you don’t see many of these that can be operated. Or I could just leave it as an On3 curiosity and work with my collection of Nason parts and get something running. Ideally I might someday complete both of the 2-8-0 boilers. I have no lack of good projects, but I’d really like to make a good 2-8-0 for my 1940 era operations, I’ll be looking at this one closer this summer for sure.