Deliberately Old-Fashioned 0-Gauge, Chapter 2

[Nearholmer]

It is Dinky. If you got the 972 lorry-mounted job you certainly did well!

 

The paint is Plastikote “Stonetouch”, recommended for the job by PaulRhB of RMWeb IIRC. I’m not totally sure it would look right in 00, because the ‘speckliness’ might look too coarse, but it’s worth a try.

[F-UnitMad]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

The Stove van is in fact a modern Darstaed one. If I could find an Exley, and it was affordable, I’d take it, but they seem to be incredibly rare.

Plenty of side play in the centre axle, I note... 😉

 

sorry... 🤦‍♂️

[Hroth]

15 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

It is Dinky. If you got the 972 lorry-mounted job you certainly did well!

 

The paint is Plastikote “Stonetouch”, recommended for the job by PaulRhB of RMWeb IIRC. I’m not totally sure it would look right in 00, because the ‘speckliness’ might look too coarse, but it’s worth a try.

 

Aldi also have speckled spraypaint occasionally, whenever they're doing a crafty/upcycling theme, usually offering it in light or dark grey.

 

[goldfish]

21 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

The paint is Plastikote “Stonetouch”, recommended for the job by PaulRhB of RMWeb IIRC. I’m not totally sure it would look right in 00, because the ‘speckliness’ might look too coarse, but it’s worth a try.

 

Hornby code 100 track on Aldi light grey. It sprayed on bare wood and really needs another coat.

 

 

[Nearholmer]

That works alright for a retro look, doesn’t it? If sprayed over a grey primer/undercoat, as I did, I think it would be spot on.

 

 

Edited November 4, 2023 by Nearholmer

[Metropolitan H]

Happy to see that you have unearthed the remains of "Paltry Circus" from its resting place. I'm hoping that you will arrange a suitable connection to the current "Paltry Town" - or its planned reincarnation - for the next "Never again!" exhibition event - especially if we provide the occasional "Auto Train" or railcar / EMU working??

 

With your background the EMU workings should be a given "Signature" working?

 

Regards

Chris H

[Nearholmer]

Here’s a loco that hasn’t done any useful work for a very long time, a Hornby-alike Ace 4-4-2T.

 

 

 

 

[John R Smith]

 

Inevitably, we have to ask - "Why not?" - and what is the problem with it?

[Nearholmer]

Ah, no problem at all with it; it’s just been having a long snooze while the layout was built, and then other engines had a play.

[John R Smith]

 

Ah, understood. Just for fun, here is my (not so shiny) late 1930s Hornby version on the 4-4-2 tank -

 

 

[Nearholmer]

Yours is a No.2 Special, whereas the Ace one is effectively a plain No.2, reduced from 4-4-4T to 4-4-2T. I’ve got a couple of original clockwork No.2, so maybe I’ll get daring tomorrow and let them loose to do the “wall of death” round the layout.

[Donw]

looks rather nice perhaps ex LBSC  or LNER. As a GWR fan the GW version is less typical. Could be one of the  Welsh lines.

 

Don

Edited November 8, 2023 by Donw

[Nearholmer]

The Ace 4-4-2T version in BR livery is definitely mildly-LBSCR-flavoured; it has an ex-LBSCR number. I also have one like it in SR livery, and did have one in nominal Brighton livery, but the colour was very strange indeed, and it had been badly misused by a previous owner, so I let that one go. They also made it as a 4-4-2T in LNWR and LMS liveries, with LNWR-style cab sides.

 

Here is an original GWR No.2, currently on an electric chassis that I put in it. I was going to leave it like that, but I’ve decided to source repro weights for it, the original ones being long-gone, and put its clockwork innards back.

 

 

A very original LMS one, completely un-restored, only missing two handrails and the rod and smoke box door handle. This has a very good spring and goes like the wind!

 

 

 

Edited November 9, 2023 by Nearholmer

[John R Smith]

Lovely engines. Considering that both your No 2s must pre-date 1929 (when the No2 Specials were introduced), they are doing jolly well at around a hundred years old! These older versions are much more elegant than my GWR Special, which is a somewhat ugly brute with all the elegance of a house brick. However, it is an excellent runner.

 

As Donw says, the GW never actually had anything like this - although there was a Churchward 4-4-2 tank, but that had a taper boiler and outside cylinders.

[Nearholmer]

Next, the Ace tribute/reproduction in its first iteration, as a 4-4-4T, which they issued in oodles of liveries; it is the model that started the whole “revivalist” movement in coarse-0:

 

 

Still freelance, but slightly more scale-inclined, a 1940s Mills 4-4-2T. This has an original, but totally defunct (loss of magnetism and other faults) motor, and at some stage in its history someone has fitted modern-ish wheels to the bogie and pony. Basically, a resto project forever waiting to happen:

 

 

Finally, without doubt the rarest loco that I have, in the form of the Van Riemsdiyk controlled clockwork 4-4-4T, c1950, which apart from a bit of damage in the area of the near buffer is in very good original condition. I barely ever run it, because the design of the mechanism is incredibly delicate, much  finer parts than Bing or Hornby:

 

 

As you can see, I rather like tank engines of this general kind! They’re just the right size for modest layouts, and make a nice contrast to the plodding 0-6-0T.

 

The floor is open to contributions; I know MetH has a very nice GNR Atlantic Tank, for instance, and there must be other things out there.

 

 

[Nearholmer]

1 minute ago, John R Smith said:

the GW never actually had anything like this

I think that post-grouping they inherited and vandalised (Swindonised) the M&SWJR 4-4-4T.

[Ben B]

When I was but a small child, I had a book on clockwork trains and started craving certain Hornby models like the tank engines and the Pullman coaches. I finally this year treated myself to a no.2 Special in LMS colours which has a superb mech, and only cost me £50... way too big for my little pizza layout, it'll probably end up on the shelf, but I always wanted one, even if it is a bit of a unit, and not as elegant as the earlier tanks :)

 

I'd love to get one of the streamlined  French railcars too, but they seem massively pricey...

[Nearholmer]

Old Hornby prices continue to defy gravity to some extent, which I find surprising given that the number of people for whom they have the pull of personal nostalgia must surely be steadily declining.

 

I’ve not got a No.2 Special Tank, because I’m not very taken by their appearance, but I think they might generally be better runners than the No.2. Both of the No.2 that I have came cheap “because they’re tatty old things that don’t work properly” ….. well, they didn’t, because it’s so easy to assemble them with the control rods fouling the spring, impeding it’s unwinding, and limiting power and duration. Having sorted that out, they run well. I think that in the Special version the spring has a bit more room, and is less prone to fouling.

[John R Smith]

8 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Next, the Ace tribute/reproduction in its first iteration, as a 4-4-4T, which they issued in oodles of liveries; it is the model that started the whole “revivalist” movement in coarse-0:

 

Something that really puzzles me, about this "revivalist" movement. I somehow missed the whole thing, and I am only now catching up on it, I suppose, the Ace Trains / Darstaed / Corgi Bassett Lowke boom. OK, so the aforementioned makers were busy selling all this nostalgia driven rolling stock, but what track were people supposed to run it on? I presume that Peco Streamline would not cope with the flanges and back-to-back settings?

 

[Nearholmer]

Initially, the main market was Hornby collectors, HRCA members typically, running trains on tinplate track, hence the No.2-alike tank engines and the compartment coaches that Ace produced initially. So the answer to the track question was: tinplate. With a tiny few exceptions, all the revivalist stuff will run on tinplate track with 2ft radius curves; thats a sort of de-facto standard.

 

The other two widely used tracks are Maldon (which is what I use), and Atlas from the USA, but people also use various types of SM32 track with homemade conductor rails.

 

My strong impression, certainty actually, is that a surprisingly high percentage of collectors barely run their trains at home anyway (the group I used to attend had a member who lived on a a canal boat!); many don’t have layouts. A lot of the running of trains gets done at meetings, so HRCA, BLS, and the ecumenical ones, and most groups will lay a multi track circuit, often tinplate plus other track forms.

 

 

Edited November 9, 2023 by Nearholmer

[John R Smith]

1 hour ago, Nearholmer said:

With a tiny few exceptions, all the revivalist stuff will run on tinplate track with 2ft radius curves; thats a sort of de-facto standard.

 

Ah, thank you very much, that explains a lot. I am certainly not a collector, and I would not usually even think of purchasing something which I could not use and be useful to me (and which I could wear out if needed and not have to pamper). It also explains why I have been having so much trouble with wheel standards on my B-L track - today I have spent the afternoon taking the wheels out of the three Corgi B-L wagons I have now, and with a hammer and a hollow drift re-setting their back to back from 28 mm to 27.2 (ish) so that they will run smoothly through my B-L points.

[Nearholmer]

Yep, BL historically used wide flangeways and a narrow b-t-b. They seem to have moved to a slightly larger b-t-b at some stage, maybe c1950, but whether they actually changed the track standard I don’t know - I find it all a bit baffling, because I’ve got BL postwar locos with distinctly different b-t-b dimensions.

[John R Smith]

26 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

I find it all a bit baffling, because I’ve got BL postwar locos with distinctly different b-t-b dimensions.

 

It's not just B-L locos, Exley coaches too are a nightmare. My selection (post-war) have all had different B to Bs, varying from 28.2mm down to a shade under 27.5. All of my pre-war Bassett-Lowke tinplate wagons and locos are 27.0mm, which is the standard quoted in the B-L literature of the time. I think it was all Jack Ray's fault - in his book and MRN articles about Crewchester he states quite clearly that he was using 28.2mm. And guess who the leading light was in the newly formed Gauge O Guild, that went on to set all the standards for the 1960s? So you can see where the present day coarse scale standard of 28mm might have come from . . .

[Donw]

Ah standards are a thorny issue they keep getting refined. Modellers rather than Kids wanted something better than the round tinplate rails and then wanted finer rails and wheels so coarse gave way to fine scale.

 

If you want to run all sorts of standards together your best bet is to use fairly deep rails and universal points.  Unfortunately I dont know anyone who makes them. SM32 track may be an option putting extra sleepers between the supplied ones can improve the look. The turnouts will take quit coarse wheels but finescale wheels can be a problem.

 

Don 

[Metropolitan H]

As most of my trains are from the more recent production of ACE / Darstaed / ETS etc., I have become a bit more reticent of contributing here, but as Nearholmer has invited me to join in here are a few pictures of some of my tank ank engines.

 

The location is my 11foot 6inch x 7foot 6inch home layout, "Gutter Lane" which uses Atlas track - with 27 inch radius curves and turnouts, on carpet tile ballast underlay for noise deadening. The main theme is the Metropolitan and LNER "Widened Lines", but there is a significant "Other trains" selection.

 

First is an older scratch-built (?) model of an LNER (ex GNR) C12 4-4-2T with a short train of ACE 6 wheel coaches, The loco was acquired through a Vectis auction for what I considered a very reasonable price. This is the loco that I believe Nearholmer refers to above.

 

 

Then there is my as yet unfinished model of an LNER (ex GER) N7 0-6-2T from an "Ace Products" kit mounted on a ETS motor unit. It runs well, but needs me to settle down and get the rest of the work done (too many projects!).

 

 

The most recent additions to my fleet are second-hand acquisitions from a friend who is currently trimming his large collection. An ACE Trains Southern (ex LSWR) M7 0-4-4T, an WJ Vintage / ETS Southern (ex LSWR) 4-4-2T "Adams Radial Tank" and a set of appropriate Darstaed coaches & Milk Van.

 

 

There are also a few "Foreign" vehicles - with a Swiss theme, such as a early 1950s HAG SBB-CFF Re4/4 Bo-Bo and set of appropriate passenger vehicles from the same maker.

 

 

One day, when I have got further with the layout construction, I'll possibly add my own "Alternative Old-Fashioned Trains" topic, but I will need to find a "Roundtuit" and drag myself away from having fun playing trains!

 

Regards

Chris H