Deliberately Old-Fashioned 0 Scale - Chapter 1

[Nearholmer]

Ah, but most Leeds Locos and stock have three-link.

 

Anyway, while I’m eating my sandwich, i’ll Show you this.

 

Adaptor wagon, created by fitting a coupler made from a 13A plug pin and some brass strip, to a Hornby ‘flat’. The coupler needs a centring spring, and the wagon needs to be Frenchified, but for less than an hours work it does the job.

[Simond]

Stick an angled box on top, paint it grey, add a few handrails and call it a shunter's truck!

[Nearholmer]

Very GWR.

 

A better bet is probably going to be to move the coupler to a LWB chassis, and make a body to represent one of the USATC standard wagons, the flat being the easiest, the caboose the most interesting.

[Northroader]

How about having you adaptor under one of these? (Very neat bit of handiwork, by the way) A fourgon usually led the train in France, and it looks like it’s been in the wars.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Hornby-O-WAGON-FOURGON/283608439270?_trkparms=aid%3D1110001%26algo%3DSPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D20190212102350%26meid%3D29d9e9048cee4bd28c557e591a0ea811%26pid%3D100012%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D264427671288%26itm%3D283608439270%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2047675&_trksid=p2047675.c100012.m1985

then you just need to blow up a bridge (one of the small GEC locos)

Edited September 9, 2019 by Northroader

[brianusa]

This one is a Plymouth 'switcher,' lights and smoke, from K-Line.   Altered Atlas 'caboose'

      Brian.

 

 

[GRASinBothell]

Of course, you could always do a "what if...", as in what if the Southern Railway had done the sensible thing in experimenting with diesels by just buying an EMD F3, cut down to the British loading gauge?

And conveniently MTH do one of those in Southern Railway livery. Needless to say, it's the Southern Railway in the South-Eastern USA. But it's basically a green and cream/yellow livery so it could pass.

Food for thought.

Gordon

[Nearholmer]

I must admit that the sound affects do make further random additions to the fleet tempting. I like older diesel locos, the ones that date from before emission controls and sound-proofing, and if the 44 tonner is anything to go by, MTH are far better at sound than, dare I say it, Ace, whose Warship loco noise doesn't sound at all right to me.

 

Listening to some fine scale 0 gauge sound-equipped models on Saturday, some of them don't get it right either. The one that amazed me was an N gauge model, in which the owner had fitted a 10mm cube speaker - it had the note of the Sulzer diesel off to a tee, including the bass part of the spectrum. Clever, or what?

 

Not really in the deliberately old-fashioned spirit, is it though? The prototype locos might qualify, but a heap of digital electronics doesn't really ........ unless, perhaps, something could be done with thermionic valves, or by fitting a wind-up gramophone under the layout.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 9, 2019 by Nearholmer

[Simond]

Could you construct something akin to a Hurdy Gurdy within the loco?  Should be possible to make suitably representative (if not terribly realistic) sounds.  Heavens, it could even be clockwork!!!  

 

Digital (as in “using your fingers”) Clockwork Control, anyone?

 

tongue very firmly in cheek

Simon

[Nearholmer]

I like those ideas a lot, but I am leaning in the direction of a very, very small gramophone in an open wagon, which I think would add party atmosphere.

[Donw]

23 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

I like those ideas a lot, but I am leaning in the direction of a very, very small gramophone in an open wagon, which I think would add party atmosphere.yy

 

Now you may be clever enough to make the gramaphone  but where do you get the discs ( obviously 78s). May I suggest some of this list would seem old fashioned enough;-

The Sun has got his Hat on

Run Rabbit run

Out of Town

 and for running round and round the Hungarian Rapsody

 

Don, any of those take me back to my 50s childhood and 0 gauge clockwork

[uax6]

And that all time classic: the Railroad runs through the middle of the house.

 

Andy G

 

[Nearholmer]

I’ve actually got a wind-up gramophone somewhere in the loft, which was my father’s in the 1930s. The collection of 78s with it is a bit odd, consisting of various ‘novelty songs’, some of the above plus Teddy Bear’s Picnic, and others that nobody remembers now, which must have been his, plus numerous discs devoted to memorial services at the cenotaph in London at multiple different dates, and hymns, which I think belonged to his maternal grandmother. She was very “chapel” (i.e. Baptist), attending both morning and evening services on a Sunday, so actual popular music, dance bands etc, would have been a tad frivolous for her. The chapel she was a member of had the same pastor from 1924 until c1980, so although I never knew my great grandmother, the man she went to here preach was still a familiar figure about the place. His predecessor served a similarly long term, and the place has only had seven pastors in total in its c170 year history, which must be some sort of record. Which brings us back to 78s.

 

 

Edited September 11, 2019 by Nearholmer

[Nearholmer]

Following discussion of a Tintin lorry in the Coarse 0 thread, herewith an orange one, in company with an ancient Minic, and a 1980s(?) ERTL, which is a not very good model of s lorry, with a very good model of a sheeted load.

 

The loco was a significant birthday present to self, and fits very nicely into the early-BR LM Region theme that my layout sometimes lapses into (it’s been in it for months now!). Made by ETS for Ace, and a veeeery smooth runner.

 

 

Edited September 28, 2019 by Nearholmer

[GRASinBothell]

Not to mention a goodly supply of #50 wagons!

I like the minimalist scenery approach, and sometimes wonder if I shouldn't have gone for something more like that. It would certainly have shortened the time to get to its present unfinished state...

The loco looks good. Glad to hear it also runs well. As you've said elsewhere, it does fit in well with a minor line. I only have the one loco in BR livery - a Stanier tank. That was an impulse buy on a visit to my then "local" (i.e. only 100 miles away in a different country) dealer North of the border. My wife asked if I wanted it for Christmas, so I said yes.

So, which story was the Tintin lorry from?

Gordon

[Nearholmer]

I think it might be another Blue Lotus one, but I can’t remember for sure.

 

There’s no room for greenery on my layout, but this side of the room needs a lot more work, notably a 16ft long mural/backscene, a station building, a small goods shed, a dairy, and, and...... So, it’s not quite meant to be as minimalistic as it is now.

 

1950s is actually a good era for our sort of railway, because original stuff is easy to find in good condition, and the BL locos run perfectly acceptably, and, of course, the modern production items can mostly be had in the right liveries too. I think if I was to start all over again, I might go for this period exclusively.

[Karhedron]

On 29/07/2019 at 23:21, GRASinBothell said:

Going back to your mention of Friar Waddon Milk Platform, are there any pictures of it? I couldn't find any on-line, and one website noted that its location was unclear (rather implying a lack of photographic evidence...).

There was a Wild Swan book on the Abbotsbury branch that is probably the most likely place to find such a picture, but the asking price on Amazon is $153+ (delivery extra), so I'm not going to be buying a copy anytime soon!

 

The Wild Swan book does have one rather indistinct photo of Frair Waddon Milk Platform and they note it is the only one they are aware of. If you have difficulty tracking down the book, I can give you a brief description. It is very small, not like the platform as a station. It is hard to judge the size from the photo but it looks to be about 12' square with a railing at the back and on one side. It is hard to tell what it is made from, it might be just timber decking. It was situated where a track crossed the line.

 

The book notes that churns were carried along this lane at least as far back as 1917 so the platform (which opened in 1932) might have been formalising an earlier arrangement. The book mentions that a van was provided for churn traffic and in 1929, a picture shows an elderly Dean full-brake between the loco and auto-coach.

Edited September 29, 2019 by Karhedron

[GRASinBothell]

Thanks for that note on the milk platform. I take it there was no nameboard or sign of any kind. I would have expected it to be timber (old sleepers?).

 

And Kevin, yes, I think if I had my time again I would have gone for 1950s/BR for everything. It's the time I remember, and it allows for wider use of diecast cars, without them looking out of place. Very much grown-up Hornby-Dublo!

 

Gordon

[Karhedron]

The picture is pretty indistinct unfortunately. No signage is visible. Apart from railings on the southern and eastern sides, the only other feature is a tall post which I guess is some sort of lamp. 

[Nearholmer]

Very special engine pulled the down milk train this morning, being a visitor from Mr H’s railway.

 

In a reprise of my real railway photography in days of actual film, I messed-up most of the pictures, and the only decent one has the loco half out of shot, but you’ll get the idea.

 

 

 

[Nearholmer]

And, with more of a sense of urgency.

[rockershovel]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

Very special engine pulled the down milk train this morning, being a visitor from Mr H’s railway.

 

In a reprise of my real railway photography in days of actual film, I messed-up most of the pictures, and the only decent one has the loco half out of shot, but you’ll get the idea.

 

 

 

 

Looks like a catalogue photo, very "period"!

[Edwardian]

Meanwhile, in Manchester .....

 

"Come on now, Sir Geoffrey ..."

 

[rockershovel]

10 minutes ago, Edwardian said:

Meanwhile, in Manchester .....

 

"Come on now, Sir Geoffrey ..."

 

 

“Do you think they’re compensating for something?”

[Nearholmer]

As flies to wanton boys are we to th’ gods

They kill us for their sport

 

Oddly enough, I was reading The Fly by Blake the other day, which has a very similar theme, so I now wonder if this is where he picked it up ........ hadn't spotted that before.

 

PS: I've just realised that the Gloucester I'm thinking of was an earl, not a Duke. So irrelevant to this, really.

Edited October 1, 2019 by Nearholmer

[Metropolitan H]

Thanks for the "Catalogue shot" from the 1950s. Thanks to another friend, we can do a fancy modern colour picture - albeit with the DoG and train running "Bang road". It must have been a Sunday engineering works arrangement!

 

Regards

Chris H