Deliberately Old-Fashioned 0 Scale - Chapter 1

[rockershovel]

I had a bird for many years, but shaved it off when I went back offshore in the 90s. Anyway my daughter said I looked like a badger. 

[Nearholmer]

A bird, eh?

 

Sure it wasn’t a parrot, rather than a badger?

[Simond]

Isn't it strange?  The French say "fou comme un blaireau" - "mad as a badger" and the English say "daft as a brush".

 

Traditional shaving brushes are made from Badger hair...

 

spooky, eh?

 

 

[Nearholmer]

Very odd indeed, because I say ‘mad as a badger’, and I wasn’t aware that I’d picked it up from French, which I only speak at ‘slightly bemused tourist’ level, plus a sprinkling of technical stuff.

[Simond]

As only the guileless can, my son, then aged about 3, said to my M-i-L, "my Daddy says you're as mad as a badger"...  

 

I knew nothing of this until the following Christmas day, when I recieved a most oddly-shaped package, which I unwrapped, to find a resincast badger, at which point, the story was retold.

 

She was highly intelligent, quite bonkers, usually fuelled by gin, and had a sense of humour, fortunately.

 

We still have the badger.

 

[TT-Pete]

7 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Very odd indeed, because I say ‘mad as a badger’, and I wasn’t aware that I’d picked it up from French, which I only speak at ‘slightly bemused tourist’ level, plus a sprinkling of technical stuff.

 

I had a badger I bought in about 1985 that drove me mad and was only used a handful of times until it was sold on eBay in the early 2000's for waaay more than the £54 that was still clearly marked on the tag on the front of the box and visible in the pictures attached to the listing.  - Sorry, are we not talking airbrushes here?

[St Enodoc]

8 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Very odd indeed, because I say ‘mad as a badger’, and I wasn’t aware that I’d picked it up from French, which I only speak at ‘slightly bemused tourist’ level, plus a sprinkling of technical stuff.

Does the technical stuff include describing a deer as "a cow with a pantograph"?

[rockershovel]

I speak French quite fluently, but certainly don’t use French expressions when speaking English.... I’ve always thought “mad as a spoon” was an odd expression, of no obvious provenance. 

 

The bird certainly wasn’t a parrot, parakeet or any other such psittacoid... more like some sort of emu. It’s definiteiy an ex-parrot now, though..

Edited January 7, 2021 by rockershovel

[Simond]

1 hour ago, St Enodoc said:

Does the technical stuff include describing a deer as "a cow with a pantograph"?

New one on me, I thought it was a horse with a hat-rack

[St Enodoc]

2 minutes ago, Simond said:

New one on me, I thought it was a horse with a hat-rack

Reputed to have been said by a Eurostar driver when advising Control of an animal on the line using their second language.

[Nearholmer]

I’ve managed to have a reasonably long session playing trains this evening, for the first time in weeks, so two photos.

 

First, Komparative Kranes. The Hornby tinplate one has been around here for ages, but the yellow Dinky Supertoy diecast one is “new”, in the sense that I only acquired it recently. Aside from the bizarre colour scheme, it is a very good model indeed, and seems genuinely to be 1:43 scale (I got it without being sure about that, so am relieved). The yellow one will be the resident one henceforth. Question: who were Meccano aiming this product at? It’s not really a toy, but neither isn it quite a model; it wouldn’t withstand much rough and tumble before getting broken, but it has got nice big handles to turn.

 

Second, nothing that you haven’t seen before, but it does confirm my liking for the postwar Giant Hornby Dublo aesthetic.

 

 

 

Edited January 8, 2021 by Nearholmer

[Keith Addenbrooke]

15 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

 Question: who were Meccano aiming this product at? It’s not really a toy, but neither isn it quite a model; it wouldn’t withstand much rough and tumble before getting broken, but it has got nice big handles to turn.

Were the handles standard parts also used in other (more toylike) models as well?  Could that be one explanation as to why they also appear in this one?  Or were some models deliberately aimed at slightly a slightly older market - I guess if someone has a catalogue that might be the easiest way to find out.  Either that or you’ve just got lucky 

[Simond]

I had one of them, much battered, second hand, about 50 years ago.  
 

Memories are vague at this distance but I feel it probably had the same winding handles as the Coles 4-wheel crane

 

atb

Simon

[Nearholmer]

Dinky toys/models are not something I'm really into, but I'm 90% sure that they handles are indeed standard parts, which they used on things like their other cranes, and on "tipper trucks" of various kinds.

 

The frustrating thing, to me at least, about Dinkies is the wide, and seemingly slightly random, range of scales. Another one I am half-considering seeking out is a Coles mobile yard crane, which is 1:48 scale, but looks reasonable with British 0 if you're no too particular, but a lot are I think closer to S scale, at around 1:60. 

 

Spot-On is the vintage diecast range that is consistently very close to 0, at 1:42 scale, but they tend to be a bit late-date for my wants, and good ones are "highly sought after" (£££££).

[Nearholmer]

Out Coles crane handles memories crossed in the ether!

[brianusa]

Kevin, glad you posted the picture of the GW mogul.  Modern model engines seem to have excessively bright lining seemingly in any scale from any maker, IMHO. Nice model though!

OTOH, The Dinky crane is more vulnerable than the Hornby version, even with the tiny steps, crank handle and other oversized bits necessary for it to be played with.  Not that the Hornby one is any match some youthful owners but seems to have better survival rate.  Having both, the Hornby one looks the part with the trains, the Dinky one is  a bit too scale looking apart from the aforementioned mechanical items.

      Brian.

[andi4x4]

There is a rail mounted breakdown crane I have seen somewhere scratchbuilt using a Dinky jib that looks very effective - probably more coarse scale than tinplate scale, but, looks the part.

 

Can't remember where I saw it though.....

 

Regards

 

Andi

 

 

[Nearholmer]

I think there might be a prototype for the use of that yellow Dinky crane, if mounted on a wagon.

 

Some of the guys that dealt with craneage for the part of BR that I worked on in the early 1980s (Atlas hydraulic and a 75T diesel) had originally been a mobile goods crane gang, working mostly in the Surrey Docks area. Their pre-hydraulic crane, which had a very rude nickname, was very similar to that, mounted on a chassis like a lowmac. It was hand-cranked, and had flaps that folded down to form a platform for the guys to stand on while cranking. I only know this because they had photos of it pinned-up in their mess coach (a filthy old Maunsell coach that is now fully restored on the Bluebell I think).

 

I'll see if I can find a photo of similar on-line.

 

EDIT: Here we are, these are the ones https://paulbartlett.zenfolio.com/cowanshandcrane Not quite the same, but a plausible approximation could be made using a Dinky and a Lowmac.

Edited January 8, 2021 by Nearholmer

[andi4x4]

Ah, yes, the Cowans 10 ton. That was the basis of the Triang/Hornby 00 gauge 10 ton crane wagon - still in production, I think.

 

[Edwardian]

On 07/01/2021 at 12:48, Nearholmer said:

Very odd indeed, because I say ‘mad as a badger’, and I wasn’t aware that I’d picked it up from French, which I only speak at ‘slightly bemused tourist’ level, plus a sprinkling of technical stuff.

 

I've tended to assume that a box of frogs set the standard here.

 

Not intended to suggest the French, I hasten to add.

[PatB]

6 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

I’ve managed to have a reasonably long session playing trains this evening, for the first time in weeks, so two photos.

 

First, Komparative Kranes. The Hornby tinplate one has been around here for ages, but the yellow Dinky Supertoy diecast one is “new”, in the sense that I only acquired it recently. Aside from the bizarre colour scheme, it is a very good model indeed, and seems genuinely to be 1:43 scale (I got it without being sure about that, so am relieved). The yellow one will be the resident one henceforth. Question: who were Meccano aiming this product at? It’s not really a toy, but neither isn it quite a model; it wouldn’t withstand much rough and tumble before getting broken, but it has got nice big handles to turn.

 

Second, nothing that you haven’t seen before, but it does confirm my liking for the postwar Giant Hornby Dublo aesthetic.

 

 

 

I'm not sure the colour scheme is all that bizarre. The blue base is a little odd, but the yellow upper works were presumably done that way to be consistent with Dinky's other construction plant type offering's. 

 

When it comes to bizarre paint jobs, back in the early 70s, I was given a Matchbox King Size Ford D-Series low loader that was, IIRC, pink (cab) and lime green (trailer). My older brother had the same basic model, in much more plausible mid-green with plant yellow highlights. His also uncoupled, whereas mine was permanently riveted together. 

[johnhutnick]

Where does the Dinky Coles Mobile Crane fit as to approximate scale?  I am in the US, and the mobile is what is mostly on Ebay.  The Yard Crane seems less common here, and postage to get one from the UK is high.

[Nearholmer]

I’ve seen it cited as 1:48, but I’m never sure how truthful some of the scales given on Dinky collector websites are.

[Nearholmer]

5 hours ago, PatB said:

My older brother had the same basic model, in much more plausible mid-green with plant yellow highlights. His also uncoupled, whereas mine was permanently riveted together. 

Not that you let it bother you, or stay with you for fifty years as a stinging resentment.

 

(I still remember when one of my bros deliberately punctured my football)

[Keith Addenbrooke]

Scale as a variable often comes up in discussions (not just for Coarse scale - it was discussed re: 1970s N Gauge elsewhere recently, which is where I began my railway modelling).  One reason I’m sure scale sometimes varied was to fit models into standard sized packaging - certainly when it came to road vehicles*.  I still have an early memory of being shocked by just how big a real tipper lorry actually was when one thundered past, being used to playing with my toy one that was the same length as a car.

__________________

(* OK: toy cars)