Mark Carne

Leeds used the damaged ones with the window frets removed for Southern coaches post war. Bakelite coaches were introduced in 1937, all pre war models were made in self coloured bakelite, post war they were all made with black bakelite, which is why there are no post war LNER coaches, as the finish was produced using coloured bakelite. Mark

I've never understood why they left the drop links off these, all mine have replacement couplings of the same pattern with drop links.... Mark

It has been said before that the TCS is badly named, but what else would you call it? Model Railway History Society? That might send the wrong message to those whos trains are far from models. Not sure what else to suggest. I think it's down to those of us in the TCS to spread the word, if you like toy or model trains, it's the club for you. After all, what statement usually follows the club name, and features at the bottom of the front cover of the current magazine? Mark

All the Bassett Lowke live steam locos will go round a 3 foot radius curve, in fact an Enterprise will go round 2 foot radius, so 4 foot would be fine. The only trouble would be, they mostly don't like running outdoors, which is fair enough, as B/L used to state quite plainly in their instructions and publicity material that externally fired locos were intended for indoor use. But I have 2 Archangel Satan 0-6-0T locos that are "just" pot boilers, and they run great outside. and will run on 3 foot radius curves. Mark

That one's Bing, they made it forever in Bing terms, 1902 ish to 1932. Any trademarks embossed or stamped on ot anywhere? If it's an early one, it will have a trademark embossed in the sleepers. Got half a dozen of these myself, lovely things. Cheers, Mark

Nearholmer, Sir, the loco you illustrate is indeed the Bing for B/L gauge 2 "Bowen Cooke" tank, but Bing sadly never did a gauge 1 or O version, leaving that to Marklin, with mixed results. Mark

Lead weights from Hornby locos, left is a rear weight from a early type No1 tank loco, circa 1929-30, centre is a weight that goes inside the bogie mounting on a No2 special tank or a No3, and the right one is a cylinder weight from an early type No0/No1/No1 tank loco, 1920-30. Cheers, Mark

Yes, a No2 control rail, part of the rather clever Hornby control system, it will also control certain Bassett Lowke and Bing clockwork locos, readily spotted because of the third lever in the cab, usually in the centre, which overrides the normal brake, and permits the loco to restart once the control rail has been moved. Cheers, Mark

No. I sold a 1920 set less than 10 years back, for £275, if I remember correctly, and in the past 10 years, the price of Hornby O gauge has only gone in one direction, and it ain't up! Cheers, Mark

Fred, here's a photo of an original 1920 loco, also with a grubscrew securing the handrail, it was a feature of the 1920 locos only, that had Meccano rod thickness handrails, dropped when the handrail diameter was reduced the next year. Mark

There are only 3 or 4 locos where it has bitten this hard. But the illustrious Mr Oddy reckons you are not collecting a thing, until you have 3 of it, which seems about right. Mark

Well, here's 11 of them, in a photo recently rediscovered. They are all different, 2 are even electric. One was unavailable, for some reason, now forgotten. Don't mock what you don't understand. :-) Mark

A few photos from the HRCA Thames Valley group meeting yesterday (Wednesday) evening, of a couple of 1921 Hornby No1 locos, including with appropriate, matching rolling stock. Even Hornby thought the original 1920 loco was an ugly sod, and moved swiftly to improve it. Cheers, Mark

I've done exactly the same, pondering the size of potential market, for such a product. 400 still seems a large number to me, given the kind of production run numbers of Ace Trains, WJVintage, etc. Ok, you can add potential buyers who are, as you say, "R number completists" and the like, and those who want to buy something special to mark the anniversary, but that cannot be a huge number, because I can see most of them being scared off by the price. Then I cannot see many of the people we know in the O gauge tinplate/coarse scale world wanting one either, as most of those that do buy "Modern compatibles" are firmly in the "Grown up Dublo" club, and will also be scared off by the price. Time will tell, but whatever happens, it's certainly interesting! Cheers, Mark

It's being made by ETS, so more than likely it will be 20 volt dc, ETS have produced quite a range of loco commissions for the UK O gauge 3 rail market in the last 10 to 15 years. I'm quite surprised at the quantity, and how quick they appear to be selling, 400 units is a big number today for the modern O gauge 3 rail tinplate market, the Terrier ETS produced for WJVintage/Raylo went to about 350 units, and the ETS for Ace Trains LSWR M7 was only 200. And running toy trains from the mains via a rheostat with a light bulb in the circuit was an industry standard 100 years ago, all the German makers used this system, and Hornby just copied them. The idea was as mains voltage varied enormously, it could be operated on any system, 110 to 240, ac or dc, as long as you used a 60 watt bulb of the correct voltage for your supply. The only other alternative, also an industry standard until the late 1920s, was 4 volt run from accumulators. 20 volt ac was introduced by Märklin in 1926, and then everyone copied that, Hornby some what slower than most, from 1932 onwards, and not really embracing it until 1934/35. Cheers, Mark

LBSCR locos were made, but the really boring news is they were black. A boxed LBSCR passenger set is known, and it has a black loco and tender. A rather lucky friend found an individual box for a loco with an LBSCR label, but empty, unfortunately. Cheers, Mark

Photo from the launch event today. I'm with you Kevin, well, I guess I like the early pattern No1 tank loco, I've got 12! Not so many common parts as you might think, cylinders, smokebox door, handrail knobs, chimney, dome and mech, that's about it in common, running plate, cab and boiler all different. But these all benefited from the improvements I mentioned earlier, there wasn't a 1920 No1 tank loco, in fact there wasn't a 1920 No1 loco, it was just the Hornby loco, because it was the only loco that bore the Hornby name. Mark

Great minds think alike sir! The Hornby image does have a particularly computer graphic look.....

TBH, it looks to me pretty accurate, the original 1920 loco was an ugly swine, much improved the next year, by bigger driving wheels, a better, bigger mech, and smaller diameter handrail in one piece that goes around the smokebox.

100 of each, total batch of 400 isn't so small, I remember being told by Len Mills that Ace only produced 200 M7s in total. And the WJVintage/Raylo Terrier has got to somewhere around 350 units. This price too, seems crazy, but I think it can be partly, but only partly explained, by the probable fact that this is an exclusive production by ETS for Hornby. I seem to remember that WJVintage/Raylo deliberately chose not to go exclusive, allowing ETS to use the tooling after they had completed their run, to keep the price down, hence Terriers and Yankee Tanks in the ETS range. So if ETS have charged a small premium for making a batch of something they cannot, and in all probability, would not use the tooling for afterwards, then Hornby put their usual percentage on, plus the conventional profit margin for authorized retailers, you arrive at a serious price tag. Plus, I can imagine the marketing bods saying this is a premium product, it needs a premium price! And I don't believe for a second that they have all sold already.... Cheers, Mark

My first thought about the track on the layout in the video was ETS 2 rail. Mark

I've got one Parley loco, and it is unblemished by touch ups or partial repainting. It's the sort of thing that should be in a national model railway museum, if we had such a thing, and I treat it with suitable respect. It's not like it's some naff bit of Hornby where I could go out and buy another one tomorrow on the internet if I it up. Mark

If by any chance Rockershovel isn't interested, would you be kind enough to pass on the details to me please? Cheers, Mark

Like the effect of your light railway train, who'd have thought German toy train coaches could pass as model, of something completely unimagined by their designer I'm sure! I have been offered the Parley North Eastern Atlantic, and a NER 4-6-0 too, but the previous owner has gone too far with the Humbrol for my tastes . :-( Cheers, Mark