Andy, I remember those days of the wild west of On30 and I agree that it was interesting to see all of the variations people would create. Bachmann came on the scene in 1997. Within a few years, On30 was mostly all Bachmann and the days of the lone wolves building their unique creations ended.
One topic that, to my knowledge has not been defined is, what is On30? What a stupid question you may ask (since everyone is buying Bachmann models), but consider that the Bachmann equipment is to scale and is based on 3' gauge prototypes. The only aspect of the equipment that is 30" gauge is the spacing of the wheels on the axles. Even the trucks look to be made to scale sizes. Back in the wild west days, people usually matched up their engines and cars. Some wanted 3' sized equipment, some leaned toward the 2' equipment, and others came up with designs that were smaller than the 3' prototypes and shorter than the 2' prototypes.
Then there is the coupler issue. It is not realistic to have HO couplers on the passenger cars that hang that low below the endsill. I converted some of the Bachmann models to Kadee On3/S couplers and the models looked great.
About prices, since I have not been into On30 for ten years I am not up on the current prices. But remember it was 1997-2000 when Bachmann first had On30 offerings and they were not DCC nor did they have sound. It seems that model railroading is leaving all of the DC/ACers behind. I wonder how long until trains won't run without some sort of expensive control system.
