ever ready tube trains

[Dan Griffin]

i have a couple of centre cars from these trains. are they worth anything? when were they made? i belive there used to be a powered version but the power cars had grills printed on thats how i know these are centre cars. if anyone has any history on these trains or is interested in buying them let me know. id be grateful of any history you could give.

[Xerces Fobe2]

These models were produced in the early 1950's and are loosely based on the Waterloo & City line stock despite being painted red. They are fairly crude models and may be of interest to a collector if they are boxed with the track, however it sounds as if you just have a couple cars which might be of interest to someone but I don't think they will be worth a lot.

 

Xerces Fobe

[chrisf]

A guy at the collectors' fair at Sandy last month had a set in its original box. He said that Ever-Ready denied all knowledge of ever making it until confronted with the evidence. It must date from the very early 1950s.

 

Chris

[shortliner]

http://www.metromodels.net/abbey_road_guide.htm About ½ way down this page it tells why the set was produced

[PhilJ W]

My older brother had one of these one Christmas about 1953/54 as I recall it did not last long past Boxing day. Once the batteries had expired it was used for 'bombing practice'. Unfortunately my brother tended to destroy a lot of his toys that way! As stated above it was very crude, the set came with an oval of track and a battery controller and ran off an Ever-Ready bicycle lamp battery that soon ran down. The batteries were the most expensive item which meant that few lasted very long, perhaps it was only to sell more batteries.

[noiseboy72]

In "Mint" condition, as a boxed set, yes they have some value. If they have the original wheels and bogies, they are quite rare, as the wheels tended to fall apart and many have been replaced.

 

A battered centre car with a bit of paint missing and damaged wheels would get £10-£20 on ebay. They come up quite regularly.

[brixham]

As ChrisF above has said, some of these units were running at the TCS Sandy event in early July...

The diecast power bogie frames have usually crumbled away, so these are running on 3 railed Triang motor bogies.

The 3 rail track is the original.

Full show report, but ..scroll down a page to see the pics.

[Graham_Muz]

I must keep a look out for just one of the these coaches as with a little work I think it would good in Bulleid Silver and malachite livery in the middle of a frieght train on the way to Eastligh works.

Does anyone know what the dimensions are like with resepct to 4mm scale or are they oversize?

[Il Grifone]

Another of those items I had as a boy! The track was similar in style to Trix 3 rail on a bakelite base, but would only connect one way to make a circle about 4 foot diameter. The trailer cars ended up as extra coaches on my Dublo railway. IIRC they are one of those things for which scale is 'approximate'. Again IIRC, they had hook and bar couplings like Tri-ang and the cars were about 7" long.

[bertiedog]

It was not just to sell the batteries, one of the Ever-Ready directors had a son who expressed an interest in Underground trains, and contacted Hamblings, who did the litho printed LT stock at the time, but he did not want to build it, so asked the factory whether it was able to produce the model for sale. At first the intention was to make a Hornby Dublo compatible product, but costs spiraled, and a basic cost limit was imposed by the company to bring it under control.

 

This led to pretty crude construction, as simple as possible, with diecast parts that had terminal Mazak Rot. The set was sold to Ever-Ready stockists, Cycle shops and Gamages, and never really caught on beyond the Christmas toy market. Gamages of Holborn, sold the remaindered stock in the end, just as they did with Graham Farish's Formo range.

 

It is only a collectors item in the form with tin plate truck parts instead of the mazak, which ALL rots, it was all contaminated with lead.

 

Stephen.

[decauville1126]

Is anyone aware of a source of replica/replacement motor bogie  and sideframe castings to replace the rotted mazak ones? I have one en-route to do and although I realise that there are many substitution motor units that can be adapted I'd prefer to try and keep the original appearance. 

 

Thanks in advance for any pointers.

[Il Grifone]

I acquired one of the Palitoy Prairie tank sets from the '50s recently (or at least most of it). The motor is the same as used in the Underground set. Needless to say it is defunct!

 

The bogies of the Underground set I had were made from folded aluminium (IIRC*) sheet with the spring detail embossed.

 

* It was relatively thick (about 1mm I recall). The set had the picure box.

 

967

996

[sagaguy]

Is anyone aware of a source of replica/replacement motor bogie  and sideframe castings to replace the rotted mazak ones? I have one en-route to do and although I realise that there are many substitution motor units that can be adapted I'd prefer to try and keep the original appearance. 

 

Thanks in advance for any pointers.

Have they disintegrated completly.Many years ago,i needed a bogie sideframe for an H/D deltic bogie.Spares wern`t so available in those pre internet days so made a mould out of Plasticene using one as a pattern & poured some warmed up slow setting Araldite into the mould a put an Anglepoise lamp just above to speed up the curing.

 

  Worked a treat!

 

                Ray.

[decauville1126]

Thanks Il Grifone and Sagaguy.

 

I've a couple of the Palitoy Prairies (somewhere!) but didn't know the motor was the same.

 

As to casting sideframes, I think the ones of the yet-to-arrive chassis are bursting and already in several pieces so even temporary reassembling isn't probably an option. I can manufacture from scratch new components, and cast them in whitemetal or resin, but this is a major time requirement - hence my enquiring whether this has already been done by someone. 

[5050]

I remember a lad in school having the remains of one of the sets, it certainly wasn't a complete set.  It is the only example I've ever seen to this day and I've always been intrigued by it.  Thanks for the potted histories above guys!

[sagaguy]

I remember my cousin having one of thse sets,must have been in the early 1950`s.They only had gas lighting,no mains electricity.I think it ran off 2 or maybe 3 41/2 volt batteries but i don`t kow how long they lasted.

 

                     Ray.

[Il Grifone]

848

Mine had a controller incorporating a battery box, which contained a 6 volt 'lantern' battery. These are still available* (for several pounds).  This is probably cheaper in real terms than their cost in the early fifties.

 

* Used for powering flashing warning lamps I believe.

[2750Papyrus]

When I was growing up in Hornsey, there was a shop on a corner site on Topsfield Parade which housed a display model railway (closed many years ago and became a launderette - don't know what it is now).  Basically a tail-chaser, I can remember very little about it except that it had an underground station under the main baseboard and whenever I visited, I asked for the train to be run.  It was many years before I learned of the Ever Ready trains and I guess that the display model was one of these.

 

Does anyone else remember this railway?

[sagaguy]

Probably this one, the Kenwood model railway.

 

             http://www.lner.info/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1308

 

Although i grew up in Harringay in the 1950s,i never visited this railway.Most of my money was spent in Greenways Hornby Dublo & Meccano in Green lanes,Harringay & for model aircraft & boats,Garisans in Turnpike lane,Hornsey.

 

                         Happy days!,Ray.

[JJGraphics]

My older brother had one of these one Christmas about 1953/54 as I recall it did not last long past Boxing day. Once the batteries had expired it was used for 'bombing practice'. Unfortunately my brother tended to destroy a lot of his toys that way! As stated above it was very crude, the set came with an oval of track and a battery controller and ran off an Ever-Ready bicycle lamp battery that soon ran down. The batteries were the most expensive item which meant that few lasted very long, perhaps it was only to sell more batteries.

 

 

I was given one of the Tube Train sets for my birthday (I'm not saying which one) in 1953. The set used Ever Ready 996 "Lantern" batteries which certainly did run down at an alarming rate, but the biggest problem was to keep the track connected. As you clipped it together in one place, it popped apart in another! My set lasted a couple of years until one magical Christmas, Santa (my Grandad) brought me a Tri-ang Princess Elizabeth Train set. My interest in model railways has continued unabated ever since.

 

I seem to remember that one of the auction houses sold a set in untouched condition in a perfect unfaded box a year or two back for several hundred pounds, but I cannot find a reference to the sale anywhere . . .

[Enterprisingwestern]

Re the side frames.

Could the EFE underground model's castings be used?

 

Mike.

 

Apologies if this is rubbish, my knowledge of underground stock is minimal at best.

[Il Grifone]

I may be wrong, but the one on the Metromodels site appears to have had a transplant from an 'Underground Ernie' set. Unlike mine it has two power cars. AFAIK the sets consisted of a power car and two trailers.

 

The bogies on mine were made from folded aluminium sheet, crudely stamped with spring detail. It was crude even to my young eyes (I was only 5 or 6 at the time).

 

There was a photo of me at a tender age on the lawn, surrounded by track, with my finger on the Ever-Ready train to stop it for the picture. (It seemed like a good idea at the time). I haven't seen a copy for many years, so you are all safe!

 

EDIT.

Reading the blurb, I see it has a rather more sophisticated drive than my guess above. They state tinplate bogies but I recall aluminium. Possibly they used both or I am mistaken.  It did give up the ghost a long time ago!

 

I must have received mine in 1952. Dublo supplies were rare/non-existant at that time due to the Korean war presumably aluminium was not a restricted material?. Mazak from this period is extremely prone to failure, apparently due to shortage of magnesium in the alloy. (This was definitely restricted, being a vital ingredient in munitions..)

 

The straight rails must have been an optional extra - my set certainly didn't have any.

 

I'd like to replace mine, but the last one I saw (in a shop in Teignmouth, nearly twenty years ago) was silly money.

[Nearholmer]

One of the members of the Train Collectors Society specialises in these beasts, and often brings a selection of them to gatherings. He is a clearly an electro-mechanical genius, because he actually gets them to run!

 

K

[sagaguy]

I may be wrong, but the one on the Metromodels site appears to have had a transplant from an 'Underground Ernie' set. Unlike mine it has two power cars. AFAIK the sets consisted of a power car and two trailers.

 

The bogies on mine were made from folded aluminium sheet, crudely stamped with spring detail. It was crude even to my young eyes (I was only 5 or 6 at the time).

 

There was a photo of me at a tender age on the lawn, surrounded by track, with my finger on the Ever-Ready train to stop it for the picture. (It seemed like a good idea at the time). I haven't seen a copy for many years, so you are all safe!

 

EDIT.

Reading the blurb, I see it has a rather more sophisticated drive than my guess above. They state tinplate bogies but I recall aluminium. Possibly they used both or I am mistaken.  It did give up the ghost a long time ago!

 

I must have received mine in 1952. Dublo supplies were rare/non-existant at that time due to the Korean war presumably aluminium was not a restricted material?. Mazak from this period is extremely prone to failure, apparently due to shortage of magnesium in the alloy. (This was definitely restricted, being a vital ingredient in munitions..)

 

The straight rails must have been an optional extra - my set certainly didn't have any.

 

I'd like to replace mine, but the last one I saw (in a shop in Teignmouth, nearly twenty years ago) was silly money.

 

   Were there ever any straight rails?,i never saw any advertised although Eveready stated that spares were available.

    Speaking of the Korean war,i`ve just resurfaced my baseboard with 4mm cork tiles& sorting the 3 rail track out,a few items have gone rusty.These must have been manufactured in about 1952 when brass wasn`t available.

 

                                 Ray.

[Il Grifone]

Steel rail indeed dates from the Korean war, usually with cardboard rather than paxolin centre rail insulators. The rail can be replaced with good nickel stock from track with buckled bases, but this is probably too much hassle.

 

The first (pre-war and early post-war) track had plain brass rail, fishplates and contact 'tongues'. Later on the rail was nickel plated and later still the rounded tongue was replaced with a rectangular version. There are also a variety of printing styles on the bases. Pre-war points have printed bases like the other track - the grey bases appeared on the first electric points about 1940 I believe. The printing style (why yellow?) appears to have been copied from Märklin*, but why they decided to colour the points and crossings grey I have no idea. This grey has a greenish tinge and is very difficult to match, (like the building yellow/buff). My latest attempt was near but still wrong. Still it looks better than bare metal.

 

* The connections are 100% compatible , apart from the deeper Märklin base.

 

Sorry to wander off-topic - Dublo track has little to do with Ever-Ready trains, except that they should run on it (watching the voltage of course). My trailer cars finished up adding to my coaching stock with some wire ensuring they stayed coupled.