{"id":4244,"date":"2025-09-11T16:23:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T23:23:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/?p=4244"},"modified":"2025-09-11T16:23:15","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T23:23:15","slug":"a-mantua-combine-in-oo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/?p=4244","title":{"rendered":"A Mantua Combine in OO"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Mantua shortly before WWII produced a version of their 4-4-0 locomotive and the 3 old time passenger cars in OO. They were, in reality, HO products regauged for OO. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I didn’t own any of them, except for having two pair of the OO trucks. But then an opportunity came up to buy a combine with a flawed roof. The kit had been started back in the day, and actually the baggage doors had been installed inside out. I should have fixed that …<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In any case, it took me several years to finish the model and I managed, apparently, to not take any photos of the project in progress. But here it is now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A new roof<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A key detail I wanted to update was the roof. The original roof is not usable, and I wanted the model to look more like a car that survived in use (and well maintained) into the 1940s. I used modified JC roof stock and HO vents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And other details <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Digging into the parts supply, I added bigger end platforms\/steps, truss rods, and brakes. It’s not super detailed, but I also added a basic interior which looks rather nice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

BONUS: A HO comparison<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Way back in high school I built this other HO combine. It has a TYCO body and has been modified several ways, most especially with the closed ends and nice trucks. I loved the book Mixed Train Daily<\/em> and wanted a combine such as a shortline would use. Which was also my goal with the new vintage model. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I opted for almost the same paint scheme. The original model (which I ran a lot back when I was initially in HO) is number 50, and the new OO gauge model is 51. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Comparing the models, my new one looks closer visually to OO, but it’s still a bit underscale. The roof did help. I might upgrade it to some huskier trucks. I’ll see how much I use the car, but I think it will look nice with my small fleet of underscale OO models. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mantua shortly before WWII produced a version of their 4-4-0 locomotive and the 3 old time passenger cars in OO. They were, in reality, HO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4244","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mantua"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/americanootoday.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/Combine-1.jpg?fit=1853%2C984&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4244","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4244"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4244\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4249,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4244\/revisions\/4249"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4244"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4244"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/americanootoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4244"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}