Deliberately Old-Fashioned 0-Gauge, Chapter 2

[Annie]

10 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

Titfield Thunderbolt, the start of the preservation movement, Duck and the Diesel, the inexorable rise of the sentimentalist tendency in railway enthusiasm …… no, there wouldn’t.

 

There were a tiny few, very good,  EE350 models made by Bonds, I think immediately pre-war, and Bernard Ridgeley made a quite large number about 20 years ago, but his looked a bit Triang, with inside frames.

 

It is the Great Missing Loco from the revival, with all its Dublo aesthetic.

 

 

 

Gosh I had one of those, - I wonder what became of it.  I can certainly remember it being an excellent runner.

[Nearholmer]

For now, the French have leant this, which they got as reparations from the Germans, and in model form was made by Czechs.

 

[34006]

12 hours ago, Annie said:

Gosh I had one of those, - I wonder what became of it.  I can certainly remember it being an excellent runner.

Likewise.Sold,with a load of other 4mm stuff(including a lot of Palitoy locos that had little or no running),to fund a Winson 5"1400...........

Still sitting under the kitchen table,80% finished - but oh,the problems....

 

Phil

[papagolfjuliet]

On 15/11/2023 at 07:38, Annie said:

I picked up one of those for cheap and liberated the mech out of it with the intention of using it to repower the remains of a down on its luck Leeds Model Co six coupled loco.  I consider it no crime at all to saw up something so hideous.

 

Speaking of which, whereas it has now been superseded by a Hall, the older Lionel Harry Potter battery sets contained a coarse scale O gauge V2.

 

[Ben B]

53 minutes ago, papagolfjuliet said:

 

Speaking of which, whereas it has now been superseded by a Hall, the older Lionel Harry Potter battery sets contained a coarse scale O gauge V2.

 

 

I have one of these up in the loft- they seem to have had a re-issue, I've been trying to snap up the larger G2 sets and these are coming up on searches instead...

[RodneyS]

On 15/11/2023 at 20:37, 34006 said:

Winson 5"1400...........

Still sitting under the kitchen table,80% finished - but oh,the problems....

A friend of mine had one of those so you have my sympathy.

Rodney

[Annie]

3 hours ago, papagolfjuliet said:

Speaking of which, whereas it has now been superseded by a Hall, the older Lionel Harry Potter battery sets contained a coarse scale O gauge V2.

Was that because Americans can't tell the difference between a Hall and a V2?

[Nearholmer]

Are these Lionel battery sets actually 0 gauge, and are the bigger ones actually 45mm gauge? I’m sure I’ve read somewhere that these “pure Christmas tree” sets use weird ‘nearly gauges’.

[Metropolitan H]

It seems that the set is indeed "O" gauge - but nearer "S" scale, so rather under-nourished!

 

However, for $35 in Aldi (in USA?) - see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvlPnMV9MVI&t=863s - you might find it a worthwhile novelty???

 

Personally, I'm happy with my "Seven Mill Models" model of Green Arrow - despite it costing a little  rather more, but it runs beautifully.

 

Regards

Chris H

[Ben B]

3 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Are these Lionel battery sets actually 0 gauge, and are the bigger ones actually 45mm gauge? I’m sure I’ve read somewhere that these “pure Christmas tree” sets use weird ‘nearly gauges’.

 

The larger sets are very odd; carriage door sizes put them about 1/32nd, but track is gauge 2 (when Lionel re-tooled the Ready to Play range, they did it to stop other manufacturers' trains being compatible). People like me figured how to re-gauge them to 45mm, and Lionel now design most sets so they can't be dismantled or re-gauged.

 

I've been hoovering up sets cheap on ebay, as I plan to do a layout one day. The Hogwarts set is a bit of a cartoon representation of a gwr loco, but it has character.

[Metropolitan H]

The various Lionel interpretations of "Hogwarts Castle" are fascinating - some in their awfulness. But, some are very good models of the GWR Hall class 4-6-0s in "O" scale & gauge - the one in my custody came from new in GWR lined green as 4936 "Kinlet Castle" as seen here with a set of ACE Trains coaches. I did disable the electronic noise maker as being made for the American 60Hz supply it  doesn't really work on the European 50Hz. I also provided an alternative tender back coupling and a shorter loco / tender coupler bar, but otherwise it is in original condition.

 

 

Seen on Nearholmer's old Birlstone layout 9 years back.

 

Regards

Chris H

 

P.S. - Having worked out that the motor in the Lionel "Kinlet Hall" is a good quality DC can motor of adequate rating, I also removed the electronic related to motor control and reconnected the feed wires direct to the motor terminals.

 

However, be careful to limit the peak supply voltage to circa 12-15 volts if using a PWM controller, as the motor suppression / protection capacitor is only rated for 16 volts and can "go with a bang"! Don't ask how I know, but there is a cure, fit a different capacitor of the same capacitance (F) rating but higher - say 100 volt - rating (available from RS Components or similar supplier.

 

Regards

Chris H

Edited November 20, 2023 by Metropolitan H

[GRASinBothell]

I also have the Kinlet Hall. It came in a "Shakespeare Express" set with headboards both on the smokebox front and on the tender rear. I gather that the only noticeable dimensional error is that the tender was stretched to fit the electronics. I choose to ignore that!

One day, I'll get around to applying black paint to some parts of the tender that need it. Mostly, it tuns on a short loop of O-36 (18" radius) track I added to the layout to run my AC locos on, and keep them separate from the DC.

Gordon

[Ben B]

 

My re-gauged "Hogwarts Castle" out in the garden; if you ignore the cylinders and the silly small pony truck, it's not too bad.  Certainly a fun toy, the sounds and things are enjoyable (our three loved it at the time, when they were younger) and it's quite controllable, and surprisingly reliable.

 

 

I also re-gauge the "Polar Express" (the other Lionel RTP set mainly available here in the UK) and bodged it into an S160, as a rough and ready representation of the KWVR's "Big Jim"

[Hroth]

Just in case anyone is interested for bodging....

 

Hattons are flogging discounting the R1268 Harry Potter "Hogwarts Express" trainset for £81.

 

https://www.hattons.co.uk/525410/hornby_r1268_harry_potter_hogwarts_express_large_scale_train_set_battery_operated_with_remot/stockdetail

 

The coaches in particular remind me of the old Rovex/Triang shorty "banana" coaches in the early train sets!

 

 

[GRASinBothell]

That seems to be the large scale version, not the O scale version.

Gordon

[Atlantic Coast Express]

Three-rail simplicity made perfect just about sums up the appeal of the die cast and tinplate 0 gauge sector. Current key providers ACE Trains London and WJ Vintage really do provide the chance to create a small-scale layout where space is at a premium. Always appreciate what finescale modellers do in limited spaces as well, but currently building a layout in a coarse scale style that will incorporate the old Hornby-Dublo bridge replicated in 0 gauge. Have commissioned an all metal replacement from this sample provided by Paul at WJ Vintage.    

[Atlantic Coast Express]

Part of my coarse scale 0 gauge layout which also acts as a pullout diorama to showcase 1:43 scale die cast vehicles. The ones shown here are in fact 1:48 scale and featured in the December 1957 Meccano Magazine advert - some originals and some Atlas reissues from 2017 - but the bus has been specially reconfigured from a Corgi Classics 1999 issue.   

[Nearholmer]

I’m constantly befuddled by the scales of Dinky vehicles, which is why I don’t have many.

[Atlantic Coast Express]

Interestingly, the above advertisement was to launch the Dublo-Dinky range of vehicles that was used to promote the Hornby-Dublo 00 gauge and there were lots vehicles (cars, vans, lorries, buses and coaches) subsequently issued which all appeared to sell well at the time up until the demise of Meccano. The advert was purely illustrative artwork only and the vehicles featured were all 1:48 scale but never issued in the correct scale for 00 apart from the bus. There's a nice section in Michael Foster's Hornby-Dublo book on 'The Dublo Dinky Toys' pages 270 - 275. Plenty of brilliant 1:43 scale die cast vehicles around today for 0 gauge though. The IXO buses and the Oxford Diecast coaches in 1:43 are superb - see https://shamrocktrains.com/products/british-o-gauge/143-vehicles/buses-and-coaches/ and https://www.paintinghistory.co.uk/resin-coach-passengers 

[Nearholmer]

Here’s the scale listing, which I still find a challenge because I have to convert the fractions of inches to millimetres for it to make any sense to me.

 

Anything less than 9/32” is too small for 0, and anything more is too big, but I think you can get away with the 1/4” and 5/16” things in the coarse-scale world if you don’t mix things up at close quarters.

 

[Wolseley]

16 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

I’m constantly befuddled by the scales of Dinky vehicles, which is why I don’t have many.

 

Were they maybe like Matchbox cars, where the scale was whatever it had to be for the vehicle to fit inside a standard sized box?

[John R Smith]

12 hours ago, Nearholmer said:

Here’s the scale listing, which I still find a challenge because I have to convert the fractions of inches to millimetres for it to make any sense to me.

 

I find it much easier to think in terms of scale ratios. Hence, 1/4" to 1 ft is 1/48, 17/64" is 1/45, and so forth.  O Gauge is actually 1/43.55  (thanks, Mr Greenly). The currently accepted standard for diecast cars in this scale area is 1/43. Why Binns Road should have had such a fluid attitude to scale ratios beats me - I did not realise it was all so well documented, so thanks very much for the Meccano Ltd memo.

 

 

Edited January 5 by John R Smith

[Nearholmer]

Sizes of boxes, quantity of material at a given price point, pure whimsicality, who knows?

[Atlantic Coast Express]

2 hours ago, Wolseley said:

 

Were they maybe like Matchbox cars, where the scale was whatever it had to be for the vehicle to fit inside a standard sized box?

Think that's still the case with some of the recent Corgi Cars reissues by Hornby Hobbies with 'fit the box' scaling. Most are meant to be 1:43 though. 

[Wolseley]

I just had a look in the section on Dinky Toys in The Products of Binns Road, by Peter Randall and, aside from observing that scales were anything from 00 to 0 to 1, and often in between, it throws no light on the situation.

 

As an aside, and nothing to do with scales of models, I noticed the book mentions that, in January of 1956, two tone colours were introduced on a lot of the cars, under the advertising banner "Gayer than Ever".  Which sounds like a copy of the Rootes Group's advertising slogan for the release of the 1956 Hillman Minx in September 1955 as the VIIIA deluxe Gay Look, with the car promoted as "the new two tone Gay Look Hillman Minx Deluxe".  The first car my father had after we arrived in Australia was a 1955 Hillman Minx Mark VIII, so he narrowly missed out on having a "Gay Look".........

 

 

Edited January 5 by Wolseley
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