John R Smith

A very good point. The reason I might bother to clean the track at all is simply that it would seem the black goo builds up on the wheels, and after a time (months? years?) forms a horrible lumpy crust on the wheel tyres. I know this, because with every vintage B-L wagon I obtain, I have to spend a happy half hour or so chipping the hardened goo away with a screwdriver blade and then finishing the job off with a wire brush. True, but my problem is not tarnish. A control section of B-L track left out but with no stock running on it stays clean. It might be tarnished, but no black goo wipes off with IPA and a cotton bud. It sounds as if oil is at the root of this problem. I must admit, I do tend to be generous with the lube on my clockwork mechs . . .

I expect that you, like me, have got used to the ritual of cleaning the track before each operating session. It's not too dreadful a task these days, as I no longer have a very extensive layout, but it is still a bit of a pain. I had always accepted the published wisdom that the black scum which builds up on the rails (and the wheels too, eventually) was to do with electricity and tiny sparks arcing away between the wheels and track, producing a sort of carbon deposit. So when I began my coarse scale O gauge project I was looking forward to the end of these domestic chores and track cleaning woes. Why? Because electricity, volts, amps and watts are banished forever from my new layout, which is powered entirely by clockwork (or Spring Drive, as Jack Ray would have preferred). Therefore, with no arcing between rail and wheel there should be no carbon deposits, right? Imagine then my horror when I found that my rails got just as black, just as quickly, as on my fine-scale electric setup. I can scrub all the track sparkling clean with IPA, wire-brush the wheels, and within a few days the the black scum returns. So this is obviously nothing to do with electricity at all, but if not, what is the cause? For your reference- my rails are brass, and the wheels are a mix of mazak (wagons and locos), cast iron (coaching stock) and a bit of steel (a few wagons). I seem to have been cleaning track for almost as long as I can remember. The only layout where I never used to bother was my dear old Horby Dublo 6x4, where it appeared to be self-cleaning, somehow. There's a lot to be said for centre third . . . J

Have you read the description on this listing? What a load of total codswallop! Gets my b***cks of the week award . . .

I have also been refurbishing some elderly track just recently. Older chairs can be very fragile and on one of my lengths every chair was broken in two, not at all obvious until the rail was removed. If the holding pins are steel they can be a swine to get out, as they rust firmly into place (thank heavens Bassett-Lowke used brass pins, which are easily removed). I ended up with several pins which defeated all attempts to remove them, this on Milbro track.

Congratulations for joining the Coarse Scale Brigade! It looks like you have plenty of experience in other model railway scales, so you must be well prepared for the challenges you will face. The first of these would seem to be the conductor rail chairs. As far as I am aware, nobody still makes these (or the ordinary running rail chairs either). I have managed to salt away several hundred ordinary chairs from good old eBay (although it took some time), but I have no use for the third rail chairs as my setup is all clockwork. I can't say I have ever noticed any of the special high chairs for sale on any of the usual classic O gauge sites. As you say, packing up the standard chairs to the desired height would work, but it would be a bit tedious. Do keep us up to date with your progress! John

Very nice little engine that you built there, Fred. And a well-chosen soundtrack, as always - sounded like a baritone sax solo at the end, shades of Gerry Mulligan perhaps?

That Aster Schools is a really nice runner, isn't it? You lucky man, Fred . . . .

Interesting. As you say, nobody it seems has ever attempted to represent how the the old BR diesels really looked. A bit like steel ships, where the frames telegraph themselves through the outer skin. And of course, our model diesel bodies are far too thick for this to happen - and if they were thin enough, you could never pick them up. Equally, I have never seen a convincing model of an unrebuilt Bulleid pacific - most of the ones I remember looked as if the depot staff had been throwing rocks at them! Air-smoothed casing? Anything but, by the mid 1950s.

It does look really nice, Howard. There is one thing bothering me, and has been from the outset of this project - is it terribly wise to have such a tall structure at the very front of the layout? It does look so vulnerable to a careless impact from a distracted operator / onlooker . . . Let us hope I am being an over-cautious killjoy. It is now a very impressive brewery!

Sadly, this is true unless you get lucky at a local auction house. On eBay, a G1 B-L Peckett 0-4-0 tank sold for £600 on a Buy it Now recently, and it went very quickly. This for a loco which was at the cheap end of Bassett Lowke's Gauge One catalogue at the time.

Kevin is absolutely correct. There have been no clockwork Gauge One locos produced since circa 1940 if not earlier, and the youngest will now be heading for 90 years old. So such clocky locos as do survive are now a) very desirable collector's items, and b) not something that you would give your children to play with. As I expect you know, Gauge One almost died completly after WW II because Bassett Lowke ceased mass production for that scale. If it was not for G1MRA (the G1 Association) and the Tenmille company it probably would gave vanished as a practical modeller's choice, other than for the live steam boys. I got involved back in the early '80s and it was a rocky time - but now you have track, rolling stock kits and locos too. Not cheap, but it is doable. John

Thanks, Fred. Great music, as ever - that piano player is seriously good! J

If I may quote from this excellent article, this concluding passage seems to sum up the author's points very well, and is perhaps also the most contentious - "The conclusion here is that the three key factors, size, gauge and scale came in that order. The sizes of toy trains dictated their gauges, which finally set their scales. This is the reverse of what ‘should have happened’ from the scale modeller’s point of view. However, readers of this magazine should think quite the opposite. Toy trains would not have been toy trains had scale ruled and the magnificent leaps of imagination that characterise the best of what we collect been subjugated to some idea of scale prototype representation. That 4mm remains dominant in the UK, despite it being a dog’s breakfast of all three factors, is a small beacon of hope in a world of ‘scale models’ that is increasingly anodyne and un-toy like." A "beacon of hope", indeed? I wonder what the P4 practioners would have to say about that?

Fred I stand corrected. My only defence is that I got that spelling from an old 1950s copy of the Model Railway News . . . John

That was fun , Fred. I have never seen or used a Walker-Reimsdyk clockwork engine, but I have read that they were perhaps the most controllable of spring-drive locos. Perhaps Nearholmer can tell us more?