Model Railway News 1926

ThePurplePrimer · December 4, 2013

Hi

I am hoping that someone out there has a copy of the June issue of Model Railway News 1926

I would really like a good quality scan of the article on A.R. Walkley's ' layout in a suitcase'

I would suspect this is well out of copyright by now

Can you help me please

... Rob

ThePurplePrimer · December 4, 2013

Now you're just taking the Mickey, Mickey

ThePurplePrimer · December 4, 2013

Thanks - I do have a scan of that one but it doesn't have a picture that I need that was on the original

I bet someone on here has a copy

Butler Henderson · December 4, 2013

The Layout in a suitcase article was reprinted in Model Trains International No.83 July/Aug 2009. Back issues are available from Kristall Productions 4 Surbiton Hall Close Kingston Surrey KT1 2JX. Cover price was £3.10 but back numbers are, according to the current issue, £2.80 post paid.

ThePurplePrimer · December 4, 2013

Many thanks BH

I actually have that copy and that's my current reference after I was unable to find an original

Then I just bought the Railway Modeller 2014 annual and that has an image of what I assume is the first page of the article and that picture at least is slightly larger ( shows more rather than physically larger ) than the slightly cropped one in MTi

Pacific231G · December 5, 2013

Hi Rob

I've got the original article but it's in a bound volume so a little difficult to photocopy and text in the gutter tends to be disappear

These link to the RMWeb files for the scans I did for someone here in September.

Walkley portable goods yard 1.jpg

Walkley portable goods yard 2.jpg

Walkley portable goods yard 3.jpg

Walkley portable goods yard 4.jpg

Walkley portable goods yard general view.jpg

Walkley Sidings plan.jpg

Walkley folding baseboard.jpg

You've got the complete text from MTI but these pictures should be a bit better than they were reproduced in MTI

Let me know if there are any pictures you need in higher quality but the quality of photorepro in pre war MRNs isn't that great and if you can see the original printing screen dots you're getting all there is as it was letterpress not offset litho in those days.

There was an additional photo of the layout in the Dec 1926 MRN and the quality of that scan is as good as it gets.

Note that the original article refers to it as 00 gauge but 3.5mm/ft scale. The Dec. 1926 photo accompanied a letter by Walkley saying that henceforth he was going to call his 3.5mm scale 16.5mm gauge layouts "half 0". A little while later the MRN editor J.N. Maskelyne started referring to it as HO scale and that became the scale adopted by most of the world.

Edited December 5, 2013 by Pacific231G

ThePurplePrimer · December 5, 2013

Hi David

Wow this is fantastic and that last photo is so much better than anything I have seen up until now - actually very exciting

But

The links above that to the other images tell me I don't have permission when I try to click on them

... Rob

David Murray · January 11, 2017

Perhaps someone can assist Rob, me and any others who would greatly value access to the above (excluded) images?

Pacific231G · January 12, 2017

Perhaps someone can assist Rob, me and any others who would greatly value access to the above (excluded) images?

I don't know why they're excluding, they should be way out of copyright, I can see them when signed in but here they are again

A view of a corner of Mr. Walkley's etc. is not from that article but from the Dec 1926 MRN accompanying a letter saying he was henceforth going to call 00 gauge with the correct scale (3.5mm/ft) half 0. I think that letter was the origin of H0 as J.R. Maskelyne shortened it to that fairly soon afterwards. .

I might try rescanning the final page.

If you can't get these let me know and I'll PM them

Rob, did you ever get these scans from me?

Edited January 12, 2017 by Pacific231G

rue_d_etropal · February 15, 2017

The debate on OO and HO has been going on ever since. I have some copies of MRC from 1939(for some drawings I needed) and there is a short piece on OO versus HO. I am trying to do my bit for British HO(although I do model OO as well), and on one model have two shops, one is Walkley's Travel(suitcase?) and one is J Nelson Models as a tribute to Jack Nelson who modelled LNWR in HO back in the 40s.

There are two important design features on Walkley's layout, one is his use of HO(even if he originally called in OO) and one is its fold in the middle, a design idea which has been used on on many portable/exhibition layouts.

Edited February 15, 2017 by rue_d_etropal

kevinlms · June 30, 2023

On 12/01/2017 at 11:16, Pacific231G said:

I don't know why they're excluding, they should be way out of copyright, I can see them when signed in but here they are again

A view of a corner of Mr. Walkley's etc. is not from that article but from the Dec 1926 MRN accompanying a letter saying he was henceforth going to call 00 gauge with the correct scale (3.5mm/ft) half 0. I think that letter was the origin of H0 as J.R. Maskelyne shortened it to that fairly soon afterwards. .

I might try rescanning the final page.

If you can't get these let me know and I'll PM them

Rob, did you ever get these scans from me?

It has all disappeared again in the great debacle of 2021, I think.

Pacific231G · June 30, 2023

5 hours ago, kevinlms said:

It has all disappeared again in the great debacle of 2021, I think.

Well here they are again. All but one of these were from Walkley's 1926 MRN article. Note that in those days 00 (as well as 0, 1,2 & 3) referred to the gauge. Walkley was very firmly in the correct scale for 00 is 3.5mm/ft camp. It was several years later when 4mm/ft was starting to win that particular battle that he decided to start calling it Half 0 and I think it was Maskelyne, the MRN Editor (who was very supportive of using the correct scale) who coined H0 for that gauge and scale.

The French continued to refer to 16.5mm gauge (with the scale of 1:86 or 1:87 following logically) as 00 but sometimes H0 until about 1950 when for consistency they settled on H0.