Deliberately Old-Fashioned 0 Scale - Chapter 1

[Nearholmer]

"Perhaps you'd like to come back to my place after, to look at my block instrument."

 

Hmmm.

[Guest Isambarduk]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

"Perhaps you'd like to come back to my place after, to look at my block instrument."

 

Or the only true railway modeller joke (that I know of) that made it to the popular press:

 

 

based on a cheesy 1970s chat-up line

 

David

[St Enodoc]

4 hours ago, Isambarduk said:

 

Or the only true railway modeller joke (that I know of) that made it to the popular press:

 

 

based on a cheesy 1970s chat-up line

 

David

I know another but it's a bit long to repeat here.

[Simond]

We’ve got time...

[St Enodoc]

1 hour ago, Simond said:

We’ve got time...

All right, here we go..

 

A fellow is walking down the street when a down-and-out asks him for money.

 

"Are you going to spend it on booze?"

 

"No, I signed the pledge years ago."

 

"Are you going to spend it on the horses then?"

 

"No, I've never gambled since I lost the lot."

 

"So are you going to spend it on something for your model railway?"

 

"Of course not, are you mad?"

 

"All right, I'll give you some money on condition that you come to my house to meet my wife. I want to show her what happens to a man who doesn't drink, doesn't gamble and doesn't play trains".

 

I thank you.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

As we all seem a bit quiet in recent past, here’s a very obscure question. 
 

I have seen in videos on YouTube of various people who run coarse scale live steam engines, (particularly Bing) a large purple possibly felt mat underneath the track that seems to absorb most of the rubbish they release throughout the run.
 

And my question is, what be this strange material?

 

Here’s a link to a video showing the mat. 

Douglas

 

[mervyn]

Looks like a felt underlay used under old carpets ? perhaps to save the floor tiles ?

[Nearholmer]

Yes, carpet underlay. Unless it’s army surplus blankets - it does look a bit like the ones we had when I was a boy.

[Keith Addenbrooke]

1 hour ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

As we all seem a bit quiet in recent past, here’s a very obscure question. 
 

I have seen in videos on YouTube of various people who run coarse scale live steam engines, (particularly Bing) a large purple possibly felt mat underneath the track that seems to absorb most of the rubbish they release throughout the run.
 

And my question is, what be this strange material?

 

Douglas

 

Also looks to me very much like the floor coverings used by removal men to avoid damage to carpets / flooring when people are moving house -  may well be the same stuff of course.

[andi4x4]

I agree, looks like underlay or blankets - we used something very similar in the removals trade to cover funiture.

 

Two things that I notice within the first 30 seconds of that video, however -

 

 1 )  The floor is tiled - in this instance I am inclined to think that the covering is probably more to do with sound reduction or an attempt to stop the tracks from creeping across the shiny, smooth, floor rather than a means to control the 'dribble' from the loco (although it would also do that quite well I think !)

 

 2 )  whoever it is running the trains also had the (possibly hard earned ! ) forethought to place a sheet of steel/tin or other thin non-flammable substance under the rails in the steam-up/loco service area to prevent setting fire to the floor covering.

 

Another option for running on hard surfaces is some of the interlocking rubber matting that can be found in hardware suppliers sold for workshop or home gym use.  B&Q in the UK have packets of 12mm thick ones approximately 6sqm with edging strips for about £12 per pack - I have some to cover my layout boards with before I start laying track.

 

 

[Northroader]

The one thing I notice with indoor running with steam is that everything for miles around soon accumulates a fine oily coating.

[Nearholmer]

Spot-on. That's why I would never try it indoors indoors, and wouldn't even try it on my utility room, so not in "domestic space", layout; for one thing it makes cleaning the track a serious job.

 

I found that even artificial smoke, using smoke oil in a heater on an electric loco, was messy in a similar way, so pretty soon ceased that.

 

Those vape-inhaler things work on the same basis, so breathing that vapour in can't do anyone a great deal of good!

[andi4x4]

Meths fired especially - the fumes from those are horrific !  I made the mistake of running a meths fired Mamod loco indoors - only did that once ! 

 

I gave up smoking a couple of years ago and started using a vape, soon gave that up too as it seemed to make my chest worse than the fags did. And, no, I didn't try meths in it, the Black Jack flavour seemed more appealing ! 

 

 

Edited November 24, 2020 by andi4x4

[Nearholmer]

One of The Great Events is the Bassett Lowke Society 'do' at Tewin, which occurs (pandemics permitting) over a January weekend every second year. Its a wonderful thing, held in a really beautiful post-WW1 village memorial hall, with just the right 1920s illumination for a dark winter afternoon. Two halls, the big one for electric and clockwork layouts, and the small one for the very busy live steam track, which means meths, and plenty of it.

 

By the end of Sunday, I'm sure the steam boys are all as high as kites due to the combination of oxygen deprivation and alcohol inhalation!

[Florence Locomotive Works]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

Spot-on. That's why I would never try it indoors indoors, and wouldn't even try it on my utility room, so not in "domestic space"

Unfortunately I have been left by higher powers with no other option, as the outdoors has been placed off limits.

 

Suggestions anyone?

[sncf231e]

1 hour ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Suggestions anyone?

Use solid fuel like Esbit, that is allowed in my living room:

 

 

Regards

Fred

[J. S. Bach]

2 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Unfortunately I have been left by higher powers with no other option, as the outdoors has been placed off limits.

That kind of surprises me; if I the higher powers, those engines would only be run outside.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

1 hour ago, J. S. Bach said:

That kind of surprises me; if I the higher powers, those engines would only be run outside.

I quite agree, my mom surprisingly is fairly happy with me going and tearing out a few azalea bushes to make way for the railway, but my dad is less thrilled. 

[J. S. Bach]

So plan a different routing that bypasses the bushes and run that plan past the higher powers. It just might work. I have some more thoughts but they are too much to write down.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

32 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

So plan a different routing that bypasses the bushes and run that plan past the higher powers. It just might work. I have some more thoughts but they are too much to write down.

The big problem is it needs to be elevated, otherwise I’m constantly crawling round on my knees trying to lite the burner etc etc, and said bushes are in the only elevated bed of necessary size. 

[Annie]

Having been the kind of parent who has always said, 'Go for it', when my children have had creative ideas I find your Dad's reluctance somewhat perplexing, but then I've never been anyone's idea of a standard issue parent so I suppose that's why.

Hopefully he will come around and let you go ahead with building an outdoor line.

[ChrisN]

Could you noy make a raised railway on a long viaduct?

[Northroader]

Then there’s having meths spirit lamps indoors. Way back, I was messing around with a Mamod, as you do, and I filled the lamp right up, so it would run longer. As things warmed up, the heat caused the spirit to expand through the breather hole, swimming around on top of the lamp where it caught fire, as it would. I had to quickly do a spin pass, with the thing happily whizzing round, right out in the middle of the garden to let it safely burn out. The drive axle was never straight after that.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

5 hours ago, ChrisN said:

Could you noy make a raised railway on a long viaduct?

That would be my most favored strategy, but it is also very costly , as the price of timber here is rather high. One also normally has to concrete the post into the ground.

4 hours ago, Northroader said:

Then there’s having meths spirit lamps indoors. Way back, I was messing around with a Mamod, as you do, and I filled the lamp right up, so it would run longer. As things warmed up, the heat caused the spirit to expand through the breather hole, swimming around on top of the lamp where it caught fire, as it would. I had to quickly do a spin pass, with the thing happily whizzing round, right out in the middle of the garden to let it safely burn out. The drive axle was never straight after that.

On the few occasions I’ve steamed the engine outside, wind has been a major factor in failure. 
 

I’ll stop high jacking Kevin’s thread now. 

[Nearholmer]

Don't worry, its all on-topic, and we've all been there in one way or another. My parents encouraged, rather than discouraged, such things, but while I had the opportunity, and the motive, I certainly didn't have the means. You will have a vintage 0 gauge garden railway, even if it takes forty years to get there!

 

The lack of content here generated by me is down to a bad attack of Lockdown Lassitude. I find that there is something very oppressive about the combination of The Plague, Precautions Against the Plague, and English Late-Autumn Weather which doesn't make for a focused or productive frame of mind.

 

About all the toy train activity that is happening is to periodically rotate the 'display train' on the (nothing done to it for weeks) tiny layout on the study.

 

Today we have Old George on a parcels train. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 25, 2020 by Nearholmer