EBay madness

[MrWolf]

 

Likewise, and no, I'm not the least bit tempted!

[40152]

1 hour ago, Rowsley17D said:

I see our narrow boat is now down to £50.

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/115504620829?

 

and I've been offered another 5% off too. Pity I model in 4mm scale. I also don't have a canal.

Still not honouring the suggestion, when quizzed last week by SteveyDee, that the original price was a typo and that it should have read £9.99 in the first place. Which, despite modelling in N and having a canal basin, is still too pricey for me.

[eastglosmog]

Frankly, I wouldn't give 10p for it.  Its an appallingly inaccurate model.  Would ruin any canal scene.

[MrWolf]

6 minutes ago, eastglosmog said:

Frankly, I wouldn't give 10p for it.  Its an appallingly inaccurate model.  Would ruin any canal scene.

 

That occurred to me too and it would be a terribly expensive wedge to hold open the layout room door, which is the only other use I can think of for it.

[Hroth]

25 minutes ago, eastglosmog said:

Frankly, I wouldn't give 10p for it.  Its an appallingly inaccurate model.  Would ruin any canal scene.

 

To be honest, most canal scenes on model railways set my teeth on edge.  They're usually just filling in a bare corner of the baseboard and are either too small or don't have a clearly defined function in the environment. I know we're talking about an N gauge "model", but a narrowboat is 70ft long, somewhat longer than a BR Mk1 coach, though the Mk1s are a bit wider, so the infrastructure around a canal has to be commensurately sized...

 

[The Johnster]

5 hours ago, Bucoops said:

 

Maybe although OO gauge would be suitable? It's quite well known (although getting less I supposed) that Hornby also did O gauge.

 

It's still pushing it really for the item description although to be fair I didn't even notice this time until it was mentioned on here!

To add to the smoke and mirrors, the Hornby that did 0 gauge is not the Hornby that we buy RTR from, though that Hornby did do Big Big 0 gauge when they were Triang🤔

Edited December 20, 2022 by The Johnster

[papagolfjuliet]

I used to have this set, bought as a novelty and resold when the novelty very quickly worn off. It's about the only British outline model made by Bachmann between inheriting the Mainline toolings and entering the British market: the 'Flying Scot' train set, containing a bright orange and yellow rebuilt Scot with a rake of matching Fowler and Collett coaches. A snip at US$300. Sunglasses not included. "An English legend for the discerning collector."

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175185190800?hash=item28c9d9df90:g:n-0AAOSwBBZhPR0X&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoEVYzFt56Smvy2EvflD2nRhElp2VJ7ezbRMm8zHj4XtPaOc5sB7klo1wBtyEkJ%2BGKOHN7DvssQwzmyqSno9AhnfGQQcBzRZHMZFxr4WvhCRQnz8zJLxgT2nnszw%2BCoHbziD5xDQVe0jAo1l3RMnKtwxp%2FSmbl3OcLW8wG1TiF%2BVIOWXhU2RGVywSwYBunN4PaQ1C%2BtIYHbDhZsWUraPZz6E%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR9Tw-ISmYQ

Edited December 20, 2022 by papagolfjuliet

[33C]

4 minutes ago, papagolfjuliet said:

I used to have this set, bought as a novelty and resold when the novelty very quickly worn off. It's about the only British outline model made by Bachmann between inheriting the Mainline toolings and entering the British market: the 'Flying Scot' train set, containing a bright orange and yellow rebuilt Scot with a rake of matching Fowler and Collett coaches. A snip at US$300. Sunglasses not included. "An English legend for the discerning collector."

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175185190800?hash=item28c9d9df90:g:n-0AAOSwBBZhPR0X&amdata=enc%3AAQAHAAAAoEVYzFt56Smvy2EvflD2nRhElp2VJ7ezbRMm8zHj4XtPaOc5sB7klo1wBtyEkJ%2BGKOHN7DvssQwzmyqSno9AhnfGQQcBzRZHMZFxr4WvhCRQnz8zJLxgT2nnszw%2BCoHbziD5xDQVe0jAo1l3RMnKtwxp%2FSmbl3OcLW8wG1TiF%2BVIOWXhU2RGVywSwYBunN4PaQ1C%2BtIYHbDhZsWUraPZz6E%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR9Tw-ISmYQ

I like these "almost but not quite" sets. Like Hornby putting pre group wagons in a diesel freight set and vice versa!

[MrWolf]

4 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

To be honest, most canal scenes on model railways set my teeth on edge.  They're usually just filling in a bare corner of the baseboard and are either too small or don't have a clearly defined function in the environment. I know we're talking about an N gauge "model", but a narrowboat is 70ft long, somewhat longer than a BR Mk1 coach, though the Mk1s are a bit wider, so the infrastructure around a canal has to be commensurately sized...

 

 

I've seen more than one exhibition layouts with canals that have bends in (all canals do of course) which you would struggle to navigate in a 15ft cabin cruiser let alone something horse drawn the size of a GWR Dreadnought coach, yet on the straight bit of canal, is plonked a seventy footer and often it's a leisure barge which didn't really start to appear until the 1960s.

[The Johnster]

Canals, in the stretches between locks, are usually a lot wider than they are modelled as well, wide enough for two boats to pass without grounding on the shallow-sloped mud on each side.  At least as wide as an average 2-lane road, so while your boat might be narrower than a 70' coach, it needs at least twice the amount of width space.  Where curvature would be too much for a 70' boat, or whatever the maximum size for that canal was, winding holes to winch the boats around are provided; actually, these would fit nicely into a triangular corner site on a layout but I've never seen one modelled.  I have seen the unfeasible curves, all-steel tourist boats in 1930s settings, and other nonsense, including a 70' boat approaching a 40' lock; good luck with that, mate!

 

Boats and ships in general seen to bring out the worst in railway modellers.  Another standard mistake is the fixed railway bridge across a harbour or anchorage entrance behind which ships with superstructure far too tall to escape imprisoned behine it, never mind masts and funnels which might be claimed to be collapsible, and they can't get out at low tide because the channel is clearly going to be unfeasibly narrow when you extrapolate the sloping banks downward below water level.  Clyde Puffers are not impossible in locations away from Western Scotland (we had the infamous Snowflake bumbling around the Bristol Channel between Ilfracombe and the South Wales ports in the inter-war years in proper Para Handy style but with North Devon accents), but they were not really suitable for even short coastal open sea passages (which is why Snowflake often needed towing out of trouble, though her skipper was not above using this as an excuse to save fuel), and were a lot less common away from the Clyde and sheltered Inner Hebridean sounds which were their usual field of operation than they are on layouts.  A typical small coastal vessel is about twice the size of a Puffer; once you get into sea-going vessels, even small ones are big and ocean-going ships need huge amounts of room on a layout if they are to be berthed in places they could reasonably be expected to get out of.

 

Drifting off-topic a bit, so apologies; I meant to ask, not being a canal expert, is the Lyddle End canal boat, with cargo space compromised by what appears to be two living cabins, even economically viable, in fact did such a thing ever actually exist?  The normal setup AFAIAA in steam/motor days was a steam or motor boat with maximised cargo space towing an unpowered 'dumb' boat that had perhaps originally been horse-drawn, which has more cargo space but also the living cabin, with the all-important stove for cooking, bathing water, etc., and it's pipe.  This makes sense; who wants to live on top of an engine!

Edited December 20, 2022 by The Johnster

[eastglosmog]

The Lyddle End thing does have a prototype in the steam powered Fellows Moreton and Clayton boats used principally on the Grand Union canal, towing an unpowered Butty boat.  The forward cabin of the pair contains the steam engine and the rear one was living accommodation . See here for what one actually looks like: https://www.nationalhistoricships.org.uk/register/55/president

When worked intensively pulling a butty or two, and with the low pay and long hours that barge people endured, they did pay their way in the 1910-1939 period. However, Diesel engines made steam totally uneconomic, taking up far less space that could be used for cargo and doing the job better.

On bad models of canals, I remember many years ago that Mike Sharman (who really should have known better) made a model of a canal lock with a railway tunnel passing through it!

[Hroth]

Winding holes were generally provided to turn narrowboats around completely, rather than as an aid for getting around tight corners. They're not all that common. Even today, there are places on the inland waterways where full length narrowboats can't go, in particular the North East waterways with locks suited for 62ft broad beamed barges, and the Fenland waterways, with a rightangle bend at Whittlesea which prevents passage of any boat longer than 50ft.

 

I didn't go into widths and profiles of canals, though in general nowadays they are much "narrower" and more shallow than when first built.  Then there is the air draught at bridges and tunnels.  Some tunnels are a very tight squeeze! And not all locks are accurate to gauge either. One year we got stuck behind a pair of hotel narrowboats wedged in the gates of Christleton lock on the broad section of the SU canal, normally an acceptable proposition....

 

@eastglosmog On general runs, say up and down the GU canal, a steam boat and butty would be the usual mode as working an extra butty through the broad locks would be really time consuming.  It might be ok on the lock free expanse of the Birmingham Main Line! The problem with the Lyddle End narrowboat is that the length of the rear cabin and engine room look out of proportion.

 

 

 

Edited December 20, 2022 by Hroth
spelin and extra. It was Whittlesea!

[2E Sub Shed]

I seem to recall being told that Pendon had to redo the canal alignment on the Vale scene when they realised a canal boat could not navigate it, even though it was the 1930's and the canal represented (Wilts & Berks)  was abandoned since 1914. 

[Hroth]

And we won't mention the Shropshire tub boat canals....

 

[2E Sub Shed]

And to bring the thread back on track

 

This "rare" item is available if you wish to lose £3.00

 

Rare 50p

 

Only 4.9 million dropped into Post Offices 10 days ago

[MrWolf]

1 minute ago, 2E Sub Shed said:

And to bring the thread back on track

 

This "rare" item is available if you wish to lose £3.00

 

Rare 50p

 

Only 4.9 million dropped into Post Offices 10 days ago

 

Chisellers.

[2E Sub Shed]

5 minutes ago, Hroth said:

And we won't mention the Shropshire tub boat canals....

 

Nor "Tom Puddings"

[Hroth]

Just now, 2E Sub Shed said:

Nor "Tom Puddings"

 

Indeed....

 

Once met a string of them being propelled along the (I think) Sheffield and South Yorkshire. Terrifying!

 

[MrWolf]

Generally around £25, (I have several!) 

 

But this one:

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266044924266?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=M9shusCdQCW&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=3qkTzGg7QRS&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

Or you could possibly pay an extra tenner for a brand new DCC fitted version.

 

 

[Hroth]

2 minutes ago, MrWolf said:

Generally around £25, (I have several!) 

 

But this one:

 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266044924266?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=M9shusCdQCW&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=3qkTzGg7QRS&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

 

Or you could possibly pay an extra tenner for a brand new DCC fitted version.

 

 

 

Even Hattons does them cheaper than that!

 

[Paul H Vigor]

9 hours ago, Hroth said:

 

To be honest, most canal scenes on model railways set my teeth on edge.  They're usually just filling in a bare corner of the baseboard and are either too small or don't have a clearly defined function in the environment. I know we're talking about an N gauge "model", but a narrowboat is 70ft long, somewhat longer than a BR Mk1 coach, though the Mk1s are a bit wider, so the infrastructure around a canal has to be commensurately sized...

 

Canals on model railways always strike me as evidence of forulaic layout building - just one of a list of 'must haves'? 

[Paul H Vigor]

10 hours ago, MrWolf said:

 

That occurred to me too and it would be a terribly expensive wedge to hold open the layout room door, which is the only other use I can think of for it.

An Hornby wedgie - sounds painful!

[Paul H Vigor]

3 hours ago, 2E Sub Shed said:

And to bring the thread back on track

 

This "rare" item is available if you wish to lose £3.00

 

Rare 50p

 

Only 4.9 million dropped into Post Offices 10 days ago

With regard to 'on track': Is this the British Railways issue 50p?

[33C]

22 minutes ago, Paul H Vigor said:

With regard to 'on track': Is this the British Railways issue 50p?

Like the old British Rail minute, =1 minute 59 seconds!

[MrWolf]

44 minutes ago, Paul H Vigor said:

Canals on model railways always strike me as evidence of forulaic layout building - just one of a list of 'must haves'? 

 

I'd agree where it's just a scenic section plonked down in the middle of nowhere but when there's an actual function, say something industrial or a connection between canal and railway and they're designed and constructed with as much consideration as the railway, then they add to the scene. The cliche is when they're just plonked in somewhere unlikely. But that's the case with a lot of things.