Deliberately Old-Fashioned 0 Scale - Chapter 1

[Compound2632]

1 hour ago, GRASinBothell said:

Surely "Ye Olde Great Western" would have required one of Mr Gooch's singles (and perhaps a minor regauging of the track to 49mm)!

 

Surely the term is applicable at any date between 1835 and c. 1966?

[Northroader]

I do like that 2-4-0T. Nice basis for a generic tank engine.

[Compound2632]

It's clearly inspired by the LNWR "chopper" tank, though the chimney and dome are a bit stubby. In red, it has something of a Knotty air - Longbottom's Class B.

[Northroader]

Or fiddle about with the boiler mountings, and it would do for a Beyer Peacock, IWR or MSWJR? Then give it an open cab,,GWR Metro?

[Donw]

It did suggest Knotty to me. As for the Metro tanks there was quite a wide variation on the size of the tanks and the springs for the leading axle gives a modeller a bit of wriggle room in my book.

 

Don

[GRASinBothell]

2 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

Surely the term is applicable at any date between 1835 and c. 1966?

I think that's a little generous. The Great Western came to an end when the clock struck midnight on 31 December 1947. And to add "Ye olde", I think you need to go way back before that! Or has privatization, with modern corporations adopting the names of old companies left us needing a new way to refer to those old companies?

Anyway, to go with the theme, here's a City on an Ocean Mails express. This would be some time in the first decade of the twentieth century... After a discussion on the HRCA website, I'm fully aware the penny farthing would have been an anachronism by then!

Gordon

[Nearholmer]

It’s a confusing engine, isn’t it? But, very attractive. High field models made it first as a Chopper in LNWR livery, then in this mongrel version with Midland safety valve cover.

 

The real trouble isn’t what it looks like, but it’s very fragile mechanism, which does itself injuries if given more than eight axles to pull. and before I added new pick-ups it used to stall on points too.

 

It really needs a better design of mechanism than the original, and a bit more weight, but other things are far above it in the queue.

 

Its a lot smaller than a Metro tank, so wouldn’t be very plausible as one ...... speaking of which a very unusual clockwork Metro sold on eBay yesterday. Very tempted I was, but I resisted. It looked like a scratch build, probably ‘thirties or ‘fifties, every so slightly ‘chunky’ to accommodate a standard spring drive of some sort, but highly characterful.

 

 

Edited April 6, 2020 by Nearholmer

[Compound2632]

7 minutes ago, GRASinBothell said:

I think that's a little generous. The Great Western came to an end when the clock struck midnight on 31 December 1947. And to add "Ye olde", I think you need to go way back before that! Or has privatization, with modern corporations adopting the names of old companies left us needing a new way to refer to those old companies?

 

 

What I meant was, the Great Western and BR(W) in steam days always seems to have exuded an air of antiquity. 

[Donw]

I do like that city. As for the penny farthing it would not be typical but someone may have one kept in the family and still be using it. It is not unkown to see one today. The really awkward anacronism would be seeing something before it should be.

The Great Western must have seemed really modern and go ahead when Churchward rolled out his standard classes.

Don

[Compound2632]

2 minutes ago, Donw said:

The Great Western must have seemed really modern and go ahead when Churchward rolled out his standard classes.

 

 

Yes but they were a drop in the ocean of antique saddle tanks. (For later GW and BR(W), read pannier tanks.)

Edited April 6, 2020 by Compound2632

[GRASinBothell]

My layout also has a Tardis and the DeLorean from "Back to the Future". Since those are both time-travelling vehicles, I see no problem in having them there with locos and rolling stock of any vintage with no anachronism!

The angle of the shot doesn't show the one thing I really need to correct - the absence of a crew on the City. The open cab and low tender really highlights that, when you look from behind. I have the S&D figures, but really need to create a brass cab floor first, so they don't fall out.

Gordon

[Nearholmer]

Next along Ye Olde Southern, in the form of another Ace E1 tank, and Ace C1 carriages. I deliberately chose early Ace, c25 years old now, rather than more scale-inclined things, because its quite interesting to see how the "tinplate revival" has its roots firmly in near-replica-Hornby. If these hadn't sold like hot cakes, we probably wouldn't have the 'scale above the footplate' models that we get now.

 

The LNER will follow, when I can unearth my one remaining LNER train, the rest having helped fund BR-livery things.

Edited April 6, 2020 by Nearholmer

[Simond]

Apropos “ye olde Great Western”...

 

Have the GW actually stopped using HSTs yet?

 

 

now, that set me thinking, which is dodgy at the best of times.  I’m not at all a tinplate modeller, though I do enjoy the thread, and the occasional show layout.  Would those of you who are into tinplate or “old fashioned” be into tinplate HSTs or would that be anathema?
 

ATB

Simon

 

Edited April 7, 2020 by Simond

[Ben B]

I reckon a tinplate hst would look brilliant! Particularly in original blue/grey/yellow. I wonder if the more rounded shapes would be easier or harder to produce than a regular carriage?

[Nearholmer]

When Ace produced their ‘Warship’ diesel in blue livery, and tin Mk1 coaches in blue and grey, I thought about saving-up for the same, because I remember the real things quite well (in fact, I can remember them in earlier liveries too), but I then realised that ‘tin’ models felt wrong for blue-liveried trains.

 

Why? Because, by the time of blue, toy trains weren’t ‘tin’, they were plastic.

 

So, for me, this sort of model ‘runs out’ sometime about 1960, we’ll before HST.

 

A Blue Pullman, on the other hand, would fit, even if it was blue!

 

OTH, ETS and Merkur both make tin models of ‘modern traction’, for example this from Merkur, which shows their characteristic bolts all over the place:

 

Edited April 7, 2020 by Nearholmer

[Annie]

2 hours ago, Simond said:

Have the GW actually stopped using HSTs yet?

You have committed the sin of mentioning the fake GWR company that is not worthy of the name.  Your penance is to chant aloud the entire 1902 Bradshaws for Cornwall until you resolve to never do it again.

[Edwardian]

8 minutes ago, Annie said:

You have committed the sin of mentioning the fake GWR company that is not worthy of the name.  Your penance is to chant aloud the entire 1902 Bradshaws for Cornwall until you resolve to never do it again.

 

Balance is restored to the Universe .....

 

[Compound2632]

5 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

 

Balance is restored to the Universe .....

 

 

Pedant alert!

 

Evidently not 1902 or Cornwall but probably Berkshire ten years earlier - but maybe on its way to Cornwall. Down Zulu or Flying Dutchman? (Did both run to Penzance? Need to check Ahrons.)

Edited April 7, 2020 by Compound2632

[Northroader]

The outside bench seats would be nice on a hot day.

[Edwardian]

3 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Pedant alert!

 

Evidently not 1902 or Cornwall but probably Berkshire ten years earlier - but maybe on its way to Cornwall. Down Zulu or Flying Dutchman? (Did both run to Penzance? Need to check Ahrons.)

 

I did think of posting a standard gauge shot from the 1900s, but, Annie's true passion for Broad Gauge is too well known so you have the Flying Dutchman, I imagine shortly before gauge conversion, as the two Broad gauge lines have already been laid to dual gauge, such preparations allowing for the final conversion famously to take place over a single weekend.  We must not dwell on that, as the object was to cheer Annie with a Last Hurrah!  

[Nearholmer]

I’ve got 45mm gauge track in the garden - there must have been a broad gauge railway somewhere that operate on 6’ 5” gauge. The USA probably.

 

(Seems that the Ulster Railway started at 6’ 2”)

Edited April 7, 2020 by Nearholmer

[Annie]

11 minutes ago, Northroader said:

The outside bench seats would be nice on a hot day.

Narrow convertible carriages.  A distasteful mockery.  As bad a sin as showing a dying man his shroud.

 

Otherwise a glorious picture and thank you for that James.  It did make me smile and that is always a good thing. 

[Edwardian]

Did someone mention a Zulu train?

 

I bet they made fousands of 'em ...

 

[Compound2632]

5 minutes ago, Annie said:

Narrow convertible carriages.  A distasteful mockery.  As bad a sin as showing a dying man his shroud.

 

Norton Fitzwarren, May 1892. Better?

 

 

The leading brake looks to be convertible but with the duckets sticking out far enough for the guard to see along the train.

[Donw]

7 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

I’ve got 45mm gauge track in the garden - there must have been a broad gauge railway somewhere that operate on 6’ 5” gauge. The USA probably.

 

Make a model to 1:48 scale Gauge 1 track would be right for the broad gauge.

 

On that fateful date the track where a third rail for the narrow gauge was not an issue it was the track mainly in the south west which had no third rail which was to be re-gauged.

 

Don