Where is British outline model railway manufacturing heading?

[rue_d_etropal]

19 hours ago, wainwright1 said:

I believe that the Hornby-Dublo coupling was based on the PECO one, as too was the British TRIX one.

 

All the best

 

Ray

I am pretty certain that is correct. Seem to remember reading about its origins in magazine from 1950s. It would have been a Peco patent. Would be interesting to know how and why Hornby Dublo used it.

With mentions about track above, it should be noted that all Peco OO track is actually HO, not just the gauge but also the sleeper size and spacing(7mm). Their market stretches beyond the Channel , and any major investment would be looking at worldwide market not just British.

It would not stop anyone or any group paying for development of new items , in similar way to how Peco EM gauge track has been introduced.

Interestingly Hornby Dublo 2 rail track had sleeper spacing set at 8mm so closer to 4mm scale. Also GEM , and Graham Farish OO track had 8mm spacing. I only found out by chance when I bought som S/H tack at an exhibition, thinking it looked like 016.5. I then decided to use it on a sall OO layout I am currently building, and keep an eye out for more. It is noticable especially when used with Peco points, but layout only has one point, and I will find a way to reduce the differerence.

 

[PatB]

22 hours ago, Pandora said:

I remember the Triang Big-Big O gauge models of the mid 60s, the locos,  a Hymek "Blue Flyer" and a  0-4-0 narrow gauge diesel shunter ,  all ran on battery power on bright red plastic track.

There was a Mark 2 coach, a 16T mineral wagon, and a side-tipper hopper wagon to go with the industrial narrow gauge loco.  The tooling was sold to a company in Russia, some of the models made their way back to the UK around 1980 under a  brand name which may have been Nova.

ps The couplings on Big-Big  were not Triang tension lock hook and bar,  they were big  versions of Dublo hooks, probably Triang inherited the patent when they bought up Dublo Binns Road, perhaps a tacit admission that Dublo couplings were superior to Triang  tension locks

Triang Big-Big (and its Novo successor) was something of a mainstay of the budget 0 gauge operator well into the 1980s and maybe beyond. I don't think I knew anyone in 0 who didn't at least have a couple of Hymeks, a rake of minerals and an assortment of modified Mk2s stashed somewhere. 

 

The couplings were more akin to the knuckles used by US manufacturers (Atlas, particularly) than the HD/Peco/Trix 00 unit, although all knuckle couplers operate on much the same principle. 

[Jeff Smith]

20 hours ago, wainwright1 said:

I believe that the Hornby-Dublo coupling was based on the PECO one, as too was the British TRIX one.

 

All the best

 

Ray

It is a great shame that the tension lock type coupler has become the standard OO coupler.  It is so much simpler to pick a wagon or coach out of a rake with the Peco type or knuckle type......

[dibber25]

The Hornby-Dublo coupling was OK in the early days when it was the blackened, pressed metal style but when they moved to that super-thick and heavy plastic version it was ugly and unreliable, being impossible to bend back into shape when it inevitably drooped. The only thing worse than that was the tension-lock. However, neither of them looks remotely like a British three-link or screw coupling and if you fit something that looks right, it won't work on train set curves. (CJL)

[rockershovel]

On 25/09/2020 at 14:40, rue_d_etropal said:

I am pretty certain that is correct. Seem to remember reading about its origins in magazine from 1950s. It would have been a Peco patent. Would be interesting to know how and why Hornby Dublo used it.

With mentions about track above, it should be noted that all Peco OO track is actually HO, not just the gauge but also the sleeper size and spacing(7mm). Their market stretches beyond the Channel , and any major investment would be looking at worldwide market not just British.

It would not stop anyone or any group paying for development of new items , in similar way to how Peco EM gauge track has been introduced.

Interestingly Hornby Dublo 2 rail track had sleeper spacing set at 8mm so closer to 4mm scale. Also GEM , and Graham Farish OO track had 8mm spacing. I only found out by chance when I bought som S/H tack at an exhibition, thinking it looked like 016.5. I then decided to use it on a sall OO layout I am currently building, and keep an eye out for more. It is noticable especially when used with Peco points, but layout only has one point, and I will find a way to reduce the differerence.

 

 

I’d always understood that the cardinal rule, applicable to all Gauges, worldwide was that no two sleepers shall ever lie at a distance to suit one pace..

[rue_d_etropal]

On 27/09/2020 at 00:27, dibber25 said:

The Hornby-Dublo coupling was OK in the early days when it was the blackened, pressed metal style but when they moved to that super-thick and heavy plastic version it was ugly and unreliable, being impossible to bend back into shape when it inevitably drooped. The only thing worse than that was the tension-lock. However, neither of them looks remotely like a British three-link or screw coupling and if you fit something that looks right, it won't work on train set curves. (CJL)

Personally I prefer the 'continental' style coupling , on which the OO9 coupling is based , but with a simple wire hook, as was used on Rivarossi at one time. Metal couplings are always easier to 'fix' as they can be adjusted/fixed/bent to correct position. I have started to design my own version, which used thin wire(not that visible), and the 'blade of grass' uncoupling idea which Roger Nicholls designed, with a hook on one end and a loop on the other.