hayfield Posted December 23, 2012 Share Posted December 23, 2012 I have an interest in both track building and vintage models, so as and when the oppertunity arrives I try and buy what I can. I have been meaning to start a thread on vintage track, but never found the time to sort everything out. I started this afternoon but was deafeated by flat batteries for the camera, so just took a few on my phone Quite simple a spiked turnout from Peco (packet of spikes never made the photo). I have 3 of these kits along with another one or two bases. I have been gived about 6 of these B&H kits from the USA still stuck to cards and about the same amount which have been removed from both the cards and had the metal strips which hold them in gauge. I guess you stick or spike them to wooden sleepers, then remove the metal strips Not quite so vintage a George E Mellor (GEM) turnout from about 50 years ago, the whitemetal frogs were quite fragile and I ended up breaking them. And a SMP plastic turnout (I think these are still available) which must be 40 years old. I do have some interesting Peco foundation point & track plans, fibre sleepers and wire type chairs along with various other types of fibre sleepers and chairs, including some Bonds of Euston white metal castings. And a few other bits which I would like identifying, which I will post at a later date. I also hane some ABC plain track supplied by a RMweb member. Should start and build a small retro layout Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
trisonic Posted December 23, 2012 Share Posted December 23, 2012 I had some GEM pointwork in TT from the early '60s. If I come across them I'll let you know... Best, Pete. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Il Grifone Posted December 23, 2012 Share Posted December 23, 2012 I've got some track somewhere, that I bought cheaply in a misguided moment. It consists of rail soldered to brass sleepers, presumably home made as I am not aware of a commercial manufacturer* of this stuff, which was common once upon a time. I was going to rebuild it on copperclad sleepers, but it's another of those long term projects... *This doesn't mean there wasn't one of course. I have been building up a collection of sixties Formoway to build a small layout (At least it's 00 rather than H0, even if the sleepers are still too close together). I shall have to something about the sloppy clearances at the crossings however. I couldn't get anything to run through a 'Liveway' point without the wheels hitting the crossing nose. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagaguy Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 I remember P/xing all my HD 3r track at the Southgate Hobbyshop in the early 60`s for Formoway track,,when everything went 2rail,I still have a length of track & a single slip somewhere in the garage.The points were something else,sprung blades,no locking spring,you needed a Hammant & Morgan self locking point motor to operate these!!!.I experimented with the Peco point kits,terrible things,spiked down to insulation board,they wouldn`t hold their gauge.Still good times though,there wasn`t the equipment around then,not like today. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hayfield Posted December 24, 2012 Author Share Posted December 24, 2012 I experimented with the Peco point kits,terrible things,spiked down to insulation board,they wouldn`t hold their gauge.Still good times though,there wasn`t the equipment around then,not like today. Thats a shame I was hoping to build the odd one, having said that I may opt for using Exactoscale wooden sleepers so its about the same height as the ABC track and the fibre plain sleepers I have. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Kirk Posted December 28, 2012 Share Posted December 28, 2012 Hi, My late Father was really an aeromodeller but in the late 40s early 50s he experimented with the then fairly new two rail 00. (this is where my early magazines/catalogues came from). He used a solder construction track which I thought was hamblings but looking in their 1951 catalogue it was slightly different. It consisted of fibre sleepers. punched with two holes each side. "chairs" were tinplate pressings the spiked bits fitted through the holes and were bent over. The rails were soldered to the chairs. Rail was bullhead and pretty well scale. Certainly the later fibre based flexible track had a much heavier rail section. Presumably as an economy measure he used the sleepers at about 1" centres although I think that I can remember a length fitted up with extra black card sleepers.He had (by coincidence and probably before I could walk)built a large toy cupboard in one corner of my bedroom with a row of bookshelves the same height.By the time I can really remember back to he had lost interest and gone back to Aeroplanes. He had to be persuaded to get the stuff out to show me it running (I was not allowed to touch it as apart from a couple of early Graham Farish items it was all handbuilt and the wagons and coaches were card). When I moved up from the Hornby Clockwork on the floor to my first Triang Train set 1954? we laid the track inside his original loop. As my Triang Layout expanded Dad lifted the hand made track (too fine for Triang wheels)and built another toy cupboard with a few more shelves to allow for a longer continuous run. I used Peco spiked track for my first attempt at a "scale" layout. I had the same problems as someone else noted but eventually used the bases and some bull head rail to produce something like my Dads early stuff. I had at the time loads of copper wire (the house had been re-wired)and stripping the rubber off was easy. I got a steel block, drilled two small holes the same distance apart as the peco spike holes, roughly bent the wire into a little staple shape, put it into the holes and then hammered it until the top was flat. These then went into the fibre bases and I soldered the track up on these "chairs". best wishes, Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hayfield Posted December 28, 2012 Author Share Posted December 28, 2012 Ian Sounds very interesting, I have some of the items you have written about and will post some photos once I have taken them and have time to download them. I also have some brass chairs which may fit the finer rail your farther used, looks like a bar has been milled and sliced into sections (chairs) Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Il Grifone Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 I had a few brass stampings once, which were obviously intended to be chairs (can't remember where I got them, possibly ERG?). I never used them, as there were only a few and about 200 are needed just for 1 metre of track! Long since lost/thrown out. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Kirk Posted December 30, 2012 Share Posted December 30, 2012 Hi, Found a little bit of 60+ year old track. Can not at this instant find the camera wires so I have tried a scan.The tinplate (or perhaps tinned brass)chairs are really more like staples. IIRC in the late 50s/early60s someone produced "little Western" fibre bases for track in EM this used "Bambi"staples in twos or threes in the same way as the late 40s pressed "chairs". Someone mentioned ERG. It occurs to me that these might be from there as at one time there was a large looseleaf type folder (now lost) which was the ERG catalogue. best wishes, Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hayfield Posted January 2, 2013 Author Share Posted January 2, 2013 Here are some of the vintage sleepers I have Kings Cross fibre sleepers The top and bottom sleepers are Peco 3rd rail fibre sleepers, one with a centre hole the other with an outside hole. No idea about the centre sleepers, none of the holes match up with anything W&H plastic sleeper with chairs Peco plans/templates with fibre sleepers and wire chairs. I have several templates includund a double junction and a crossover I also have one packet of normal wire chairs and loads of wire slide chairs, will take some photos of the different chairs I have in the next few days and post them Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagaguy Posted January 2, 2013 Share Posted January 2, 2013 Somewhere or other,I have some track templates for points & crossings that i got from ERG,Roumelia lane,Bournemouth in about 1960.If i can find them,i`ll put a scan on here!!. Ray. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagaguy Posted January 2, 2013 Share Posted January 2, 2013 Hi, Found a little bit of 60+ year old track. Can not at this instant find the camera wires so I have tried a scan.The tinplate (or perhaps tinned brass)chairs are really more like staples. IIRC in the late 50s/early60s someone produced "little Western" fibre bases for track in EM this used "Bambi"staples in twos or threes in the same way as the late 40s pressed "chairs". Someone mentioned ERG. It occurs to me that these might be from there as at one time there was a large looseleaf type folder (now lost) which was the ERG catalogue. best wishes, Ian Hi,Jim Russell was the originator of Little Western track but i don`t know if he was the supplier of track bases. Whilst on the subject of track,does anyone know which issue of Railway Modeller contained the article "A complex 00 junction by C H Scoffin"Google shows March 1964 but it`s not there!!,This question has bugged me for years!!!. Ray. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BernardTPM Posted January 2, 2013 Share Posted January 2, 2013 The top and bottom sleepers are Peco 3rd rail fibre sleepers, one with a centre hole the other with an outside hole. No idea about the centre sleepers, none of the holes match up with anything To use as a tiebar, perhaps? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Il Grifone Posted January 3, 2013 Share Posted January 3, 2013 Point throws back then were 1/8" for 'scale' and 3/16" for 'universal' (moving wing rail type), so could well be a tiebar. These were usually a piece of fibre sleeper material. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagaguy Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 Hi,Jim Russell was the originator of Little Western track but i don`t know if he was the supplier of track bases. Whilst on the subject of track,does anyone know which issue of Railway Modeller contained the article "A complex 00 junction by C H Scoffin"Google shows March 1964 but it`s not there!!,This question has bugged me for years!!!. Ray. Found it!!,I thought this was quite impresive at the time. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
roythebus Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 For those days that was a remarkable piece of trackwork. I remember seeing it on the front of one of the Peco track plans books but don't remember the article in the Modeller. W&H used to list the Little Western track in their catalogue. AG Thomas of Kings Cross used to berate the W&H catalogue for listing loco chimneys as "funnels"; locos have CHIMNEYS, ships have FUNNELS he used to say! The Kings Cross track used epoxy adhesive to hold the stamped brass chairs to the wooden sleepers. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagaguy Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 Hi Roy,as you can see,it was April 1963.It took a bit of finding online,i eventually tracked it down on the Templot forum. I also found a few 1960`s RM scans here.http://movies13.archive.org/details/railwaymodeller They certainly bring back memories!!! Ray Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Re6/6 Posted January 4, 2013 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 4, 2013 Hi, Found a little bit of 60+ year old track. Can not at this instant find the camera wires so I have tried a scan.The tinplate (or perhaps tinned brass)chairs are really more like staples. IIRC in the late 50s/early60s someone produced "little Western" fibre bases for track in EM this used "Bambi"staples in twos or threes in the same way as the late 40s pressed "chairs". Someone mentioned ERG. It occurs to me that these might be from there as at one time there was a large looseleaf type folder (now lost) which was the ERG catalogue. best wishes, Ian Good to see this thread John. Seeing that pic Ian reminded me that I've got some of that very track, though all very rusty compared to your clean example! I'll dig it out and some other rather interesting pointwork and put some snaps up ...when I can find it! Does anybody remember Alan Brett Cannon (ABC) trackwork? IIRC it was sold in a shop in the City. It was of fibre base, plastic bullhead chair construction. Got some of that as well..........now where is it all...? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagaguy Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 Somewhere or other,I have some track templates for points & crossings that i got from ERG,Roumelia lane,Bournemouth in about 1960.If i can find them,i`ll put a scan on here!!. Ray. This is one of them,I`ll try & load a couple more if anyones interested. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hayfield Posted January 4, 2013 Author Share Posted January 4, 2013 Ray I would be interested in seeing them, I tell you that crossing must have been a right ****** to build with all that bending rail into U shapes !!!! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
roythebus Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 I wonder what Templot would make of that? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 Hi Roy,as you can see,it was April 1963.It took a bit of finding online,i eventually tracked it down on the Templot forum. I also found a few 1960`s RM scans here.http://movies13.archive.org/details/railwaymodeller They certainly bring back memories!!! Ray Many, MANY thanks for this link. I checked it out, and the first issue I clicked on was one I've been trying to get hold of for years - Milborne Junction, a fantastic club layout with a plausible history. Bookmarked and will be checking back often. Like you, I found the memories revived, not least via the adverts. A double junction for 35/- was one that brought a smile to my face. Sorry to go O/T but I really am pleased about being pointed in the direction of this one. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagaguy Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 OK,Iv`e had to scan it in two parts.These were bought in about 1960 from ERG in Bournemouth Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagaguy Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 Many, MANY thanks for this link. I checked it out, and the first issue I clicked on was one I've been trying to get hold of for years - Milborne Junction, a fantastic club layout with a plausible history. Bookmarked and will be checking back often. Like you, I found the memories revived, not least via the adverts. A double junction for 35/- was one that brought a smile to my face. Sorry to go O/T but I really am pleased about being pointed in the direction of this one. Thanks,there is a lot of information on the web but it sure takes some finding.I know that this may be O/T but model & real railways go together so if interested,have a look here.I take my hat off to the people who take the time & trouble to scan these items so that we can enjoy them again.Many thanks to them http://www.meccanoindex.co.uk/MMmonths1.php?id=1241119587 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hayfield Posted January 5, 2013 Author Share Posted January 5, 2013 Sagaguy I have the double junction plan as well as these Here are some chairs that I have picked up here and there The top 2 are Peco left hand are for soldered construction, though I thought initially they were slide chairs, the right hand I guess are just drop in and crimp? Middle left are Bonds of Euston whitemwral, right are either brass stampings or a milled bar which has been sliced up. I do have 2 packets of these which I got on different occasions, does anyone have any idea about these please Botton are Peco tiebars The brass chairs are OK for code 75 so may have been for TT gauge ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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