whart57

On 26/12/2020 at 18:27, Horsehay Railway Modeller said:

I've also snuck in a 57xx from an ebay auction. Once I get it chipped I shall finally have a tank loco on my branchline. I think I'll steal the chip from my lima deltic as it has a nice lenz chip in thay is far better than the locos lima mechanism. 

I look forward to seeing the Much Wenlock Saturday mixed trundling through

Evening update:

The list is up to 59 items now. I am winding it back a bit so that the target is 60 objects as I think 100 will result in a lot of duplication. If there is a rush of items then the target can always be shifted to 75 or even up to a 100 but I am thinking more of refining the list now.

Here is where it stands at the moment:

History of Model Railways in 60 Objects

1. Birmingham “Piddler”
2. Marklin German import
3. Basset Lowke “Black Prince”
4. Henry Greenly “The Model Locomotive, its design and construction”
5. Item from a large Edwardian SE&CR layout – can’t remember the name of the owner
6. Bing OO trainset
7. Tinplate track
8. Basset-Lowke "Duke of York"
9. Tinplate era electric trainset
10. Photo of “Maybank” at the MRC Annual exhibition
11. Basset-Lowke signals and lever frame
12. Hornby Dublo 3-rail
13. Pre-war wood and printed paper kits – e.g. Leeds/Steadman ones
14. Bakelite van body and modern 3D printed body – technology for “instant” vehicles
15. Hornby Clockwork 0-4-0 tank engine
16. “Miniature Building Construction” J H Ahern’s book on making buildings as a link to “Madder Valley”
17. Rovex “Princess” loco and coaches
18. First edition of “Railway Modeller”
19. BRMSB Standards booklet (side panel: NMRA standards, MOROP)
20. Tension Lock coupling, with Hornby Dublo “knuckle” coupling
21. Roye England’s first cottage for Pendon
22. Triang Series 3 track – a move away from solid moulded or pressed track bases and a consolidation of a complete track geometry
23. Kitmaster Pug kit – and the Kitmaster range more generally
24. PECO’s “60 Plans for Small Railways” mainly by Cyril Freezer
25. Wire framed trees by G. Iliffe Stokes
26. Triang Jinty – two of them so both OO and TT
27. H&M Controller – not sure which one
28. Wills Finecast White metal kit
29. Romford wheels and axles
30. Solenoid point motor – H&M one probably standing in for the type
31. Airfix Booking Office kit
32. Railway Modeller articles of the first permanent “Buckingham” layout
33. Stewart Hine’s high frequency coach interior lighting for Pendon
34. Lone Star push along die cast models and subsequent Trebl-O-lectric loco
35. A “Superquick” card building kit
36. Triang “Lord of the Isles” with clerestory coaches – historical railway modelling goes mainstream
37. A copy of “Mixed Traffic”, or the equivalent magazine/newsletter from the 2mm Association, S Gauge Society etc, to represent the emergence of societies dedicated to a specific scale or gauge
38. Triang’s Royal Mail set (with mailbag pick up and drop-off) and their “Giraffe” car – the sublime and the ridiculous of 1960s automation gimmicks
39. Slater’s Plastikard
40. PECO N gauge “Jubilee”
41. P4 wheels
42. Jouef/Eggerbahn HOe/OO9 loco, commercial narrow gauge
43. Transistor control units, in particular the small handheld walk round units
44. Alex Jackson coupling – along with “Sprat and Winkle”, B&B etc, couplings designed to be less obtrusive yet still allow automatic hooking up
45. Iain Rice’s book, Layout Designs, finescale in small spaces
46. Hornby Zero 1 Control Unit
47. Mainline J72
48. Thomas the Tank Engine train sets
49. First British model locomotive to be made in China, but not the ones using Hornby tooling.
50. Heljan Class 31 in O gauge. Or a better example of the first RTR O gauge that wasn’t crude or chunky and could be said to have truly revived interest in 7mm scale.
51. Loksound DCC Chip
52. Flyer or poster for the annual Warley Exhibition
53. “Nellie” and “Smoky Joe” – the evolution of the budget loco and wagons trainset
54. Static grass applicator
55. First model locomotive to be designed and marketed by computer
56. First rmweb Homepage
57. T-gauge train
58. Episode of the Great Model Railway Challenge
59. 3D printed bits

4 hours ago, rocor said:

Well no one individual has listed a whole one hundred. So if we can contribute the elephants one by one.

 

My contribution to the Elephantidae, is ...

 

https://archive.org/details/modellocomotive00greegoog/page/n34/mode/2up

I'm ahead of you on that, I put it in my running list this morning

9 hours ago, Ruffnut Thorston said:

Possibly the first China made Hornby locomotive was the LNER B12 4-6-0, made from the 1960s R.150 tooling.

 

The quality of finish, especially the lining and livery application, were miles away from the Margate made versions.

In which direction?

Which was the first new locomotive though?

I have the move of manufacturing to China in there but personally I don't know the first loco to emerge from that

Halfway there

The list is up to fifty now. I'm not sure if there are another fifty objects or whether it would be better to refine the list. The nature of the beast is that many choices actually duplicate others. I don't know which way it will go, probably best to just wind the key a few more times and let it run..............

History of Model Railways in 100 Objects

1. Birmingham “Piddler”
2. Marklin German import
3. Basset Lowke “Black Prince”
4. Item from a large Edwardian SE&CR layout – can’t remember the name of the owner
5. Bing OO trainset
6. Tinplate track
7. Tinplate era electric trainset
8. Photo of “Maybank” at the MRC Annual exhibition
9. Basset-Lowke signals and lever frame
10. Hornby Dublo 3-rail
11. Pre-war card kits – e.g. Leeds/Steadman ones
12. Hornby Clockwork 0-4-0 tank engine
13. “Miniature Building Construction” J H Ahern’s book on making buildings as a link to “Madder Valley”
14. Rovex “Princess” loco and coaches
15. First edition of “Railway Modeller”
16. BRMSB Standards booklet (side panel: NMRA standards, MOROP)
17. Tension Lock coupling, with Hornby Dublo “knuckle” coupling
18. Triang Series 3 track – a move away from solid moulded or pressed track bases and a consolidation of a complete track geometry
19. PECO’s “60 Plans for Small Railways” mainly by Cyril Freezer
20. Wire framed trees by G. Iliffe Stokes
21. Triang Jinty – two of them so both OO and TT
22. H&M Controller – not sure which one
23. Wills Finecast White metal kit
24. Romford wheels and axles
25. Solenoid point motor
26. Airfix Booking Office kit
27. Railway Modeller articles of the first permanent “Buckingham” layout
28. Stewart Hine’s high frequency coach interior lighting for Pendon
29. Lone Star push along die cast models and subsequent Trebl-O-lectric loco
30. A “Superquick” card building kit
31. Triang “Lord of the Isles” with clerestory coaches – historical railway modelling goes mainstream
32. A copy of “Mixed Traffic”, or the equivalent magazine/newsletter from the 2mm Association, S Gauge Society etc, to represent the emergence of societies dedicated to a specific scale or gauge
33. Triang’s Royal Mail set (with mailbag pick up and drop-off) and their “Giraffe” car – the sublime and the ridiculous of 1960s automation gimmicks
34. Slater’s Plastikard
35. PECO N gauge “Jubilee”
36. P4 wheels
37. Transistor control units, in particular the small handheld walk round units
38. Iain Rice’s book, Layout Designs, finescale in small spaces
39. Hornby Zero 1 Control Unit
40. Mainline J72
41. Thomas the Tank Engine train sets
42. First British model locomotive to be made in China
43. Heljan Class 31 in O gauge. Or a better example of the first RTR O gauge that wasn’t crude or chunky and could be said to have truly revived interest in 7mm scale.
44. Loksound DCC Chip
45. Flyer or poster for the annual Warley Exhibition
46. “Nellie” and “Smoky Joe” – the evolution of the budget loco and wagons trainset
47. Static grass applicator
48. First model locomotive to be designed and marketed by computer
49. First rmweb Homepage
50. Episode of the Great Model Railway Challenge

19 minutes ago, andyman7 said:

Great topic and suggestions - could I add:

 

- GWR Terminus to Fiddle Yard layout

Agreed. However I have been struggling with an object that would represent that. Likewise a way of representing the minimum space layouts of the nineties and noughties

No CJF is listed as the co-author. A bit clumsy writing perhaps

I have taken a number of the suggestions from the first page plus a few more things I have thought of and created a consolidated list. I'll have a better look at the second page and do another update tomorrow

History of Model Railways in 100 Objects

1. Birmingham “Piddler”
2. Basset Lowke “Black Prince”
3. Item from a large Edwardian SE&CR layout – can’t remember the name of the owner
4. Bing OO trainset
5. Hornby Clockwork 0-4-0 tank engine
6. Photo of “Maybank” at the MRC Annual exhibition
7. Hornby Dublo 3-rail
8. “Miniature Building Construction” J H Ahern’s book on making buildings as a link to “Madder Valley”
9. Rovex “Princess” loco and coaches
10. First edition of “Railway Modeller”
11. BRMSB Standards booklet (side panel: NMRA standards, MOROP)
12. PECO Streamline
13. Cyril Freezer and PECO, “60 Plans for Small Railways”
14. Wire framed trees by G. Iliffe Stokes
15. Triang Jinty – two of them so both OO and TT
16. H&M Controller
17. Wills Finecast White metal kit
18. Solenoid point motor
19. Railway Modeller articles of the first permanent “Buckingham” layout
20. Stewart Hine’s high frequency coach interior lighting for Pendon
21. Lone Star push along die cast models and subsequent Trebl-O-lectric loco
22. A “Superquick” card building kit
23. Triang’s Royal Mail set (with mailbag pick up and drop-off) and their “Giraffe” car – the sublime and the ridiculous of 1960s automation gimmicks
24. P4 wheels
25. Slater’s Plastikard
26. Hornby Zero 1 Control Unit
27. Mainline J72
28. DCC Chip
29. “Nellie” and “Smoky Joe” – the evolution of the budget loco and wagons trainset
30. First rmweb Homepage

One of my Christmas presents this year was one of those books that wrote about history in the form of describing one hundred objects that were part of the history thread being written about. I thought it might be interesting to try and nominate which 100 objects could be used to describe the the history of model railways. The only rule I'd make is that they have to be objects, so no layouts - no nominating "Buckingham" for example - and no concepts. The books of 100 objects I have seen do get round that ruling by having posters or newspaper articles as a way of mentioning these larger things, and that would be permissible here.

To get things started a few suggestions of mine - in no particular order as they say on Strictly:

• The first Rovex (Triang) Princess loco and carriages train set.
• A set of wheels made to P4 standards
• A DCC chip
• The first edition of Railway Modeller. Others might argue that other magazines, Model Railway News or Model Railway Constructor, were earlier and thus should have precedence, or that Model Railway Journal with its advocacy of fine scale and the highest standards would be a better choice, but I would argue that RM is the one with longevity and reach, and is probably the magazine that most present day modellers first encountered.
• A PECO "Wonderful Wagon"

Perhaps the list should be limited to British railway modelling, but perhaps not.

(I did do a search before starting this topic, but if it has been done before, my apologies)

I didn't know of this sea salt trick. I'm going to have to give that a go sometime

Nicely weathered, but I don't recall hard hats and hi-viz gilets in the 1970s, never mind the 1960s.

I presume the "Golden Arrow" ran along this bit since in later years it ran out of Victoria.

Ramsgate expresses would be EMUs from 1959 on.

Photograph 43 in the Middleton Press book "Craven Arms to Wellington" shows pannier 2718 with a mixed train in Much Wenlock station. Unfortunately the photograph is not dated but it looks to me to be in BR times.

It may have been mentioned before, but wasn't there a mixed train to Much Wenlock on Saturdays?

11 hours ago, The Johnster said:

In that sense they were victims of their own success.  They were a response by the railways to increasing competition for urban local traffic from the new electric tramways that were springing up everywhere, and indeed the UK  ones often had similar seating to the new trams, with reversible backs for when the direction of travel changed.  Often the guard had no particular accomodation and had to sell the tickets, in the same way as a bus conductor.  They were associated with the provision of unstaffed halts and stopping places, much like tram stops.   They were successful in that they generated new traffic that the railways had not served before, and the next stage was to build trailers for them.   As they were usually barely capable of shifting their own weight, this resulted in late running and unreliable service (running out of steam and having to stop for a blow up was not uncommon). 

 

As this period coincided with the replacement of small locos with bigger more powerful ones as loads increased with the introduction of bogie coaches, and these redacted locos were thus available to haul or propel the trailers while retaining the advantage of being able to do normal light duties when they were not required to work with the trailers.  A drawback to the railmotors was that any fault with the locmotive meant that the passenger portion had to be taken out of service as well, and a normal train of the sort that it had been decided was uneconomic on such services had to be substituted.  Various systems of controlling locos from the driving cabs of trailer coaches were used, the GW using a mechanical system of rods, shafts, and universal couplings, while other railways used vacuum or air systems.  The Taff Vale used cables and pulleys above the coach and cab roofs.  In most cases, only 3rd class  was provided.

 

They were in some ways the forerunners of multiple unit trains.

In the case of the SE&CR the adoption of steam railcars was the result of the infrastructure - in this case human infrastructure - not keeping pace with requirements. In 1901 the SE&CR went into an agreement to operate the Sheppey Light Railway, a Holman Stephens (not Colonel yet) engineered line from Queenborough to Leysdown, traversing what was then - and still is - a lot of nothing. Passenger traffic was very light and not expected to grow either, so the SE&CR looked for a cheaper way of running trains than conventional locomotives and carriages. They trialled a couple of petrol-engined railcars and were on the point of buying one when the issue of maintenance came up. Motor engineers were rare beasts in 1903 and the SE&CR couldn't find one prepared to move to Sheppey. There was also the issue of cold mornings, apparently one of the trial machines needed a push start from a steam engine on frosty mornings. As a result the SE&CR went back to tried and tested technology and bought a couple of steam railcars.

The steam railcars were successful on Sheppey, and also on the white elephant line from Strood to Chatham Central. This line, which ran parallel to the main London Chatham and Dover mainline, was built - complete with its own bridge over the Medway - when the competition between SER and LCDR was at its most bitter and manic, almost a personal vendetta between the respective chairmen. Not surprisingly it was never profitable - or even viable - and after merger was operated as a short stub for ten years before closure. A railcar shuttling back and forth met the operational requirements amply.

Now the SE&CR board were lulled into thinking steam railcars were the future for lines with light passenger traffic and they ordered six more. They should have paid more attention to Sheppey. On Sheppey there was still a need for a steam engine for the freight traffic, it's why the SE&CR bought a secondhand Terrier from the Brighton. And there wasn't actually enough for this goods engine to do. Railcars were fine for short shuttles, but otherwise their limitations were clear.

The SE&CR spent the years before World War One trying to find a use for these railcars. They tried them on Romney Marsh, in theory the way the lines to New Romney and Dungeness were operated should have suited them, but they were soon replaced by loco-hauled trains again. Romney Marsh was flat though, the Elham Valley line was not. Operationally, providing extra services on the busier part of the line between Folkestone and Elham was a good idea. Unfortunately fully loaded railcars struggled with the gradients. Similar issues stymied them in providing extra services between Dover, Folkestone and Hythe.

After World War One the railcars returned to Sheppey. At least the coach portions did, pairs of them united over a common bogie to form an articulated saloon. In that form they ran over the Sheppey Light Railway for another thirty years.

The first decade of the 20th century saw a lot of railways experiment with steam railcar designs. Most were a lot more conventional than this French effort, but then most did not require a tri-class passenger section, British regulations only insisted on one train a day carrying third class passengers.

Few made it past World War One, mainly because having a boiler and oscillating pistons on the same frame as passenger seats did not make for a good passenger experience. The concept of self-powered railcars needed the internal combustion engine.

Well I've clicked the "follow this topic" button.

I based a 3mm scale layout on the track plan of Bodiam. Never finished it but handed it on to another 3mm Society member who did exhibit it under the name of "Wimblehurst Road". As a result though the 3mm Society had an etched brass kit of Bodiam station to go with the Ford railbus kit Worsley Works produced. As you can see:

Platforms 15-18 at London Victoria might work as well. In earlier times there was also a turntable and some loco stabling sidings on the way up to the bridge over the Thames

On 09/11/2020 at 09:51, TEAMYAKIMA said:

With the layout's scenic boards out of my shed and safely stored in my garage I can get on with sorting my shed.

 

Previously my shed was a mash up between a workshop and a man cave, but I absolutely hate the term 'man cave' and prefer the rather pretentious expression, 'museum of my life'. So I had to decide : workshop or man cave?

 

I chose man cave  museum of my life.

 

At one end of the shed I had some recycled kitchen cabinets which housed all sorts of 'bits' ....

 

 

 

 

So, that had to go and this is what's replaced it - BTW an individual showcase is on it's way for the Gauge 1 QJ

 

 

What's the story behind the Triang TT?

Another YouTube find - well YouTube suggested it - showing the Gelderland tramways in action. Black and White this time but the earlier footage shows a healthy goods traffic

Railway workers in Holland were also a key part of the Resistance. The Government in exile called them out on strike in September 1944 to hamper German movements in conjunction with the airborne landings at Arnhem. The workers then had to stay in hiding up till liberation when they then found a railway system completely wrecked. Trains didn't run until several months after the end of the war and then only piecemeal.

One aside was that one of the most popular programmes on Dutch radio in 1945 and early 1946 was a half hour or so programme once a week where the boss of Netherlands Railways talked about the restoration work and announced where the trains would be running again.

Steam tram locomotives are generally boxy and ugly, but this one surely beats the lot when it comes to aesthetic horror

Make a model of that and no-one will believe you actually finished it.

Thank you, I obviously don't spend long enough on here