Items of commercial interest for British H0

[Lazy]

The ERTL Thomas range contains a few items of interest to HO modellers. The "Toby" tram engine appears to be dimensionally suitable, although as it is a crude diecast model I contented myself with grinding Toby's face off (!) and adding a representation of the end doors.

 

 

 

A Tenshodo bogie provides power. There is also a "Stafford" which represents the NSR battery loco. More work is required for this one, including opening out the (solid) cab windows and improving the underframe. Tenshodo power is  again used. As supplied, the body appeared to be deeper than the prototype so I removed material from the bottom of the casting. I think the excess depth is because a half-plank on the prototype front end has been modelled as a full plank. Also, the middle plank on the bodyside appears to be too deep. Correcting this on a diecast model would be difficult.

 

Another useful item is the tank wagon which is available in various liveries. The underframe is useless but the tank barrel is a serviceable representation of older types. A replacement chassis can be obtained from a Lima wagon or (shortened) from the Playcraft steel mineral. The tank can be detailed with wire stays etc. Securing cables are moulded on the barrel, but I remove them from the bottom half and use fuse wire (filed down to give a smooth transition to the moulded cable on the top half). I have not usually modelled specific prototypes though, adopting a more generic approach. Currently most of my tanks are Class B types, although I have (loosely) modelled a ferry tank for conveying bromine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[eldomtom2]

23 hours ago, Lazy said:

There is also a "Stafford" which represents the NSR battery loco.

This is not part of the ERTL range but rather the "Take n Play" range produced by Fisher-Price - these are generally less useful than the ERTL range (which has now been out of production for two decades) as they are not dimensionally accurate either to the real-life prototypes or the characters in the TV show.