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Deliberately Old-Fashioned 0 Scale - Chapter 1


Nearholmer
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Today I became aware of an 0 gauge collection the owner had died and the family contacted our club. Included were some Hornby tinplate and a few BL items sadly before I could act the club secretary had contacted Ray Heard as the family wanted it dealt with quickly. To be fair the club has a good relationship with Ray, but it was disappointing. For me it was some Dapol and Ixion locos and wagons that were of interest.

 

Don

 

 

 

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21 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Which might mean that tinplate has something to teach S7, by which I mean that selective placement of vehicles with doors open, and possibly things about to be loaded or unloaded would add something to the scene. 

 

Or any of the finer scales. The open wagon with a door down is an obvious starting point, as such vehicles wouldn't necessarily be the centre of attention. With passenger vehicles its a greater challenge - always best to orient your single-platform BLT so that the platform is behind the train! 

  

21 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

the average size of parcels on the LNWR in 1907.

 

I'm very tempted to start a thread on that...

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30 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

With passenger vehicles its a greater challenge - always best to orient your single-platform BLT so that the platform is behind the train! 


For those of us with Fine-scale pretensions, having the stock nearer to the operator than the platform is most desirable in dealing with couplings too... 

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15 minutes ago, Simond said:

For those of us with Fine-scale pretensions, having the stock nearer to the operator than the platform is most desirable in dealing with couplings too... 

 

All very well until you start exhibiting.

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I had these open-doored fine-scale vehicles in mind as ‘statics’, thinking that you chaps had long left-behind the joys of moving little lead people and wooden parcels about by train.

 

Anyway, a big and long-awaited parcel arrived for me today, by UPS rather than BR, and inside was a new engine. Perfect for those inter-regional trains.


2D45D982-3C52-4F5D-9F99-1BEF3E3580AF.jpeg.c66c6e05ef5d4968c86960c63d0d0216.jpeg

 

I was a bit surprised by the fanciness of the livery, because when I ordered ‘BR lined green’ I was expecting late crest and less lining, indeed I initially thought that Messrs Ace and ETS had got it wrong, but no, 4358 was indeed painted-up exactly like this in 1957. Incredibly smart, and the first lined green BR loco I’ve owned since an Airfix ‘Evening Star’ that I built and painted at my grandmother’s kitchen table when I was about ten.

 

873D83F5-C60B-49BE-ADF4-3646A43C1E96.jpeg.7c8dd868c31f3e31777797d918d1a60b.jpeg

 

Interesting to compare with the Heljan model, because it seems they’ve also ‘done‘ 4358 in 0. The prices for the two models, coarse-scale metal, and fine-scale mostly(?) plastic are within a gnat’s, and they both run silkily, so it is a straight choice between styles according to personal preference.

 

A slim envelope containing the etched train-number frame also arrived, so tomorrow perhaps my inter regional train can get an identity.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Nearholmer
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3 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

All very well until you start exhibiting.

 

No when I my layout out my operating team decided they preferred to operate from the front. As I had put the switches for the turnout on a box tape to the hand held control they simple passed it under the layout.  Steve who had some mobility issues would place a chair out front if it was quiet and operate from the chair. The audience would be pressed into coupling/uncoupling if possible to save him getting up.

 

Don

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10 hours ago, Simond said:

Surely still true?

 

(not that it’s an issue for me, my layout is decidedly not portable!)

 

The only time I've operated a 3-link-voupling layout at an exhibition, it involved reaching over the backscene. (I was deputising for an unwell operator on a guest layout at a club exhibition.)

 

9 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

I had these open-doored fine-scale vehicles in mind as ‘statics’, thinking that you chaps had long left-behind the joys of moving little lead people and wooden parcels about by train.

 

I'm (still) planning a biscuit factory layout with a public road crossing - I've been thinking about the possibility of a man with a red flag coming out to stop the traffic - maybe on a wire in a discreet groove in the road surface.

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Found this after watching the 0-gauge garden layout film that was posted in CA.

 

A very good look at "everyday Southern c1938" https://screenarchive.brighton.ac.uk/detail/3376/

 

It really makes clear the Southern policy of expanding electrification as a way of reducing operating costs and offering a better product while not spending on anything that didn't contribute directly two those two aims. The resulting mix of ancient and moderne that is visible here persisted as long as the early 1980s in places, so it all looks surprisingly familiar. 

 

Look out especially for the fruit train - a handful of assorted vans headed by a 4-4-0, giving a well-within-24hrs service from field to London market stalls.

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21 hours ago, Compound2632 said:

 

Or any of the finer scales. The open wagon with a door down is an obvious starting point, as such vehicles wouldn't necessarily be the centre of attention. With passenger vehicles its a greater challenge - always best to orient your single-platform BLT so that the platform is behind the train! 

  

 

I'm very tempted to start a thread on that...

 

I seem to recall that somewhere on the forum, there’s a mention of 16t wagons being left in coal merchants yards for quite long periods of time, being progressively off-loaded as the horse and cart is loaded for deliveries. So a part-loaded, unattended 16t “open” with the door down, seems entirely authentic! 

 

Livestock wagons awaiting market day? A goods van part-loaded, awaiting the twice-weekly “mixed”? 

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Demurrage....  the railways charged for the use of their wagons, and sidings, by the day.  
 

I don’t know the details but if there was an opportunity to empty the wagon and not be charged, I’m sure most would take it.  Then again, if you have to shovel it down and then shovel it all back up again, you might choose to hang onto the wagon...

 

atb

Simon

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Especially if there was a separate charge for the land / bins (staithes) you kept your coal on (in) - remembering to keep the different types / batches separate - and use in rotation, coal has a shelf life with the volatiles starting to escape as some as it is released from its bed / seam!

 

Regards

Chris H

Edited by Metropolitan H
Errant "3" removed!
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Citing a 16t wagon might alter things, because that implies (dictates?) the BR period, so all (well nearly all) coal wagons belonging to “the railway”.

 

At an earlier date, a 10t private owner wagon might well been the merchant’s to do with as he saw fit.

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Remember that not all railways dealt in a friendly way with PO wagons - you won't find many in NER areas - the railway wanted the revenue - and provided bottom discharge staithes at most locations for dealing with their hopper wagons.

 

Southern Railway areas were different - as was the GWR - but not all coal went in the merchant's wagons - a pit could charge demurrage just like a railway!

 

Regards

Chris H

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1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

Citing a 16t wagon might alter things, because that implies (dictates?) the BR period, so all (well nearly all) coal wagons belonging to “the railway”.

 

At an earlier date, a 10t private owner wagon might well been the merchant’s to do with as he saw fit.

The local coal merchants often preferred an 8 ton wagon - really as much coal as could be shift in one go - so a BR 16 ton wagon might represent two day's work. Even with the merchant's own wagon* there would still be siding charges to pay, besides which the investment would give a better return if it was on its way back to the colliery.

 

*Most likely not actually his but the wagon building firm's, on hire or hire purchase.

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I hadn't actually seen that (obviously pirated) video, but having briefly dipped into it, it certainly brings back boyhood memories, especially the down trains batting through Woking non-stop. Pity they opted for a rather synthetic version of the music though. Here is the original https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Waterloo+Sunset&docid=607999359005164084&mid=70CE149DC7826BE46FF170CE149DC7826BE46FF1&view=detail&FORM=VRAASM

 

The film that really hits me is "Terminus", directed by John Schlesinger for BTF, because that is exactly how I remember Waterloo as a boy of the same age as the boy in the film. Everything about it is time-travel - I can even smell the place (which isn't all good).

 

Firmly in theme, this loco is visiting my layout on a "running-in turn" after minor attention MetH's workbench, and a very fine machine it is, happily schlepping everything I can hang behind it. After lock-down it will have to go back to its proper owner, which is a slight pity really. When Ace issued these, I really hoped they would come with a wise old engine fireman figure, and a small boy carrying a suitcase to look up enviously at him.

0F31F1DF-46D2-48F8-B7E5-ACF77E02E251.jpeg

Edited by Nearholmer
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I’ve always had a soft spot for Waterloo. When I worked in London on the big railway back in 2010 as a route freight manager I was based out of the offices within the station which had all sorts of interesting artefacts and nooks and crannies to explore. Around the station was also interesting to explore especially finding what was the Necropolis railway building. 

 

Ive also always had a soft spot for the ‘Merchant Navy’s’ in both original and rebuilt form which seem synonymous with 60’s Waterloo and live in eternal hope that ACE will eventually make them. 
 

Greg 

Edited by RateTheFreight
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Since we've moved over to King Arthurs, I thought I'd share one of Sir Galahad on the Ace Trains 25th Anniversary Special train. The two people closest to the camera are, of course, Her Majesty The Queen and HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, apparently showing more interest in a Hornby loco than the King Arthur... They are also from Andrew Stadden.

Gordon

 

DSCN0259.JPG

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