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Deliberately Old-Fashioned 0 Scale - Chapter 1


Nearholmer
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Indeed, points which I bore Paul L and Colin T witless with at every opportunity. There were others too, beyond Britain, Nederlands, and Australia, 3’6” gauge I think. Certainly Sudan Railways and couple of industrial concerns in South Africa bought the earlier Hawthorn Leslie - EE version, and I think they bought the later ones too.

 

The number of liveries is enormous too, especially here in Britain - they were and are painted every colour under the sun, in tasteful and truly awful variants.


Of the not-proper-BR ones, I rather like the dark red and pale gold livery applied by EWS, which mirrors the parent railroad Wisconsin Central ...... a classic 1950s-style US paint scheme.

 

AB5F6B45-1275-4710-9162-198441D77925.jpeg.85fd03076154ccd3bd8c2bf8a116051a.jpeg

 

(share and share alike image from Wikipedia)

Edited by Nearholmer
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Words fail me whenever I see it.

 

Actually, the main flaw, the one that can’t be fixed, is that it is way smaller than 1:43.

 

If only they'd taken it as seriously as the Harry Potter loco, and made it as it should be. I wouldn't even mind the face.

 

 

2BFF7BD4-F844-4D12-8799-F6393E6E7BF3.jpeg

Edited by Nearholmer
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4 hours ago, Donw said:

 

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

 

Don

I decided to stop growing up years ago, although I have no choice about growing old...

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Quote

Page 4 of this document suggests not:

 

That's sad, but inevitable I suppose.  At least it looks like some possibility of preservation is at hand, rather than it just going for scrap.  And at least it's been recorded extensively in print...

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It is a real "design classic", like a proper Land Rover, or a 2CV, uncompromisingly fit for purpose.

 

There was a period of a few years while the initial version was 'tweaked', the principal change being from single-reduction to double-reduction gearing at the output of the traction motors. This was necessary because the motors needed to turn faster, to ingest enough air to keep themselves cool during long periods with the loco running very slowly, but under very heavy load. After that, only very small changes.

 

That having been said, they would never have lasted so long if BR hadn't built possibly far too many of them, most of which had a really easy life as heavy shunting rapidly ceased to be part of railway life. Locos designed and built new in Britain for similar tasks after the late 'fifties, which a good number were for industrial users, were radically different in layout, taking advantage of progress in engine technology to provide a central (or off-centre) cab with better visibility. Continental railways didn't build mega-batches of diesel shunters using 1930/40s technology, and had a bigger loading gauge, so they migrated to centre-ish cab earlier ..... the classic design in France is the Y7100 'YoYo', for instance.

 

 

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Not really.

 

Shunting needs good visibility in both directions, except possibly 'humping', and nobody built end-cab and big-bonnet shunters for a given rating once engine development progressed to allow a lower bonnet, and a cab nearer the centre. A good clear example is provided by SNCF, who bought (still buys occasionally) vast numbers of shunters, and apart from very early ones and war reparations of early ones from Germany, they have all been centre-ish cab, low-bonnet. in the UK the YEC Janus was an attempt to crack the visibility problem, and it sold very well, but it did it at the expense of having two engines, so was really only a step along the way.

 

Industrial shunting and short tripping can be just as heavy as classic 'railway' shunting, especially in steelworks, ironstone lifting, and cement works, and the Sentinel design is, even now sixty years after first introduction, usually first-choice for industrial users over the 08 type. There would probably have been a lot more big Sentinels built if BR hadn't killed the market by dumping all the Class 14 (centre-ish cab, notice) on it, dirt-cheap, at a crucial moment. The EE350, at 350/400hp is quite low-powered compared with industrial heavy shunters, the Sentinel Steelman is 600hp, for instance, and the price it pays for its high tractive effort is the double-gearing, which makes it painfully slow for any distance, and big industrial sites require movements over miles, not a couple of hundred yards.

 

The EE350 is a brilliant piece of 1930s design ....... but it was 'old hat' by the late 'fifties.

 

 

 

 

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A few photos from the HRCA Thames Valley group meeting yesterday (Wednesday) evening, of a couple of 1921 Hornby No1 locos, including with appropriate, matching rolling stock. Even Hornby thought the original 1920 loco was an ugly sod, and moved swiftly to improve it.

 

Cheers, Mark

WP_20200115_19_46_02_Pro.jpg

WP_20200115_20_01_36_Pro (2).jpg

WP_20200115_20_01_36_Pro.jpg

WP_20200115_20_02_02_Pro.jpg

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On 06/01/2020 at 23:35, Nearholmer said:

I realised a while back that someone would pick me up for calling it a No.1, when it isn’t quite.

 

is the wheelbase a gnat’s too short on the replica?

 

(Twelve?  Twelve?!?!)

Well, here's 11 of them, in a photo recently rediscovered. They are all different, 2 are even electric. One was unavailable, for some reason, now forgotten. Don't mock what you don't understand. :-)

 

Mark

WP_20170411_18_21_29_Pro (2).jpg

Edited by Mark Carne
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2 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

That’s why I’ve never joined the HRCA; I couldn’t face that thing where you have to sit round in a circle at the beginning of each meeting and say: “Hello, my name is Kevin, and I’m a......... collector.”

 

Would that be better, or worse than wearing a “Tri-Ang enthusiast” shirt? 

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7 minutes ago, Simond said:

"But the illustrious Mr Oddy reckons you are not collecting a thing, until you have 3 of it, which seems about right."

 

 

panniers....

 

 

atb

Simon

 

So, Kevin is just one little blue one away from being a Nellie Collector!!!!!

 

 

And to Kevin, I say .....1607720008_AhGoOn.jpg.5e6c6472613586664b285c75c956cddd.jpg

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As a proponent of deliberate old fashioned-ness myself in many aspects anyway, I seem to find myself drawn down the slippery slope of all this...having acquired some Meccano 2 rail track to experiment with a live steamer on, I naturally fancied a clockwork loco, just to run round to test the track you understand...

this has now become 2 locos acquired (and looking at loads of wagons etc on evilbay now..)

_20200125_090746.JPG

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