Deliberately Old-Fashioned 0 Scale - Chapter 1

[Nearholmer]

Nice bit of deliberate old-fashionedness at the CMRA show today, in the form of a Hornby Dublo shunting cameo ...... a work in progress, but already very nice.

 

If only someone could be persuaded to commission a decent tinplate 08 from ETS.

 

 

Oodles of very fine-scale at the show too, my favourite being the Barrowmore Group Cambrian layout, and also a very nicely executed model of an Elizabethan Mice Railway, which isn’t some thing you see every day - it was superbly detailed and highly convincing. Photo shows only a small part of it; the nice sawing are, naturally, animated.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 12, 2020 by Nearholmer

[brianusa]

Thanks for the pictures.  I've seen enough to realise its not for me for the same reasons already stated.  Its does look CGd, even the one on the Hornby box!  Its chacon a son gout time!

     Brian.

[Northroader]

Sounds like a good trip today. There’s Dapol do a nice 08, I don’t have one, but the two Dapol jobs I’ve got are very good performers, wonder if it would take funny wheels? 

That Mouse Railway at the show makes me wonder if they were inspired by the Cuneo painting?

[Nearholmer]

The guy who created the mouse railway told me that he'd started with a model of the railway to a cheese mine, naturally enough run by mice ........ he didn't mention Cuneo.

 

The Dapol 08 is splendid, and I've looked very closely indeed at it to see whether it would accept proper wheels, and there the answer is "maybe, with a vast amount of work". The core of the loco is a whopping great mazac casting, and clearances between that and the backs of the wheels are very limited, so I thaink it would be necessary to dismantle everything, then file a millimetre or two off the casting behind each wheel, then source new wheels made to fit the existing axles etc etc etc .......... it would probably be simpler, and possibly less costly, to buy one, sell the chassis to someone else, and fit an ETS mech under it (they already make axle- extender thingies to allow for outside frames).

 

This is the sort of thing that is wanted here, only more English:

 

 

 

Edited January 12, 2020 by Nearholmer

[Annie]

4 hours ago, Northroader said:

Sounds like a good trip today. There’s Dapol do a nice 08, I don’t have one, but the two Dapol jobs I’ve got are very good performers, wonder if it would take funny wheels? 

That Mouse Railway at the show makes me wonder if they were inspired by the Cuneo painting?

Absolutely wonderful!  Guess what I now have as my desktop wallpaper image.  If I was still up to building models in 3/4 inch scale like I used to I would already be working up some sketches.  BUT that's not to be since this illness I live with stole away my ability to work safely with tools of any kind.

[Northroader]

You may like the other mouse one he did, then, called “the opportunist”

 

 

Edited January 13, 2020 by Northroader

[Annie]

Oh wonderful! I love it!   Thank you very much Mr Northroader, - seeing that picture really made my day and cheered me up no end.

[St Enodoc]

13 hours ago, Northroader said:

Sounds like a good trip today. There’s Dapol do a nice 08, I don’t have one, but the two Dapol jobs I’ve got are very good performers, wonder if it would take funny wheels? 

That Mouse Railway at the show makes me wonder if they were inspired by the Cuneo painting?

 

1 hour ago, Northroader said:

You may like the other mouse one he did, then, called “the opportunist”

 

 

They're the only Cuneo paintings I've seen where I haven't spent twenty frustrating minutes trying - and failing - to find the mouse...

[Nearholmer]

I'm not sure I should have invited mice into this thread, because I have a mortal dread of them getting into my layout. They effectively trashed a friend's TT layout over one winter, and I have a continual low-grade battle to keep them from over-wintering on our premises - they've done it twice before, once trashing stored baby gear, and once creating a big, cosy nest in a loft using shredded paper that they got from I know not where.

[St Enodoc]

4 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

I'm not sure I should have invited mice into this thread, because I have a mortal dread of them getting into my layout. They effectively trashed a friend's TT layout over one winter, and I have a continual low-grade battle to keep them from over-wintering on our premises - they've done it twice before, once trashing stored baby gear, and once creating a big, cosy nest in a loft using shredded paper that they got from I know not where.

Mice ate all the ballast on our school layout once. We'd used millet seed.

[Donw]

We have a field behind us so when they harvest the crops especially corn the field mice invade our garden seeking shelter. We also get a Kestrel seeking the mice. As  the days progress into winter we do get some finding there way in, particularly pregnant ones looking for a nest site. I am always seeking to thwart them. For some reason foam rubber seems very attractive to them. The underfloor pipe insulation often gets attacked and the foam on the handles of the mower has gone.

Years ago in a different house they found a hole into the wall (stone wall with rubble infill in the middle) behind the Rayburn. The young mice would play with milk bottle tops driving our dog nuts. I was none too pleased to find one in the bag of meusli one morning. Taking on a couple of stray kittens the mice vanished. Mind you all these mice were fieldmice and would usually go as the weather got warmer.

 

Don

[Nearholmer]

5 minutes ago, Donw said:

Mind you all these mice were fieldmice and would usually go as the weather got warmer.

 

That's exactly our problem; they come from directly across the road, where they live happily all summer, and in fairness to them their ancestors probably found over-wintering sites where our house now is long before it was built.

[Annie]

I live in the rural countryside so we get the same problem with the field mice all off doing mouse things elsewhere in Summer, but wanting to come inside out of the rain come Winter.  Strangely we have found the same thing with mice wanting eat odd things with them getting into the pantry and devouring packaging and ignoring the contents.  We now keep all foodstuffs in sturdy containers with tight fitting lids and if they can eat their way through stainless steel, - then boy are we in trouble.

[Edwardian]

Ah, the perils of country dwelling.  Generally I'm quite moderate in my mouse abatement policies.  it's the rats you have to keep at bay when you live near a farm. 

 

That Elizabethan mouse layout looks superb (any more snaps of it?), and I love those paintings.  That Earl Catnip loco looks more steampunk than anything from Hornby's new range!

[Nearholmer]

I live in the middle of a city!!!

 

No, foolishly, I only took one mouse picture, but if you use Facebook, it has its own whatever it’s called, under Nonsuch Railway. I don’t have a Facebook account, so can only see the front page.

[Donw]

3 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

I live in the middle of a city!!!

 

No, foolishly, I only took one mouse picture, but if you use Facebook, it has its own whatever it’s called, under Nonsuch Railway. I don’t have a Facebook account, so can only see the front page.

 

House mice then?

 

Don

[Nearholmer]

No, outside our house is part of a large semi-wild park (ponds, small woods, the allotments, that sort of thing) that stretches for miles out to the edge of the city, and that’s where they come from, likewise newts etc, and very occasionally muntjac.

 

Our house is only ten years old, and the first time they wintered in the garage was the first (very hard) winter we were here, and I’m convinced they were returning to an old site - maybe there was a thicket bank or something there.

[TT-Pete]

9 hours ago, Northroader said:

You may like the other mouse one he did, then, called “the opportunist”

 

Hmmm, I wonder if Cuneo was aware of the works of Abraham Solomon (1823-62), in particular "(Travelling) First Class - The Meeting. "And at first meeting loved"":

 

 

It was considered so controversial and scandalous to Victorian mores that he had to produce a revised version:

 

 

 

[brianusa]

1 hour ago, TT-Pete said:

 

Hmmm, I wonder if Cuneo was aware of the works of Abraham Solomon (1823-62), in particular "(Travelling) First Class - The Meeting. "And at first meeting loved"":

 

 

It was considered so controversial and scandalous to Victorian mores that he had to produce a revised version:

 

 

 

Those seats sure look comfortable.  Where did BR and everybody else go wrong?

     Brian.

[Edwardian]

3 hours ago, TT-Pete said:

 

Hmmm, I wonder if Cuneo was aware of the works of Abraham Solomon (1823-62), in particular "(Travelling) First Class - The Meeting. "And at first meeting loved"":

 

 

It was considered so controversial and scandalous to Victorian mores that he had to produce a revised version:

 

 

 

 

Yes, now a Naval Hero as well as a gentleman!

Edited January 13, 2020 by Edwardian

[Nearholmer]

Enough of rodents!

 

Here is a reminder of what it’s all about.

 

Doesn’t that cheer you up on a chilly, wet, and very windy morning?

 

 

 

 

[Ben B]

I've just caught up with this layout... and yes, it does cheer me up!  This is exactly the sort of layout I'd love, if I had space (the only room would be the loft, and at the risk of dragging it back to rodent conversation, the loft is a bat roost so out of bounds much of the year).  A lovely compromise between model railway, and nostalgic fun train sets.  Reminds me a lot of the layouts in "The Living Model Railway" by Robert Powell Hendry, one of my favourite model railway books growing up...

[Donw]

1 hour ago, Ben B said:

I've just caught up with this layout... and yes, it does cheer me up!  This is exactly the sort of layout I'd love, if I had space (the only room would be the loft, and at the risk of dragging it back to rodent conversation, the loft is a bat roost so out of bounds much of the year).  A lovely compromise between model railway, and nostalgic fun train sets.  Reminds me a lot of the layouts in "The Living Model Railway" by Robert Powell Hendry, one of my favourite model railway books growing up...

 

I agreed with you about 'The Living Model Railway'  although I had stopped growing up long before I read that book.

 

Don

[ThomasW]

This book  is still a favorite of mine. I wonder whether this living model railway is still going strong?

 

[ThomasW]

About the class 08 shunter mentioned earlier, I talked to ETS about this one as I would buy one for my layout. WJ Vintage and Raylo this time could join ranks with the dutch ETS distributor as the  dutch railways used such shunters, too. Even in Australia one could find this locos. These sure should be a manufactorers dream as the working life of the real ones make them suitable for most eras and layouts large and small.