Deliberately Old-Fashioned 0 Scale - Chapter 1

[Nearholmer]

Yes, I crop, and spin them 360 degrees, before uploading for that very reason!

[Annie]

40 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

There’s a very good article about this O gauge clockwork layout in MRN 1925. Typical Of the more ambitious schemes of the time, I think, and very typically fully signalled, and operated properly.

 

 

Even quite small layouts tended to be properly signalled, and correct operation was much more important than photo-realistic appearance. The layout shown above looked very crude by modern standards, nothing much except railway buildings, track, signals, and bridges. The whole ethos was completely different.

 

When you see these things, it becomes clear what had influenced CJF in his youth, because some of earlier 00 plans are really 1930s 0 gauge plans made smaller - loads of operation in very little space!

 

 

What a stunning layout.  Does the article give the overall dimensions of the layout?  I don't think I own enough tinplate track to build it unfortunately, but one can dream.

[rockershovel]

1 minute ago, Nearholmer said:

Yes, I crop, and spin them 360 degrees, before uploading for that very reason!

 

... doesn’t that have the effect of leaving them the same way up, though? 

[Nearholmer]

Rocker - weirdly, no. As Florence will know, on the 'phone they look the right way up at the outset, but come out inverted on RMWeb. Spin them, and they then come out correctly on RMWeb. Do I understand why? Nope.

 

Annie - 26ft x 11ft, and it looks like brass rail on wooden sleepers. He grumbles about the damp in what is a loft over a stable, so tinplate would probably go rusty anyway (especially if horses were below).

[Annie]

3 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Annie - 26ft x 11ft, and it looks like brass rail on wooden sleepers. He grumbles about the damp in what is a loft over a stable, so tinplate would probably go rusty anyway (especially if horses were below).

Thanks for that Kevin.  26ft x 11ft, - that's much bigger than the size of my bedroom or my lounge so I can cross that possibility off unless I suddenly come into a fortune.  At least I don't own any horses which I suppose is a plus.

 

But I could build it in the digital world.

 

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Here’s a better photo showing the general station approach. I should probably stop hijacking Nearholmers thread now.

[Florence Locomotive Works]

44 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Florence

Ah, thought you’d forgot!

[J. S. Bach]

2 hours ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Thanks for all the info ladies and gents, I have put it to good use. I decided on building an outdoor layout with two stations, excavation will be covered on the topic linked in my signature, but here’s a tantalizing photo. 
 

Douglas

When did you move to Australia?

[J. S. Bach]

1 hour ago, Annie said:

Thanks for that Kevin.  26ft x 11ft, - that's much bigger than the size of my bedroom or my lounge so I can cross that possibility off unless I suddenly come into a fortune.  At least I don't own any horses which I suppose is a plus.

 

But I could build it in the digital world.

 

I am glad that you explained that, I could not place (at first) what brand of track had no ties but stayed in gauge!

 

[Annie]

6 minutes ago, J. S. Bach said:

I am glad that you explained that, I could not place (at first) what brand of track had no ties but stayed in gauge!

 

When setting it all up I raised the carpet just a tad too high off the floor so the tinplate sleepers had disappeared into it.  I have since adjusted it.  The track and points are modelled on Lionel ones; - or so I have been told.

[sncf231e]

1 hour ago, Annie said:

  I have since adjusted it.  The track and points are modelled on Lionel ones; - or so I have been told.

Most clockwork layouts do not have 3-rail track (well, mine has 4-rail track, so I should not complain )

Regards

Fred

 

[Nearholmer]

Most clockwork layouts don't have flying carpets either.

 

Were any Arabian clockwork locomotives ever made? I have seen a Hornby Wagon Lits Sleeper in the white livery used on Egyptian Railways.

[ian]

4 hours ago, Metropolitan H said:

Another good, and inspiring, read regarding the establishment and evolution of an "O" gauge railway is "Paddington to Seagood" by Gilbert Thomas.

 

It is not specifically limited to clockwork, but is of its time and shows just what can be achieved if you have a good sized Billiards Room and count WJ Bassett-Lowke as a friend.

 

It can be difficult to find - I was lucky to borrow a copy - but definitely worth looking out for.

 

Regards

Chris H

 

I have a copy lurking in the stacks - happy to loan it out.

[sncf231e]

3 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Were any Arabian clockwork locomotives ever made? I have seen a Hornby Wagon Lits Sleeper in the white livery used on Egyptian Railways.

An English locomotive will do since these white CIWL cars were made in Birmingham and transported via rail to the harbour.

Regards

Fred

[Florence Locomotive Works]

Dare I say it’s finished? I won’t be putting anything under the sleepers unless it’s absolutely necessary, mostly because I haven’t got the money to go out and by new treated wood.  

[brianusa]

3 hours ago, Annie said:

What a stunning layout.  Does the article give the overall dimensions of the layout?  I don't think I own enough tinplate track to build it unfortunately, but one can dream.

Stunning it may be but it must have been a monster to work on.  How could all the shunting be carried out while at the same time running trains?  All the stopping an starting and winding, must have taken a fair number of operators.  If it were electric it would be complicated enough, but clockwork............................?

    Brian.

[Annie]

19 minutes ago, sncf231e said:

Most clockwork layouts do not have 3-rail track (well, mine has 4-rail track, so I should not complain )

Regards

Fred

 

The problem lies with having to use what track is available Fred.  I could perhaps go and plead for a 3D modeller to make me some track, but that isn't always easy to do when people have busy lives and not all content creators for Trainz know how to make track.  Mostly I use a wooden sleepered track without ballast that has something close to the appearance of O gauge track from the pre-war period, but it would be nice to have a tinplate option as well.

[Nearholmer]

That's the spirit!

 

Back to Egypt.

 

This seems to be the appropriate loco for the Cairo-Luxor Express. This is from Flickr, and won't embed as a link. This thread tells more https://forum.e-train.fr/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=26860&p=1025971

 

 

 

I've long said that Ace should commission a De Glehn Atlantic, and this is another good reason.

[J. S. Bach]

53 minutes ago, Florence Locomotive Works said:

Dare I say it’s finished? I won’t be putting anything under the sleepers unless it’s absolutely necessary, mostly because I haven’t got the money to go out and by new treated wood. 

I would not leave that track out, most three-rail track will rust in a heavy dew.

Edited October 15, 2020 by J. S. Bach

[St Enodoc]

6 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Somewhere on Youtube is a film of Reverend Parley, the doyen of pre-WW2 clockwork garden railways, operating the service on his

Wow! If you find it, Kevin, be sure to post a link please!

[St Enodoc]

5 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

 

I thought you lived in the Wild West, rather than Aus.

Well, it looked OK to me...

[Florence Locomotive Works]

15 hours ago, St Enodoc said:

Wow! If you find it, Kevin, be sure to post a link please!

It could be this...

If not, then this one is still very impressive! 

 

Edited October 16, 2020 by Florence Locomotive Works

[Nearholmer]

Well done! I’m 90% sure that is the Rev Parley.

 

Whoever it, they didn’t waste time worrying over-much about the condition of the grass did they? Focus on the important things in life!

[Florence Locomotive Works]

On 15/10/2020 at 15:09, Nearholmer said:

Arabian clockwork locomotives ever made?

That's a good thing for us to muddle over, coarse scale locomotives made in one country but the models are of other countries locomotives. The Hornby french engines spring to mind, and the Ace Trains (and Darstaed) NZR and NSWGR engines do the same.

[rockershovel]

Somehow I’d expected that garden fences in Oklahoma would comprise a single strand of barbed wire, possibly with endless cereal prairies just beyond...