Deliberately Old-Fashioned 0 Scale - Chapter 1

[Donw]

It is probably the language some of the sounds couldn't be better designed to encourage aerosols.

 

Don

[Nearholmer]

10 hours ago, Simond said:

Is probably optimal for heath, if not the economy.

And, much as I like the outdoors and a bit of solitude, social isolation isn’t optimal for cheerfulness either.

[rockershovel]

4 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

And, much as I like the outdoors and a bit of solitude, social isolation isn’t optimal for cheerfulness either.

 

I did rather wonder where the term “social distancing” originated - given the speed with which it appeared, it was obviously an existing term. Accounts vary, but is seems to originate in the 1960s, deriving from a science (or at least, field of study) called proxemics,  in which it denotes the distance and/or space commonly accepted as the range for interaction involving people you have some connection with. It isn’t originally a medical term at all. 

 

 

[F-UnitMad]

*waiting patiently for Thread to get back On Topic with pics & talk of Old Trains*......

[Nearholmer]

We'll get there at some point, just that this week I've mostly been busy with domestic  tasks, and a minor peak in paying work, and have spent two mornings out cycling, which I find has better mental and physical payback than playing trains, so wins when a choice has to be made.

[Compound2632]

While Nearholmer's out cycling, how about this to keep us going?

The Midland engines are an O gauge Deeley 999 and a Gauge 1 483 Class - known BL models - but the pale Gauge 1 engine bottom right appears to be a Pickersgill 60 Class which I haven't tracked down as a BL model - possibly built to commission?

[Nearholmer]

No cycling this morning, too many other minor tasks, and even windier than yesterday.

 

The photo in question is given in clearer form by Fuller in "The Bassett Lowke Story" and he dates it to 1923 (but, it is known that his memory sometimes let him down when working on that book, and that the book contains oodles of typos, so it may be 1921 as stated).

 

I agree that its a CR 60 Class, and can't find that listed as a standard product, but the lists aren't exactly definitive anyway - anyone have a catalogue from the right date? I wonder if it might be one that they sold a full set of castings for as a live-steamer, for instance.

 

There is another, dark-coloured loco of similar size in the bottom LHS of the cabinet, possibly LNWR.

 

 

Edited September 25, 2020 by Nearholmer

[Compound2632]

3 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

The photo in question is given in clearer form by Fuller in "The Bassett Lowke Story" and he dates it to 1923 (but, it is known that his memory sometimes let him down when working on that book, so it may be 1921 as stated).

 

Doesn't the Great Northern pacific indicate that it has to be 1923?

[Nearholmer]

Ah, yes, I think you're right .......... I was so focused on the bottom right hand corner!

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Often Fullers captions are slightly inaccurate, the correct date would be late 1922.

Edited September 26, 2020 by Florence Locomotive Works

[Florence Locomotive Works]

15 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Doesn't the Great Northern pacific indicate that it has to be 1923?

Or 1922, which would be more probable given the amount of Midland engines on display. 

[Compound2632]

3 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Or 1922, which would be more probable given the amount of Midland engines on display. 

 

Ah, now you are introducing a third date to the discussion, on a merely speculative basis. I read that 1470 entered service in April 1922 and 1471 in July. In what month was the Model Engineer Exhibition held? Greenley had, as I understand, good relations with the Doncaster drawing office so could well have been in a position to get a model out as soon as the full-sized engines were in service but I can't imagine anyone on the Great Northern being happy at Greenley pre-empting them. But he had designed, and Bassett Lowke had built, the second British pacific, in 1914, in 15" gauge.

[Nearholmer]

The London ME Exhibition has, I think, been a January fixture from time immemorial. It’s very often bitterly cold, quite often snows. and is always dark by about half past three.

 

EDIT: Not that simple it seems. I can find references to December dates in some long-ago years, and even one to an August date, which really surprises me.

Edited September 26, 2020 by Nearholmer

[Annie]

Sounds delightful.

[Nearholmer]

It is indoors Annie, although nowadays at Alexandra Palace, which is on top of a steep hill and exposed hill, so definitely a case of making sure you’ve got your coat done up as you leave.

[Nearholmer]

December was Definitely the London ME Exhibition date in the early 1920s.
 

 

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

The London ME Exhibition has, I think, been a January fixture from time immemorial. It’s very often bitterly cold, quite often snows. and is always dark by about half past three.

Yes, trudging to and from Edgware Road station in the school Christmas holidays. Memories!

[Nearholmer]

Where was it held during your youth?

 

I didn’t go to it until the mid/late 70s, when I started to think seriously about getting into 16mm/ft in the late 1970s (a seed that took nearly twenty years to find soil), at which time it was at Wembley Exhibition Centre (in the cold, snow, dark etc!).

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

Where was it held during your youth?

 

I didn’t go to it until the mid/late 70s, when I started to think seriously about getting into 16mm/ft in the late 1970s (a seed that took nearly twenty years to find soil), at which time it was at Wembley Exhibition Centre (in the cold, snow, dark etc!).

Seymour Hall in Marylebone.

[Metropolitan H]

Chaps,

 

I have been to the "Model Engineer" Exhibition - as organised by Percival Marshall or their successors MAP - at the Seymour Halls (mid to late 1960s), Wembley Conference Centre (Late 1970s / 1080s) and Ascot racecourse (late 1990s / early 2000s). The Ascot one was definitely a summer version and where I first saw the 5" gauge model of the GT3 run - a fascinating bit of engineering.

 

Betwenn the Wembley exhibitions and the one(s) at Ascot there were one or more at Sandown Park racecourse - but I didn't go to any of those.

 

The current series of "London Model Engineering" exhibitions - held in January at Ally-Pally are not the direct successors to the ones you are remembering.

 

The "London Model Engineering" exhibitions are run by Meridienne Exhibitions Ltd., on behalf of Warners Magazines - the publishers of "Engineering in Miniature" magazine, since they bought the title from TEE Publishing (Traction Engine Enterprises ??) in 2016. EIM was first published in 1979. The exhibition does of course pre-date the acquisition of  EIM by Warners by at least 10+ years (I can't remember quite when and I want to go and make coffee!) - but it was certainly before the last of the MAP backed exhibitons, as there was at least one year when I went to both.

 

Then there are the "Midlands Model Engineering Exhibitions" also initiated by TEE Publishing - now run by Meridienne Exhibitions Ltd. - and normally held in October at the Warwickshire Exhibition Centre at the crossroads of Southam Road and the Fosse Way. This is actually more convenient and a pleasenter journey than to Ally-Pally - but you don't have the grand view over London on a fine day!

 

Hope that helps.

 

Regards

Chris H

[Nearholmer]

Ah, that explains a few things, thanks.

 

When it was at Wembley, it used to have a smattering of small scale layouts and Brian Clarke used to attend in dual 009-16mm mode, which was good because I was building tiny layouts in 009 while dreaming of a garden to put a 16mm one in.

[Nearholmer]

As a random thought that links to old toy trains, I've just remembered that Seymour Hall, the New Horticultural Hall, and Mounts Baths in Northampton are all of the same architectural style.

 

MEE at Seymour Hall; MRC exhibition at New Horticultural Hall for a few years after Methodist Central Hall; and, W J Bassett-Lowke chaired the committee that oversaw the design and building of the baths, and the building was almost certainly used as the inspiration for the Trix Manyways station.

[Nearholmer]

In response to earlier appeals for a return to the calming subject of old toy trains, I dug out the Leeds 0-6-0T.

 

 

This was restored by Rev Martin Dawes, who made a splendid job of it IMO. It can be a slightly annoying engine though, because the wheels are made from an alloy that tarnishes very quickly and attracts dirt, so have to be cleaned very vigorously “every five minutes” to maintain good current flow.
 

 

Leeds Bakelite wagon in the train. Very hi-fi for its time.

 

[Metropolitan H]

My GWR pannier tank has just taken charge of a new train of GW Loco Coal wagons and Toad brake from the Bernard Ridgeley "Directory" series - in effectively as new condition.

 

 

When we can safely do so, I think this train might come and bother your railway(s).

 

Regards

Chris H

[Nearholmer]

One for Fred VdeL, who I think visits here occasionally.

 

Read your interesting article about Pullman models/toys and their names in the TCS journal last night, and noticed that you didn’t have a Mills example to hand.

 

I think this is one, representing a Southern Belle car - it should really have 6W bogies.

 

It was passed to me by the widow of one of the maths masters at the school I attended. From what I can gather, he built it in the late-1940s from a kit, as a way of relaxing from the horrors that plagued him all the rest of his life following time spent as a prisoner of war under the Japanese.

 

The other side is rather tatty, and it looks to me as if it has been altered from 6W to 4W bogies at some point, probably to get round tight curves. The way the roof is fixed is very crude, using a huge wood screw through the floor, which looks like a later bodge, and some of the ventilators are missing - very unlike Mr C to allow a coach to be like that, because he was always ponderous and careful, extremely precise, and always immaculate in a brown tweed suit and highly-polished brown brogues.

 

I barely ever use it, because it is too long, and I surmise that Mr C had the same problem and didn’t give it top priority.

 

Edited October 1, 2020 by Nearholmer