goldfish

Not all tinplate track is created equal, there is excellent tinplate track like the modern Merkur variety, and there is that which is best consigned to the scrap bin like Hornby. The reason Hornby felt it necessary to incorporate a track gauge in its keys was because they did not fit enough sleepers on their track to maintain the correct gauge and properly support the weight of the trains. Even new, the gauge of Hornby track must have been rather hit or miss. The interesting thing about Hornby is that none of their locomotive wheels are actually designed to run on tinplate track.

For simplicity can we call the distance between contact points "Effective Gauge"? This varies depending upon the rail shoulder radius and the coning angle of the wheel. it also changes on curves. If the coning angle is reduced the effective gauge increases, and if the coning angle is increased it decreases. If the shoulder radius is increased the effective gauge is also increases. If the wheels are centred on straight track, with 3 degrees of coning on tinplate track with a head diameter of 3mm at 35mm centres the effective gauge is 34.8mm. For sold rail with a gauge of 32mm and a solder radius of 0.4mm the effective gauge is 32.8mm. If you reduce the the shoulder radius to 0.2mm the effective gauge becomes 32.4mm. In order for a wheel designed to run on solid rail at a gauge of 32mm to run on tinplate track at 35mm centres it needs the tread width to be at least 1mm wider than would otherwise be the case. As solid wheels rigidly fixed to the axle need to have a root radius greater than the shoulder radius of the wheel to function properly as railway wheels, it would have been better to accept that different wheels where required for solid rail and use a gauge of 35mm because the tinplate wheels would only have had to cope with the need for a 0.4mm increase in required tread width, which was probably already built in. The interaction of wheels and track is often overlooked or misunderstood. Even by "experts", the February 2000 revision of of the G.0.G. Standards Part 1, Section 1, 1.6.1 required that "3. Line contact must exist between rail and wheel". Quite how you are supposed to achieve line contact with what is essentially a cone bearing against a cylinder I don't know. Hopefully it was amended in a later revision. The other misconception is that you need to polish the tops of rails to get good electrical contact. If you are using wheels with any degree of coning they bear against the shoulder of the rail and never come into contact with the top of the rail. All the top of the rail; needs is a wipe to get rid of dirt and debris.

I have always found people on the continent to have a great sense of humor, but not always the same as the British sense of humor. I was being half tongue in cheek (partly joking). I know there was no scale attached to spur nul originally, but it did have a gauge of 35mm and that was perfectly rational, as was measuring the gauge at the center of the rail head. Let's face it no prototype runs on rails with a head diameter of 120mm, and the points at which the wheels actually contact the rails on tinplate track are very close to the center-line of the rails. So it is not an unreasonable to measure the gauge at the center-line of the rail. Regards, Michael

There must be something about people selling Leeds Train Sets on ebay. Listed as "LEEDS LMC O GAUGE ELECTRIC GWR NE 0-4-0 LOCOMOTIVE & WAGON TRAIN SET BOXED og", but as the description adds "This set is missing the locomotive." The price is about correct if the locomotive was present https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/335013756641?hash=item4e00603ee1:g:1hUAAOSwFrZk8zm5. Did I mention it was Mr. G.

If you ignore Greenly's self promotion, O gauge had a scale from the start. The Germans were not idiots, to them the standard gauge was 1435mm, so the obvious gauge for a model railway was 35mm at a scale of 1:41. Greenly being a pedantic Englishman was incapable of understanding the logic and so saddled us with steam roller wheels to bridge the gap between tinplate and solid track. Before the 1960's metric machine tools were pretty unheard of in the UK, anything metric would be converted to imperial before manufacture.

You might find this table from the 1950 Bassett-Lowke Model Railway Handbook useful.

Slaters coarse scale wheels are to the G.0.G. standard, as believe are Peartree also.

Some of the confusion around what is '‘coarse scale’ is down to the G.0.G.. What the G.0.G. call ‘Coarse Scale’ is a modified version of the B.R.M.S.B. 'Standard 0-gauge'. At the request of Bassett-Lowke, Ltd. the B.R.M.S.B. adopted the Bassett-Lowke standard dimensions (B-L drawing No.2246/Q) as B.R.M.S.B. 'Coarse 0-gauge'. For what ever reason the B.R.M.S.B. never seem to have published this standard, but for what it is worth it called for a B-B measurement of 27mm. There is also B.R.M.S.B. 'Unified 0-gauge', which is not what it sounds like but a whole new standard designed to suit the needs of all varieties of O gauge. The B.R.M.S.B. actually published this standard, but in garbled form and should have formally retracted it. There is nothing like having a clear set of standards and precise nomenclature.

If you are prepared to look to Sheffield rather than Northampton for a solution, you could use Milbro Permanway Points. These are "universal" and come in 2 and 3-rail versions. Not easy to find in good condition, but should solve the problem. This is a 3' 2" radius example.

I can understand your reluctance to drag it out of the case again. It is difficult to gain a sense of scale from the video, but that must be a substantial bit of kit. Looking at a couple of your earlier videos, the problem is apparent in an earlier video of the electric version, but the live steam version doesn't seem to have a problem. I couldn't find a clear shot of the streamlined version, but that doesn't seem to have a problem either. A superb model none the less. Regards, Michael

An excellent presentation as ever. I am not sure if it is an optical illusion, but the inner leading wheel on the front bogie appears to be lifting off the track on some of the curves? Regards, Michael

An interesting pair of locomotives. Is the Tender Booster on the 0-8-0 powered, or just representative?

Probably an autocorrect error, but it made me smile :- "All fishcakes appear intact" https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/305081447361?

A tad optimistic I think. £125 for a cardboard box and a circle of 2' radius, raised third rail, steel and wood track. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/186040139692? Not that rare and you can pick a complete set up for that price.

The art work and accessories look rather dated for either 1948 or 1958, was it a case of reusing existing items? Regards, Michael

A splendid little toy train. Is the card stamped "20" and "8" the date of manufacture? Regards, Michael

The Broadway Express with its Loewy stream liner seems particularly suitable for this treatment. Regards, Michael

It is perfectly possible to run appropriate fine scale O gauge on 2 foot curves, but the operative word is appropriate. If your interest is modern image long wheelbase stock then O gauge requires far more space than you have available. With small wheelbase tank engines and short wheelbase rolling stock you can get away with much less space. In O gauge terms Peco Setrack is regarded as small, but in reality it if you compare it with the equivalent OO gauge Setrack it is at least Radius 3, and in the real world it needs a lot more space than you expect. The "O gauge is only for the rich kids in the big house" paradigm is very strong but is not necessarily true, as manufactures like ETS have proved.

This listing has been around for while and has just been relisted for around the fourth time. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/145215105576?hash=item21cf7eaa28:g:j5sAAOSwfBNkqUd1 The listing has five images, four of which are of a Basset Lowke Duke of York, the fifth one is of a Hornby 0-4-0 tank. So naturally the incorrect one was chosen as the thumbnail. The images show what is clearly a clockwork loco, and it is even described as that in the description, but the seller has been careful to describe it in the "Item specifics" as "Type - Electric Locomotive". Perhaps Transformers have come to tinplate railways.

Such as actually modelling to scale, for example.

Just checked a section of Peco Code 200 rail, you have Peco SM32 track and so need SL-810 joiners and mentioned above.

I think your list needs updating Fred, the FS Gr 746 038 certainly deserves a place : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCS9o4byHDk Regards, Michael

An interesting re-use of an existing listing : Bassett Lowke O Gauge 3 rail track Job Lot. Item specifics Brand - Hornby Replica of - Southern Coach Type - Locomotive Wheel Configuration - 4-6-2 Features Tender Colour - Silver Gauge O At least they got the gauge correct. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/145152672426?

If you are looking for a cheap and cheerful solution, how about repurposing and old PC PSU. There are plenty of cheap breakout boards out there. A current random one off ebay https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/203734003659?hash=item2f6f7e2fcb:g:WwMAAOSwB6ZczW5J& PC PSUs will supply more current than you would ever need, but their output can be surprisingly noisy.

That sounds like a neat and simple solution, I will have to consider that. Of course it would be much easier if there was a nut embedded in the wheel.