jasond

OK, get your tissues ready. 15 or so years ago I imported a pair of 2-rail, Atlas O Alco C628s in D&H Lightning Stripe, pow'd and unpow'd. I was persuaded to sell the unpow'd loco to a regular O-scaler who sadly died later. England being such a huge country it took a while for the sad news to reach me and when I followed it up the loco had disappeared. If any of you knows where loco might be now, I'll happily do a swap maybe for a powered model from my collection ... whatever. Memory: I was enjoying a holiday looking at the D&H in1981, eyeing up a train down in the valley from the NY State freeway. Got ahead of it turned off and took a random steep dirt track up to ... yes!! ... a railroad track. Days before internet, etc but there was the train with 4 Geeps on another track down the hill. How did I miss that track, so cross with myself, but then ... there's another train coming up the hill in the opposite direction on my track ... 2xC628s leading. Great memories. Jason

Luckily here in the UK, no model train manufacturer had such O-power as Lionel did/does in the US. Hornby might have, they even stuck with 3-rail when they went to OO! Triang, bless 'em, discovered plastic for their train sets and answered the question "how do you save money by doing away with that middle rail and make it look more realistic with plastic moulding?" Or was it the other way round? I was only aware of one Lionel retailer over here ... long gone. Anyway Atlas have forced the US RTR market to take 'O-scale'' more seriously than 'O-gauge', still occasionally a clue as to what you're buying, but even they've had to admit 3-rail was a marketing triumph, not a modelling win ... OK, OK I've got some 3-rail stock with 2-rail wheels and KDs Jason

I wouldn't buy an old MTH diesel without seeing it or a good selection of pics. They were forced to upgrade models bit-by-bit by the quality of the Atlas offerings. Fred's MTH catalogue entry is a 3-rail model and as well as the list of what's moulded on I'd like to measure the truck wheelbase - looked a bit short to me and the same design would be on the 2-rail version and it's gearing was for 3-railers. If price, not choice of prototype is more important (just the immense satisfaction of O-scale 😎) I'd go for an older Weaver 2-rail GP38-2 or Alco RS3. Jason

jawtooth goes with breakfast on a Sunday ... but wait there's more always is ... but wait I have to get another slice of toast ... what's this? Oh OK, Delay In Block ... weathered Penn Central (!) cov'd hopper RFMX reporting marks, hmmm What favourites you been watching? Gotta go, get the O-scale stuff ready for the WWGOG afternoon in Trowbridge, WI no, no, my mistake ... Trowbridge, Wilts Jason

Truly 'heritage' lines will have a web site with a timetable of course. Shortlines, industry-related lines won't be as precious as our 'private' railways can be and calls to the phone number on their websites using your best British accent may succeed in getting useful info. You'll probably be lucky with local/yard offices of the larger railroads. I stopped off at a Providence and Worcester yard office on a business trip a few years ago and the pleasant guy I spoke to said they didn't do yard passes for enthusiasts, but since the yard office was some way from the entrance he would see me safely off the site - slow walk and some pics including some FB-2 trucks they'd acquired to replace an old U23B's AAR Type-Bs. Then there was the small Conrail yard I stopped off at in Albany, NY confident they'd know where the D&H yard was, only to be asked "It's down thataway ... Are you from England? Patrick'll wanna say hello, he's from Ireland." Big smile and English accent, works for me. Have a great time, pancakes with Maple Syrple for breakfast and Chicken Mole (Mexican) for lunch and OK, OK, I'll stop now. Jason

Jordan, do a search for Silhouette cutter and you'll get an evening's-worth of UK sites to visit. Like all these interesting tools ... tempting! Son of mine just moved to the US so I've saved him money by not shipping his 3D printer, but will I ever use it? Jason

Martin, 99% certain Rivarossi had the boxes updated with pics of the coaches (HO or O-scale prototypes), but no O-scale production run! Jason

Completely irrelevant, sorry, but in my first Christmas at a computer data centre I was taken down into the basement where an old 7094 computer's tape drives (yes, free standing cabinets) were able to play Carols, etc using their drive speeds. Anyway, West Wilts O Gauge Group's Christmas get together today, so I'm off to get some choccies like Quality Street to go in the gondolas .... Hey Jason, what about the log car??

Hi Colin The original chassis etch for the U33C was a simple 40 thou 2 x chassis beams joined by 2 x rectangular floor plates to locate truck mounting screws and etched cab base mounts. Was there a replacement chassis in thinner brass that made up into a boxier frame - maybe based on an S-scale etch? I haven't seen any etches, but I'll have a search on the data disks. Jason

Hi Ian, welcome to the group. The U33C was Gilmaur's first kit. Mike Calvert and I joined up for the early kits and I have his remaining stock following his passing last year. Send me a note about what you suspect may be missing and I'll have a rummage. ATB Jason Dickie

But, but, where does the exhaust come out?? What's that? Oh, the parrot says will it get a bell like he's got...?

Hope you are having a great show Nick, my local club in Trowbridge, Wilts had a one-day show yesterday here in Westbury with many modelling interests including O-scale. One of the traders had a handful of Weaver freight cars for sale. Have Anoraks Anonymous got some O-scale on display as well? ATB Jason

Hi avrojetmarkbest I've been modelling American O-scale (1:48 2-rail 12vDC/DCC) since 1969 and the stock runs fine on Peco track at local clubs I've visited. American O-gauge (1:48 3-rail 16vAC) is a parallel model railroad hobby, supported as a retail brand primarily by Lionel and later MTH. For me, 3-rail stock with good body modelling can be usable when coarse 3-rail wheels and couplers are swapped for 2-rail. Many more details. Which are you going to follow? Jason

Would anyone notice a DCC chip up in the trolley's roof-space? Or in a crate on the trailer? Aaah, projects, projects, ... Jason

Thanks for reminding us all Jordan, I'm looking forward to seeing familiar faces. I haven't been an O-scale trader for over 10 years and I don't plan to take a stand again. I still have an assortment of parts that I don't expect to be using now, so if you're feeling lucky, get in touch and I'll bring a rucksack. So it will help if it's a small part, but don't forget the Winchester Meet on Oct 21. Yeah, yeah, a list ... but it gets really boring making one ... PMs will be responded to! So much more to say, Nth American O-scale is still one of our best-kept secrets and if anyone else would like to 'have a go' let's have a chat. Ask me what I nearly started droning on about, if I can't remember say "Rich", the O-scale traders are easy to deal with. Oh I just remembered something else, why doesn't someone start a Zoom group for Nth American O-scale in the UK? Enough. Jason