When TT3 was the next Big Thing

[Silverfox17]

They also made a footbridge, steam shed and diesel shed.  There were also canopies for the platforms but no other station than what Sara put on.  There were some nice wooden ones made by someone but usually quite expensive.  I have the signal box which came in a job lot which is better than the Tri-ang one but not as good as the Skaledale ones.  The Tri-ang one is I guess a "modern" image SR model.  Modern at the time but dated now.

 

Garry

[Il Grifone]

Buildings generally seem to have a rather flexible scale. Most seem decidedly undersize (especially churches). I used the 00 (allegedly - compare with the similar Hornby one) Airfix station building kit for the TT-3 layout I built in the sixties. Most Heljan building kits seem to be 1:100 or less (they are not alone in this!). They will have to sit at the back of the layout I have an American station (I forget the make) which was little too rural for what I required, but its main fault was the puny size, not helped by the American habit of low platforms*. I got a Walthers** replacement (before The Post Office decided to charge £8 for the privilege of collecting taxes!).

 

*I think there's a window which has gone walkabout, but that would not be insuperable.

 

** ATSF mission style - perfect. I should have got the freight depot at the same time. Import duties have now made it extremely expensive. They've also changed the finish to brick. 

[Silverfox17]

A neat little touch is from 247 Developments whohave done some 3mm SR headcode discs. These come on a fret of 18 painted and look nice on the models. 247 Developments do my smokebox and loco nameplates, headboards etc in 3mm to order of which I have a few but need to look at fitting them. 

[Silverfox17]

Here are some of the smokebox numberplates in 3mm scale. 

 

Garry 

Edited May 9, 2020 by Silverfox17

[Robert Shrives]

Great plates , I guess being 2347 developments does not have a "ring" about it , but good to know when time allows some 3mm kit is available. 

Robert  

[Silverfox17]

It's just 247 not 2347 but having the 3 in would be appropriate.   

 

Edit, I have just realised what you meant about the name Robert so my comment was out of context.

Garry 

Edited May 9, 2020 by Silverfox17

[Silverfox17]

This is the Bec/Esanel 2P kit which I bought a few years ago and only last week decided to look at it. When bought it came with a K's tender drive, which the tender was at one time designed for. The tender was falling apart but the loco body was okay so not stripped, just painted over. The tender was stripped and soldered up. I did have to make up replacement coupling rods though. I had read that the tender drives were quite weak but tonight I tried it out for the first time with no extra weight and it runs well with 7 Tri-ang coaches fitted with metal wheels but axles still in the frames, no pin points. 

 

Garry 

[St Enodoc]

7 hours ago, Silverfox17 said:

It's just 247 not 2347 but having the 3 in would be appropriate.   

 

Edit, I have just realised what you meant about the name Robert so my comment was out of context.

Garry 

247 always means Radio 1 to me.

[TEAMYAKIMA]

Overnight someone has 'liked' my 2017 post where I say that I was never into TT back in the day, but in 2011 Twickenham & District MRC were about to put on a Golden Jubilee exhibition and wanted to show how the hobby was back in 1961 when the club was formed - so in 2011 I built a typical 1961 Table Top model railway.

 

In my original post I said that I would look out a photo from my archive - I didn't!  Later in 2017 someone commented on my posting and I said that I would definitely dig out a photo - I didn't.

 

So when I saw that someone had read my original post overnight I thought I must dig that photo out. But then I thought I might have posted it sometime in the last few years and so this morning I have gone through all 41 pages of this topic and discovered that I haven't posted that photo - so I'll have to start looking for it in my archive. I will post it today -  promise!

[TEAMYAKIMA]

So, here it is - three years late!

 

 

For those of you who haven't read my original thread, or who have forgotten it, the idea is that it is a REAL table top railway.

 

It's a kitchen table and the layout has been set up whilst mum is not using it. There's a half eaten kit-kat (with the wrapper removed as it wouldn't be authentic for 1961) and a half drunk cup of tea. My dad must have been helping because there's a fag end (fake) in the ash tray.

 

EVERYTHING except the two trains running round, the loco in the shed and the tea cup is permanently glued down in place!

 

[Silverfox17]

Thanks, that is brilliant. Even with the Ever Ready batteries in the controller.  How long did you keep the layout as I can imagine a KitKat glued down might start togo off and even melt. 

 

A great idea and I hope it was appreciated by the public. 

 

Garry 

[Silverfox17]

It is not easy getting things like watercranes in TT scale these days so I have used Hornby Dublo ones. The main casting was cut off just above the handle and the column drill 1/16" for some brass wire to be used to locate it in the baseboard. The bag was then made from a little iron on repair tape which gives a bit of texture then coloured with a felt tip pen. 

 

Garry 

[TEAMYAKIMA]

A few comments

 

The kit-kat was eaten at the end of the show

 

That photo was actually taken in 2019 (I think) at the layout's only other show - SW Herts one dayer

 

The Ever Ready batteries are actually a large block of wood cut into so as to look like three smaller blocks and then printed images stuck on. The block has a hole in it and wires from the battery controller go down to the floor to a gaugemaster controller which actually runs both trains. Unfortunately as these images were down loaded from EVER READY's website in the US the artwork is authentic date wise but is actually American.

 

There are section switches hidden in the TRI-ANG boxes stacked at the back. They put the power to both tracks or one or other. I generally just one train for 10 minutes, then the other.

 

At the SW Herts show I got grief from a young dad carrying a small child (18 months) who was offended by the (fake) cigarette butt and accused me of encouraging his child to smoke.

[TEAMYAKIMA]

26 minutes ago, Silverfox17 said:

Thanks, that is brilliant. Even with the Ever Ready batteries in the controller.  How long did you keep the layout as I can imagine a KitKat glued down might start togo off and even melt. 

 

A great idea and I hope it was appreciated by the public. 

 

Garry 

 

I was showing my other (ON3) layout at the 2011 Twickenham show so left this one in the hands of one of our junior members. At the SW Herts show it provoked some nice conversations.

 

It still exists today, and will (hopefully) be permanently be on static display  when I get my shed finally set up as the 'museum of my life'.

[Robert Shrives]

The table top layout is a good way of showing TT - From this to Erics huge layouts , Warley show has in the past hat sections of the hall set aside to this sort of display with the relevant collector society stands nearby - always a popular area not only from the spectacle of trains merrily roaring round ( scale speeds also available!) to hearing folk giving up tales of youth.. some long gone some not so.  I think many modellers walk by but do seceretly hanker back to these stalwarts.  All my Triang TT was made before I was born (1962) And totally bomb proof. 

 

Current lock down diversion is a 5" by 2` 6" table top baseboard  Trad build using available bits, cannot see it warping or anybody running off with it.  Silverfox 17 will guess the track plan but this is on one level in B type track.  I had hoped to build it fully in Triang geometry but a lack of T168 very short straights might see some less than perfect straights getting cut down to use.  

 

Just before posting I saw "Ts" post - just proving you cannot please every idiot.  Political correctness is perhaps a devil that does need a good box depends on point of view I guess.             

[BernardTPM]

So, the half eaten Kit-Kat: Did you leave 'Rown' or 'tree' on the fingers?

[Robert Shrives]

2 minutes ago, BernardTPM said:

So, the half eaten Kit-Kat: Did you leave 'Rown' or 'tree' on the fingers?

Off topic sort of , I recall the pleasure of finding a heavy one in the shops as you soon learnt less wafer and more chocolate, holy grail only once - a 4 bar of choclate .. Who remembers the Kit kat sleepers add created on the NYMR.

Robert  

[Chris116]

22 minutes ago, TEAMYAKIMA said:

 

At the SW Herts show I got grief from a young dad carrying a small child (18 months) who was offended by the (fake) cigarette butt and accused me of encouraging his child to smoke.

In spite of being a non smoker all my life my reaction to that would have been to tell the snowflake to go melt over someone else. 

[Silverfox17]

Robert, some TT was made for a couple of years after you were born. I think until 64/5 even though it ceased in 67/8 the last few yeaes were usually selling off stock.

 

Careful cutting of standard straights using both ends and shorter rails should be okay to give lengths of 1, 2, 3 short straights etc. 

 

So you are a youngster really, I was 10 by the time you were born. 

 

Garry 

[Robert Shrives]

11 hours ago, Silverfox17 said:

Robert, some TT was made for a couple of years after you were born. I think until 64/5 even though it ceased in 67/8 the last few yeaes were usually selling off stock.

 

Careful cutting of standard straights using both ends and shorter rails should be okay to give lengths of 1, 2, 3 short straights etc. 

 

So you are a youngster really, I was 10 by the time you were born. 

 

Garry 

Hi  yes that will be the solution but it was to check it fitted the geometry really which got the mental powers going.   Hopefully some more large radius curves arrive tomorrow- been at sorting office pending lockdown re delivery. That should allow a test run  with a trusty shunter.   

[Silverfox17]

A lovely 3D printed model of an AL1 arrived yesterday, including a couple of nice pantographs (non working ones). Due to the low roof centre section I cannot use my usual Tri-ang motor bogies so a pair of Halling ones will probably be used. This will hopefully be finished in early Electric blue without yellow panels which looks good at the head of a maroon rake of coaches. 

 

Garry 

[Silverfox17]

Another one of Lenny Seeney's 3D bodies is a rebuilt W/C. Here I have done a lot of cutting of the footplate underneath to fit a Tri-ang Britannia chassis to it.  I replaced the outer wheels with the Bulleid ones but the centre ones do not have crankpins in. Yesterday I found a few spare crankpins for the Britannia and managed to fit then to a centre wheel set although I did have to remove each wheel to do so. 

 

It worked out very well so today I put some in a pair of Jinty wheels in readiness for some Tri-ang style valve gear for the 3MT tank. 

 

Garry 

[Silverfox17]

Another Lenny Seeney 3D printed body, this time a C12 4-4-2.  This is nearly finished paint wise but as of yet no chassis. The bogie and driving wheel part of the GC chassis should fit with a modified trailing truck. 

 

Garry 

[Silverfox17]

Here she is painted and lined, now awaiting a smokebox number plate and a chassis building. 

 

Garry 

[mozzer models]

so that's what that plate is for