Deliberately Old-Fashioned 0 Scale - Chapter 1

[hartleymartin]

On 17/02/2019 at 20:34, Nearholmer said:

Yes, pilots or ‘turnover engines’ are a fine solution, and one that looks well for an urban terminus - we run Paltry Circus like that when there are two of us, and in  the mood to play rush-hours. Ian Futers uses that way of creating tiny termini, and his always look attractive.

 

To me, it makes sense to be able to run-around off-peak, though, which is a point I always make in the many Minories threads.

 

If you add a loco release line between platforms 1 and 2 of a Minories layout you get that, but you do need to add length to the layout for it to work.

[Nearholmer]

Indeed.

 

Or, run shorter train off-peak.

[Nearholmer]

I found a photo of the nether regions of an original Carette Cleminson.  Modern wheels, by the looks of it, and maybe some repairs.

 

Posted here so so that I know where it is.

[Simond]

Simple, and I’d expect it to be effective.  I’ll remember that if/when I do any 6 wheelers

 

thx

simon

[Nearholmer]

Station throat reconfiguration underway at Birlstone, to allow trains to be run-around clear of the through line. This has involved lifting the whole of three roads, and what you see hasn’t yet been properly aligned or re-fixed. 

 

The maximum train length is now four bogie coaches, rather than five, but since I rarely run more than three plus a van that is a very worthwhile sacrifice.

 

The gang were all off-site, having a tea break.

[Nearholmer]

Little bit more progress, with track repositioned and mostly aligned, although I still need to tidy-up sleeper-spacing and sort-out one track-spacing that i’m Not totally happy with.

 

Why I didn’t think of this track configuration  ages ago, I don’t know. It is far better, allowing proper operation of the two termini. Or, will allow, once i’ve amended the electrical connections to take full advantage of it.

 

If I want to go mad, it’s now perfectly possible to have three passenger rakes, the newspaper train, and a decent-length goods train, on the layout, without congestion, to operate a timetable.

[brianusa]

Pretty trackwork!  I've always liked the symmetrical look of tinplate track; toy like maybe, but leave the 'sweeping curves' to the scale oriented layouts and their devotees.

 

Brian.

[Nearholmer]

Its not tinplate, but I know exactly what you mean.

 

Its actually Maldon nickel silver track, which is heavily inspired by Hornby late-1930s solid-steel track, the "Princess Elizabeth Track", which was in turn heavily inspired by Maerklin Modellschienen, which I think was introduced c1935, so perhaps we should say: alles ordentlich und aufgeraumt.

[St Enodoc]

10 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Its not tinplate, but I know exactly what you mean.

 

Its actually Maldon nickel silver track, which is heavily inspired by Hornby late-1930s solid-steel track, the "Princess Elizabeth Track", which was in turn heavily inspired by Maerklin Modellschienen, which I think was introduced c1935, so perhaps we should say: alles ordentlich und aufgeraumt.

Unbedingt!

[Nearholmer]

Perhaps not quite that extreme.

 

 

Edited March 2, 2019 by Nearholmer

[F-UnitMad]

On 01/03/2019 at 22:27, Nearholmer said:

...alles ordentlich und aufgeraumt.

Gesundheit!!

[Nearholmer]

Long-time viewers of this channel might recall this loco, and the fact that it’s spoons were too close together, causing it to stall on point-work.

 

well, I found a reject set of standard-separation spoons at the back of a drawer on Friday, and having cleaned non-conductive plating off of them, fitted them. A bit of fiddling about, and some insulating over places where accidental contact occurs on tight curves, and Hey presto! It runs happily through points.

 

its a delicate flower, so will never be one of the prime haulers, but it can now go into traffic.

[Nearholmer]

Not really anything to do with the theme, except that it is decidedly of another age, but this is interesting and charming http://www.totleyhistorygroup.org.uk/photo-gallery/mitchell-s-railway/  

 

Make sure you read the PDF at the bottom, and follow the link at the very bottom, which fills in some detail of the man behind the railway and his family.

[mervyn]

Kevin what a wonderful article on a long vanished railway he truly was engineer  Thought the piece of writing  blaming his wife for derailments when she set the points wrong was superb  !!!  Thank you so much for sharing another miniature  railway empire from way back !

[Nearholmer]

Something of a recess going on in 0-gauge-land currently, while I devote hobby time to resurrecting my small garden railway, as recorded here https://www.rmweb.co.uk/community/index.php?/topic/143669-moribund-tramway/&tab=comments#comment-3528658

 

Edited April 17, 2019 by Nearholmer

[brianusa]

Corners are often difficult but provide a lot of action and show up spiders webs!

[Nearholmer]

I have to ask about the aeroplanes: did you work in aviation?

 

K

[Mark Carne]

From what I've seen K, the aeroplane dangling above the layout is the North American equivalent of the RMweb 'bus on an over bridge!

[Nearholmer]

Been very quiet 0-Gauge-wise, due to family commitments and minor garden railway distraction, but yesterday I managed to get to my usual old-train gathering for the first time in months.

 

Martin S-C came along, and was, I think, surprised to realise that old-fashioned-style 0 is alive and well and currently in production. Very good to meet you Martin.

 

Simon, another attendee had come from Australia ...... I think really to see his family, or maybe that was just a pretext. 

 

The theme was “diesel and electric”, which is actually quite a narrow one for old-stylers, but interesting trains nevertheless.

 

My Ace SR suburban EMU joined another, with a Pullman car sandwiched between. Very unprototypical ...... except that it isn’t, because the SR tried this trick in the 1920s, with a view to Derby Day traffic. I’ve been unable to find out whether or not the idea was taken forward, but trials were reported in Railway Magazine. [Checking RM July 1929, pp84, it seems that the idea was taken forward for The Derby of that year, that there were actually two Pullman cars in the sandwich, and that "... Connecting cables for multiple-unit control were laid through the Pullman cars", which sounds like a bit of a trip hazard.]

 

The Peak is a scratchbuild, dating from when the locos were new, so c60 years old, and is quite astonishingly heavy. The current owner has fettled it, and it now runs super-smoothly, like an anvil down an ice-slope.

Edited April 30, 2019 by Nearholmer

[Martin S-C]

It was great to meet you Kevin and to have my eyes (enjoyably) opened to the contemporary world of coarse scale O gauge. I do like that with the very small radii curves you can build coarse O layouts in the space people would often deem modest for 00. And pretty scenery work is optional.

[Northroader]

Now all you’ve got to do, Martin, is increase the headroom between your baseboards. Lucky you haven’t put much track down yet.

Edited April 30, 2019 by Northroader

[F-UnitMad]

5 hours ago, Martin S-C said:

It was great to meet you Kevin and to have my eyes (enjoyably) opened to the contemporary world of coarse scale O gauge. I do like that with the very small radii curves you can build coarse O layouts in the space people would often deem modest for 00. And pretty scenery work is optional.

With American outline you can do a roundy-roundy with scale 2-rail O, as well, with 36" radius curves.  

 

Edited April 30, 2019 by F-UnitMad

[Nearholmer]

Surprisingly, there were only two US trains present yesterday: the dreaded Chuggington Mad-F-Unit, this time in bright red; and, a really very rare Ives boxed set of electric loco and three coaches in 0-27 format. The condition of the latter was astonishingly good, box, associated paperwork, track and train looking very fresh for c100 years old.

[Lacathedrale]

There is something about the aesthetic of full depth sleepers and brass rail and big tinplate running on varnished wood baseboards that really makes me smile. It's almost as if they exist in a photograph where the depth of field draws your eye only to the subject, and not to what surrounds it - which recedes in a complimentary aura.

[Nearholmer]

I’m supposed to be doing a lot of domestic ‘paperwork’ today, but am not focusing very well!

 

I’ve shown this train before, but I always like to see the old adverts and announcements that go with things, and recently happened upon the item in a 1925 MRN.

 

As Mr Carne educated me, these were made using ex-Carette tooling.