Deliberately Old-Fashioned 0 Scale - Chapter 1

[Edwardian]

Look what I found, acting as gate guardian at the local museum, while construction of its new home proceeds.

 

Has someone made a bloomer?!?

[Northroader]

Glad to know it's still about. The Webb chimney doesn't quite tone in with the rest of the boiler mountings, does it?

[Nearholmer]

It's all go, what with the Lego Fire Brigade Annual Excursion, and strange Foreign trains visiting.

 

The LNER clockwork tank engine does nearly two laps, in a terrifying "wall of death" fashion!

Edited August 4, 2017 by Nearholmer

[brianusa]

Busy times on the railway with GW Lionel Hall on the Down line and Hornby County on an Up service.

Brian.

Edited September 5, 2017 by brianusa

[Metropolitan H]

Blimey. Those LNER coaches arrived very quickly - have you checked for "hot boxes"?

 

Still have my reservations regarding the clerestory roofs and think they would be better as a articulated bogie set - but they look rather good.

 

Regards

Chris H

 

P.S. - LNER loco number 88 was A3 4-6-2 "Book Law" under the 1946 renumbering system!

 

CH

Edited August 4, 2017 by Metropolitan H

[Nearholmer]

Ah, but that loco dates from1937, so what was No.88 then? Two Fat Ladies?

 

The coaches are very picturesque, so I'm wondering if it might be best to leave them as they are, which poses a locomotive question, because No.88 truly can't be trusted; way too wild!

[Northroader]

I like the look of those coaches, presume they're ACE? Are they pregroup finish or LNER with "6" numbers? LNER loco number 88 was an 0-6-0T, NER class 8 by Tennant, LNER J74. Built 1885, scrapped 1931, after which I think the number lay fallow. I fancy Ian Allan waited until after the 1947 scheme to bring out the ABCs, because the old NER scheme inherited by the LNER was total chaos.

[Metropolitan H]

Northroader,

 

Thanks for the info regarding the earlier LNER No. 88. An interesting loco, but not quite what Nearholmer needs / wants.

 

Nearholmer,

 

We must differ regarding the coaches, but when finished the N& might demean itself a act as motive power on ocassion.

 

Looks like you have the following options regarding "Home" motive power -

- An ACE G5 0-4-4T - if you can find one in the LNER lined black. Some did move to exGER lines but mainly the more rural areas.

- A scratch-build to taste - or kit-build - J65 or similar 0-6-0T / F4 - F7 2-4-2T (see https://www.lner.info/locos/F/f7.php ).

- An appropriate LMC Model, there are some - including a G4 0-4-4T.

- An alternative modern electric mech for your present No.88 - keeping the untamed clockwork mech for special events.

 

Regards

Chris H

[Northroader]

What's the plan? Are they for Paltry Circus inner suburban LNER/GER scene? I would think repowering no.88 would be the simplest job?

[Nearholmer]

Yes, Paltry is usually somewhere on the eastern fringes of the City, connected to the ELL (sometimes it migrates to the West, connected to the WLL), so I've long thought that it ought to have an LNER service.

 

Mr Holmes advises me, no doubt rightly, that these coaches are nowhere near appropriate, being GNR main line stock, if anything, but ...... in this particular corner of the world several wrongs do make a right ...... and, I rather like them!

 

The idea of electrifying No.88 struck me today, too. What's more, I have a couple of BL 4-4-0 locos, which I think might have the same mechanism as was fitted to the electric versions of the 0-4-0T, so it might be possible to simply swap the mechanisms around between them. Measurement needed.

 

Failing that, I have an LMC 0-6-0T with an utterly rubbish replacement mechanism, which is slated for a new mech and detailing as an LSWR G6. Instead, it could be detailed to look vaguely like a J7? .

 

Don't hold your breath, though!

 

Kevin

[Nearholmer]

At least it's got the right letters on the tender!

 

Popped into the Bucks Railway Centre in passing, and saw a real GNR six-wheel brake third, in a train with an LCDR four-wheeler, and a GC(?) six-wheeler. It's wonderful that preserved railway teams restore such coaches these days, because they are things of real beauty.

Edited August 6, 2017 by Nearholmer

[Metropolitan H]

But is it Vac fitted - sorry for GER that should be "Westinghouse fitted" ?

 

CH

[Northroader]

That passenger train has a really good look about, and well in keeping with the line. I did a check this afternoon to see if there were any LNER side tank locos at the London end with a "x88x" style of pre 47numbering, if you see my thinking, but not one!

[Nearholmer]

I've scratched around and found two more horseboxes in the past half-hour, so it's now been declared a Newmarket to Brighton Race Special, on the pretext of a photo of such a train, with about twenty horseboxes, in a book about the East London Line. Whether clerestory coaches would squeeze under the docks and the river, I've no idea, but the loco has got air braking ..... it's just that the accoutrements don't show up very well in photos.

 

BL and Hornby numbering of generic locos tended to be based on things like phone numbers and postal addresses, so 88 was probably what Mrs W J B-L dialled to contact her hairdresser, rather than an actual loco. Their previous series of 0-4-0T were all 112, the address of the shop in High Holborn, now McDonalds.

Edited August 6, 2017 by Nearholmer

[Northroader]

Looking in the recent GOG Gazette, the Trade News was saying about a new Sentinel steam railcar being brought out by Vintage Toy Train Spares. Kings Cross had some for the Edgware branch, would they have got to Paltry Circus?

[Nearholmer]

My minimal knowledge of LNER matters is added to by the hour - I wouldn't have guessed they were use on that service.

 

Bruce, who is half of VTTS brought the prototype model to a meeting last month, and it is a typical LMC wood and paper construction, which doesn't massively appeal to me, although it is, of course, very much old-fashioned.

 

Kevin

[Metropolitan H]

K - I already have a set of lithos and a body etc on order with Bruce - but don't hold your breath re completion.

 

Chris H

[Nearholmer]

There is a danger that it might reignite the relative cost debate, but, having shown a BL Standard 0-6-0 a few posts back, This advertisement from 1938 might be of interest. Mine probably began life with the notoriously frail Junior Permag motor (saving the purchaser 7s 0d compared with a good motor), because it has had a 'modern' can motor fitted to it, along with some very agricultural-looking Meccano gearing, at some point in its life.

[Donw]

There is a danger that it might reignite the relative cost debate, but, having shown a BL Standard 0-6-0 a few posts back, This advertisement from 1938 might be of interest. Mine probably began life with the notoriously frail Junior Permag motor (saving the purchaser 7s 0d compared with a good motor), because it has had a 'modern' can motor fitted to it, along with some very agricultural-looking Meccano gearing, at some point in its life.

 

I love the reasoning behind combining the LMS and LNER externals. I am surprised it wasn't offered in SR livery too.

 

Don

[woodenhead]

I love the reasoning behind combining the LMS and LNER externals. I am surprised it wasn't offered in SR livery too.

 

Don

Or even in a Pre-Grouping livery which surely would have had some popularity in 1938, or maybe no, no-one has ever wanted a Pre-Grouping livery rtr EVER. 

[Nearholmer]

I don't think it ever was, which is a surprise, because it looks as much like an ex-LBSCR C2X or C3 as it does like anything else (which is to say "not very much"). I got it with the intention of altering the cab slightly and repainting it to SR livery, thinking that the exterior was in as 'mucked about with' state as the innards and running gear, but once I'd fitted new axles, I left it as it is, because the tinwork is actually fairly presentable, and it doesn't seem right to paint over it.

 

The one concession to fidelity with this very practical design of 'model' is that the LMS ones and the LNER ones have different chimneys!

 

BL had a strange attitude to pre-group liveries, continuing to offer the 112 tank in several, well after the 'group' liveries had been settled, but generally trying to be modern. It's easy to forget that railway modelling was very largely a 'modern focused' hobby until perhaps the early 1960s, with suppliers vying to get "the latest thing" released in model form ...... the big LMS Pacifics were produced in model form before they'd really entered service, with the result that some of the commercial models 'got it all wrong'. The Trix 00 (ish) ones are exceedingly good, though, considering the amount of gubbins that they have crammed inside.

Edited August 9, 2017 by Nearholmer

[woodenhead]

It's easy to forget that railway modelling was very largely a 'modern focused' hobby until perhaps the early 1960s, with suppliers vying to get "the latest thing" released in model form 

So people who model the current privatised period are actually traditional modellers and those of us who dabble in the past are post war sentimentalists 

[Nearholmer]

I'd never quite thought of it like that!

 

The first book devoted to overtly historical railway modelling was probably "Modelling the Old Time Railways" by Rev Beal (who else?), published in 1955, which focuses on the 1890-1914 period, and there were clearly a few specialists active before then, because he illustrates it with photos of layouts.

 

My surmise is that Beal's book, combined with Rev Denny's contributions to the magazines, plus the sweeping away of the old on the real railway were what led to the nostalgiefest that continues today.

 

Triang both caught, and helped create the zeitgeist, with Rocket, Lord of the Isles, and Caledonian 123 in the early 1960s. Before these, I don't think there was a widely available r-t-r model that didn't represent a then current 'front line' loco; most of the Hornby Dublo locos were produced when the prototype was nearly new, And all represented things that were still in everyday service. Their last proper loco was a relatively new OHLE electric.

Edited August 9, 2017 by Nearholmer

[BG John]

So people who model the current privatised period are actually traditional modellers and those of us who dabble in the past are post war sentimentalists 

Nah, they're just conventional and boring. Those of use who model the past are creative and imaginative .

[Donw]

So people who model the current privatised period are actually traditional modellers and those of us who dabble in the past are post war sentimentalists 

 

We could be a modeller whether modelling the current seen or some past age. The sentimentalism may come in if we are painting a rose tinted picture of reality of whatever age. However this thread is deliberately old fashioned and to me suggests something between finescale modelling and toy trains where a lot of licence is allowed and the emphasis is not of sticking to the nitty gritty. Rather shinny models I would have thought perfectly acceptable.

Don