Jump to content
 

Deliberately Old-Fashioned 0 Scale - Chapter 1


Nearholmer
 Share

Recommended Posts

  • RMweb Premium

Not so much of the "old" - it is only when it suits! And why not dream, so long as you also do something - useful or not!

 

Todays tasks so far have included getting the gas man mobilised to come and fix the heating / hot water tomorrow and tidying ready for the "Cleaner" to come and do? - I now need coffee, but the kitchen is currently out of bounds!

 

Regards

CH

  • Friendly/supportive 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Trouble with beards is they tend to show grey before the rest of your hair, then you’ll get lumped in with old men dreaming dreams of cuddly tank engines. Still, if your offspring knows that FC has a beard, and you don’t, that means they still believe in FC, which is comforting to know in this day and age. Do they have any role for you to fulfil once you’ve grown this beard?

  • Like 3
  • Agree 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

Father Christmas has a bungalow  just up the road from us. He is always busy at this time of year visiting old folks homes or meeting kids on the railway. Must be twiddling his thumbs at the moment with the restrictions. One thing does puzzle me where did his Black country accent come from? 

 

Marion has decided a Christmas railway would be nice  has to fit on a table so 009 railway. A new venture for me. The table is oval and it will need to split lengthways for storage so baseboards will be fun and the timescale is a bit tight. I might be excused other duties though.

 

Don

  • Like 5
  • Funny 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

Spot-on Northroader: my hair is by no means fully grey, but the emerging beard certainly is!

 

Anyway, tinkering with tin trains seems an FC sort of activity, so while I’m waiting for the paint to touch-up Old George, I’m attacking another ‘project loco’.

 

This one is overall not too bad, but has had a really rough repair to the side tank using about half a ton of solder, which I’m trying to undo and do again properly. The loco body has a ‘set’, probably from being dropped, which  could only be got out with immense force, which I’m not prepared to apply, so it will probably always have a slight lean, resulting in a sloping handrail, but should look better than before.

 

0066EE54-80EC-4D70-B32B-43DF7B939275.jpeg.a7e833764a1cd5e0c9cddd1bb8e6f338.jpeg

 

8F5516E8-D539-42ED-A1CA-50B64E4BCCE4.jpeg.c254cde4d6d9223189df7195ceb14400.jpeg

 

The mechanisms runs very well, but the spring seems fairly weedy, so I will probably fit an electric mech for now, then get a new spring.

 

 

Edited by Nearholmer
  • Like 9
  • Craftsmanship/clever 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

My brother had a friend who fitted perfectly into the FC mould with his beard and general body shape.  Wherever he went there would be at least one small child tugging on their mother's sleeve with a cry of, 'Mummy, Mummy, - it's Santa Claus.'  

  • Like 1
  • Funny 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

'Six Months with a Beard', will certainly be the title of the lock-down chapter of the memoirs I shall one day never write.

 

I thought 6 months out of 50 odd years was not much to ask, but Miss T pronounced that enough was enough and made me shave it off.

 

To be fair, it was grey. It did put years on me.

  • Like 1
  • Funny 1
  • Friendly/supportive 6
Link to post
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Annie said:

My brother had a friend who fitted perfectly into the FC mould with his beard and general body shape.  Wherever he went there would be at least one small child tugging on their mother's sleeve with a cry of, 'Mummy, Mummy, - it's Santa Claus.'  


Whilst I have no memory of the event, it is part of the family folklore;  about 58 years ago (I would have been about 4) I was being brought home by my mother by bus.  There was a shortage of seats, so whilst my mum stood, or perched as best she could, a kindly nun offered to have me sitting on her knee.

 

The weekend; the Saturday evening guests arrived, and as was the habit, I said goodnight to them before retiring (as 4-year-olds do, I was a most accommodating child) to clean my teeth and read TTTE before going to sleep.  One of the guests asked me how I was, and apparently I eagerly told her that “a penguin had nursed me on the bus yesterday”.

 

atb

Simon

  • Like 2
  • Funny 7
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium
3 hours ago, Metropolitan H said:

My beard has now got to 48+ years and I see no likelihood of being allowed to remove it  for the forseeable future - and yes it has turned whiter than the accompanying moustache and hair (thinning)?

 

regards

Chris H

I have no beard but I do have a moustache, which I grew when I started University (just because I could) and have worn ever since. I've decided that on the first day of my retirement it will be shaved off.

  • Like 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

Guest Isambarduk
6 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

... then get a new spring.

I would be interested to know where from, Mr N.  Clock springs, although they look similar, are quite different, I understand.   David

Link to post
Share on other sites

A question for all those of this parish.

 

Will I derive more enjoyment out of clockwork or live steam?

 

As some of those on here know, I have my own "Old George" a Midland liveried version from 1912. And not very long after I acquired the engine, the spring snapped. As a result, we found by some miracle a clock repairing family business willing to take on the job of fixing it.

 

That was on September 26th.

 

On that day, a target date was set for the rebuilds completion of December 19th. However, it is entirely plausible (to be honest rather likely) that the rebuild hasn't even started yet, do to the clock repairers works (it really is a works) being very very backed up with work from lockdown. In that case, should I cancel the very expensive rebuild to focus on my Bassett Lowke live steamer? Or, assuming the rebuild is running on schedule, should I relocate my layout back out to the garden, which some may remember made appearances on this topic back in mid October, and run it as a clockwork garden line? (permission from higher powers was given to run clockwork in the garden). If in fact they have done nothing on the engine, and its simply been sitting there for 2 and 1/2 months, then both higher powers and myself have decided to cancel the rebuild anyway, however we do not know if this is the case.

 

thanks as always,

 

Douglas

Edited by Florence Locomotive Works
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Premium

Percival Marshall did do a booklet on repairing clockwork mechanisms. It sticks in my mind that the spring normally goes across the outer end where it is notched. The book advised annealing just this end, to soften it, and putting new notches in. I’ve no practical experience of this, I’m afraid.

Edited by Northroader
  • Like 1
  • Informative/Useful 1
  • Interesting/Thought-provoking 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Isambarduk said:

I would be interested to know where from

 

So would I, which is one of the reasons I've gone electric for now. I need to ask around.

 

You may be right about clock springs, because I think they might be made from thinner material, so provide far less torque.

 

 

 

 

Edited by Nearholmer
  • Like 1
  • Interesting/Thought-provoking 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Will I derive more enjoyment out of clockwork of live steam?

 

The flippant answer to that has to be: electric.

 

Both steam, of the sort you are pursuing, and clockwork, are IMO for people who have fallen in love with them for what they are, and they build-up skills in fettling and fixing over time. I'm not aware of anyone these days operating a proper railway service, in the way that they did in olden tymes, with either - both seem to run round simple circuits for the sheer fun of it nowadays (I hope to be corrected on this).

 

Which of the two moves you most?

  • Like 1
  • Interesting/Thought-provoking 3
Link to post
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Which of the two moves you most?

The simple answer to that is,

 

I haven’t the slightest idea.
 

As I’ve never had the opportunity to use either to its “full potential”, as my mogul has and still is plagued by mechanical issues,  and I was never able to run my George on the garden line. But Jack Ray’s “A lifetime with O gauge” is slowly turning me towards clockwork. 

Edited by Florence Locomotive Works
  • Like 1
  • Friendly/supportive 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold

There was one of those repair shop programes on TV where the restorer made a new spring for a clockwork model . 

 

Spring steel is available as said you may have to anneal the ends to shape the spring to hold the ends see here for steel https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/173584705648?var=472997842642

You usually have to wind it up  somewhat to fit and must be securely clamped while doing so see clockmakers spring clamps

 

Don

 

  • Like 2
  • Thanks 1
  • Informative/Useful 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

  • RMweb Gold
6 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

 

The flippant answer to that has to be: electric.

 

Both steam, of the sort you are pursuing, and clockwork, are IMO for people who have fallen in love with them for what they are, and they build-up skills in fettling and fixing over time. I'm not aware of anyone these days operating a proper railway service, in the way that they did in olden tymes, with either - both seem to run round simple circuits for the sheer fun of it nowadays (I hope to be corrected on this).

 

Which of the two moves you most?

 

I would agree that many people running steam engines do tend to run the round a circuit. But there are people at least in 16mm who do have end to end layouts and shunt and run round much the same as electric layouts.  If you want to see Steam models run properly look for Hambleden either at exhibitions or on youtube example here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTU2IGfAr2A or summerlans http://www.summerlands-chuffer.co.uk/the-hambledon-valley-railway/4594144236

 

Don

  • Like 1
  • Informative/Useful 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

If you guys have grey beards. then you must be getting on!:o  That means that what was once an easy reach is now a much harder reach,  especially so if you have to duck under the layout to reach anything.  For a long time, it was no problem but eventually its not so easy to get down on your hands and knees and crawl around.  All of which precludes clockwork in later life but if all is electric then at least you don't have to worry if the trains slows and stops the other side if the room., and if the layout and trains are in good shape, then mishaps shouldn't happen very often.  I have just had to retrieve a train stopped for no apparent reason to free up the main circuit, a chore I don't appreciate these days.  Fortunately I have a remote control which means you don't have to get up so often to start or stop the errant train.  So if there is a choice, then fire up your transformers and leave the winding to others!;)

      Brian.

  • Like 1
  • Informative/Useful 2
  • Interesting/Thought-provoking 1
  • Funny 2
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

×
×
  • Create New...