Deliberately Old-Fashioned 0 Scale - Chapter 1

[Metropolitan H]

I do tend to wonder why so many modellers seem obsessed with making their trains run quietly (usually focussing on choice of track underlay) when the real things are such noisy contraptions!!

So as not to wake-up and incur the wrath of the neighbours / children / spouse etc.?

 

Regards

Chris H

[Nearholmer]

To calm my self down after all the talk of blue-painted engines and poor-quality cheese in other threads, an hour spent running an intensive suburban service using entirely green tank engines and green carriages. The deeply strange cheese that we brought back from holiday is a bit too rich for now.

Edited September 28, 2018 by Nearholmer

[BlueLightning]

Blue painted engines!!!! Who would do that?????? :jester:

 

Gary

[Lu4472ke]

Blue painted engines!!!! Who would do that?????? :jester:

 

Gary

 

Only proper railway companies 

[Nearholmer]

Actually, thinking about it, I do have a couple of blue locos. Maybe I should swap them for something a nicer colour.

[Simond]

Yes, I’m not sure the blue era did anything good for steam locos. I thought the A4s looked ok, but Kings, no, not a good look imo.

 

Best

Simon

[St Enodoc]

To calm my self down after all the talk of blue-painted engines and poor-quality cheese in other threads, an hour spent running an intensive suburban service using entirely green tank engines and green carriages. The deeply strange cheese that we brought back from holiday is a bit too rich for now.

Nice packing case.

 

B. Stoker

[Nearholmer]

Well spotted!

[GRASinBothell]

I'm trying to work out what it's supposed to contain, with that "OPEN ONLY IN DARKNESS"...

 

Gordon

[Simond]

Th3 clue would be in Mr Stoker’s post.

 

[GRASinBothell]

Ah! I hadn't spotted the signature.

 

Gordon

[Nearholmer]

Paltry Circus seems to have become something of a hub. A service from a long-forgotten bay platform at a station somewhere on the North London Line or the Tottenham & Hampstead Joint has now commenced!

 

The loco is one of the rare Highfield Models ‘chopper tanks’, but for reasons unknown it is fitted with a Midland-esque safety valve bonnet and bunker, so who really knows.

[Northroader]

It’s a very neat little engine, and with a change of safety valves, you could pretty well paint it whatever Railways livery you wanted to, and it would look good? Got a bigger picture of it , please?

[Nearholmer]

See p37 for one in LNWR livery. I’ll post another photo later.

 

Later has now happened.

 

With minor variations, as you say, it could approximate to any number of engines. Very suitable for light railways too.

 

After having had the wheels re-secured to the axles, it runs well, but the spoon-span is very short, so it gets stuck on points; I need to solder-up some longer spoons.

Edited October 6, 2018 by Nearholmer

[Nearholmer]

An attractive red 2-4-0T, from the IoWCR.

 

Is it posed at the base of a pyramid?

Edited October 7, 2018 by Nearholmer

[Northroader]

Since your first pic., I’ve been thinking, what if there was a simple kit, using a 2-4-0 or 0-4-2 chassis, reversibly attached to a superstructure of footplate/ boiler/ smokebox/ side tanks / bunker assembly, then optional addons, splashers / blanking plate, cabs, boiler fittings, smokebox doors, outside frame etc for the leading /trailing wheel, and so on, perhaps in plastic. Not an exact copy of a particular class or railway, but could be adapted to a vague engine for any number of lines. Think I ought to go to Dragons Den!?!?

[Nearholmer]

Very much understood.

 

My own pet idea along the same lines is a kit for a generic late-Victorian 0-6-0 goods engine. They were all exceedingly similar, especially the Stroudley-Drummond family and their cousins in the extended Worsdell family, so that variants in cab shapes and boiler fittings could make representations of many types. I imagine it as a simple brass-tube and fold-ups kit, so that a cab, or a front splashed/sandbox, for instance, is folded along clearly etched lines from one part.

 

But, I think the market for such ‘close approximation’ died-out about forty years ago. Now, everyone wants hi-fi kits, or hi-fi r-t-r, the emphasis being on micro-differences, rather than gross similarities.

Edited October 7, 2018 by Nearholmer

[Simond]

I don’t think it would be difficult to do, a Premier or JPL chassis and a single sheet etch for each loco and tender. Wheels may need a little thinking about but Walsall should be able to provide the necessary.

 

Is there a market? Could you crowdfund?

 

Best

Simon

[Nearholmer]

Its actually not massively expensive to fund design and making of a simple etch. I had a set made for some Irish NG bogie coaches in 1:20 scale, and was surprised by how reasonable it was. For chassis, us coarse-scale people are currently spoiled rotten, because ETS will supply to almost any feasible combination of wheelbase and wheel diameter; I think the chassis parts are CNC cut, so they simply dial in what you want, and the drive-train is all standard components.

 

In short, for coarse-scale it is all eminently do-able. Whether fine-scalers would accept ETS wheels, I don't know. They can certainly make them to FS b-t-b and profile, but people get quite particular about things like the number of spokes and the shape of the crankpin boss, and I imagine the crankpin nuts might cause apoplexy.

Edited October 7, 2018 by Nearholmer

[Simond]

I doubt the finescalers would be interested, but I can see how a generic 0-6-0 tender loco might appeal to those of a coarser persuasion.

 

Best

Simon

[Nearholmer]

You're probably right.

 

The loco to start with would be the Stroudley (C2?) that Dugald Drummond then reproduced in Scotland (CR Jumbo?, then extemporise around that until the resemblance and dimensions 'ran out of scope'. I'm pretty sure this could include the LSWR 700 and an NBR class at least.

[Northroader]

It’s a nice thought, an update on the good old Lima 4F, with a slightly smaller boiler, and cabs and boiler fittings you can swap. Those bloody half relief wheels were the only thing that kept me away from it, and probably a good few more. You do see conversions, though these are getting rarer, as people can’t be ar**d to file the holes out. I would think fine scalers wouldn’t be too precious about exact detail if the price was low enough. One thing I’ve found with a Dapol pannier tank is the detail is too fine, as it is very fragile if you’re not very careful with handling. The other thing I didn’t notice it until I was running it upside down it has working inside valvegear, all very fine except you never see it when running, and adding to production costs. K.I.S.S!

[Simond]

Ah, but it’s there, and that sells toys!

[Guest Isambarduk]

Those bloody half relief wheels were the only thing that kept me away from it, and probably a good few more.

 

… and the truly terrible toy-like motor and gears!  It didn't help that it was to a smaller scale than the conventional 43.5:1 used in the UK.   David

[Nearholmer]

The way I look at it, the Lima 4F existed for forty odd years without ever attracting me towards 0. It is, IMO, utterly lacking in charisma as it stands, and the components seem of such dubious quality that it is unattractive as potential conversion-fodder.

 

I have seen one or two masterpieces that have their origins in Lima 4Fs, but they say a lot more about the skills of those who made them than about the start-model.