A few months back I happened upon an N scale crane car as part of a mixed lot of old cars. Trying to find out whether I can use it with my HO narrow gauge collection sent me down a rabbit hole of prototype research which I’d like to share with you.

The thing about narrow gauge crane cars is that they are harder to model than standard gauge. HO and N regular gauge modelers can simply buy a regular gauge crane car and use that, but narrow gauge modelers either have to pay a lot for a limited production crane car, build their own, or kitbash a crane car using either a crane from a smaller scale or some other type of crane which matches their scale.

On the plus side, though, my research has found that a lot of prototype narrow gauge train cars were the  real world equivalent of kitbashed – they were banged together in a shop by local mechanics.

For example, here is a crane which is literally an after-market addition to a wagon, and can be detached and used free-standing. Or, here’s another crane which doesn’t look very substantial. And the crane at the bottom of this page looks about as solid as playground equipment. And finally, the engineering drawings in this article will help you either build a crane from scratch or give you inspiration for adding fine details.

The impression I get from those photos is that we actually have many options for kitbashing a crane car. For example, an HO scale scoop like the ones pictured here could be removed from its base and mounted on a rail car. That is not a crane, no, but if you added details to the bed of that car which look like a hook, you could give the impression that this maintenance of way (MOW) fills multiple roles, including as a crane.

Or, a crane or derick like the ones shown here could be mounted on a narrow gauge car (I think I have a couple Egger Bahn cars with a crane like that).

Unfortunately most of the options there look like they cost more than I want to spend, which is why I am going to put this project aside and wait for something to turn up in my junk pile.

P.S. The crane pictured on the lead photo was probably made by Trix in West Germany. I have not identified the specific model, but I did find a maker’s mark when I removed the cab from its base. It is no good for what I need, alas.