Deliberately Old-Fashioned 0 Scale - Chapter 1

[Edwardian]

I thought I had ordered live frogs and they turned up dead!

 

As one French restaurateur said to another ...

 

When Knuckles of this parish produces his little Sharpie 2-4-0, you and I must have a "group-build" so that we can egg each other on to a Cambrian and a freelance West Norfolk version of same. 

 

 

To take our minds off the possibility that I might have created a controversy, let's have a picture of a nice old train, which somehow found itself circulating, while I was piling the ironing.

 

BL standard (= generic) goods engine from the late 1930s. The previous owner had fitted a modern motor, and I've fitted new axles, to give "coarse", rather than "Greenly" b-t-b, and I've just noticed that it needs a fall-plate. They did make these in SR livery, but very few, so affordability dictated an LNER or LMS one in non-original condition.

 

The tender coal space appears to have flooded, or maybe that an annoying reflection.

 

I love that loco.  It is such a wonderfully tactile object.  I cannot say exactly where the appeal lies, but it is such a wonderful thing. It seems to fulfil the essence of model railways perfectly.

[Nearholmer]

I'm convinced that 'tinplate' is special, because the toys/models have an intrinsic appeal, not directly related to them being representations of anything very particular.

 

Most finescale models appeal at two levels, finesse of workmanship, and fidelity to prototype. Sometimes non-specialists spot the finesse, but they are often blind to it, and they are in no way able to spot the fidelity, so the object has no appeal to them; they just don't "get" it.

 

But, non-specialists respond very positively to clunky old tinplate; it seems to appeal direct to the emotions.

 

Maybe tinplate is cheap, fruity plonk, while finescale is a very dry and complex vintage wine? Or, maybe finescale is like some conceptualist art, which utterly fails to communicate anything, except to other conceptual artists.

 

K

[Donw]

I think tinplate is recognisably a toy which appeals to the child in them it is something you can play with. A scale model on the other hand looks delicate and has a 'Do Not Touch' atmosphere. It is recognisable as the work of an Artisan and not as something they could achieve.

This is why I found allowing children to take the controls of my exhibition layout so rewarding. They usually could see it as entry into our particular 'magic circle'.

 

Onto the other topic that is also true of live steam another magic circle. Rafe Shirley, Clarey Edwards and John Shawe were all superb builders of 0 gauge live steam. I was particularly impressed by John's coal fired Atlantic, Clarey's Toby J70 tram.. Rafe was a grand chap in an article for the Gazette he mentioned re-sealing some blind bushes for the handrails on an Eddy Cooke loco he was refurbishing for someone. A chap with 5 inch gauge experience wrote in saying it was dangerous to use a blind bush with a 10ba thread and the sealing would not help. Rather than pooh poohing the chap Rafe fitted a blind bush to a bit of scrap boiler copper and tested it to see what weight it would hold and proved it was well able to take twice the pressure and invited the chap to a pint and a natter should he be in the area. It was an attitude I admire. 

My own experience with live steam is on 0 gauge track but at 16mm scale. When I can get proper workshop facilities set up I do have a coal fired boiler to fit to an accucraft Edrig chassis and a Binnie oscilator motor destined for a tram engine.

Don 

[ChrisN]

As one French restaurateur said to another ...

 

When Knuckles of this parish produces his little Sharpie 2-4-0, you and I must have a "group-build" so that we can egg each other on to a Cambrian and a freelance West Norfolk version of same. 

 

 

 

I love that loco.  It is such a wonderfully tactile object.  I cannot say exactly where the appeal lies, but it is such a wonderful thing. It seems to fulfil the essence of model railways perfectly.

 

I already have the 4-4-0 which needs building.  When the 2-4-0 appears then perhaps I will leave the coaches and start on the two of them.  As I have never built a loco before it will be an interesting experience.  I fully intend to make these radio-controlled so that will be interesting as well.

 

A tinplate Cambrian 0-6-0 that looks like a Dean Goods.  It is probably a Jones Goods which started around 1905 or a bit earlier and eventually some lasted to BR days.  They were 'Swindonised' after 1923 which made the resemblance to a Dean Goods even closer.

[Zomboid]

"Tinplate" is special because it's clunky and rather inaccurate in a lot of ways. That elevates it above rivet counting because high visual fidelity to real railways is just not the point. It's impressionistic rather than realistic, and to me at least it seems to be all about the joy of playing with toy trains. You just can't take it *seriously* in the way that P4 has developed a reputation.

 

Just an unsolicited opinion.

[Edwardian]

As I have never built a loco before it will be an interesting experience. 

 

Ditto, hence the suggestion of both committing, for the purposes of moral support!

[woodenhead]

I enjoy coming to this thread because  it evokes thoughts of a green and pleasant land, where children were allowed to be children, steam trains chuffed across the country and simpler things were the joy of life.

 

Hmm a little deep considering I wasn't even alive then but it's what I read about or saw in old books.

[brianusa]

For those of us who were /are alive, you have summed it up rather well!

 

Brian.

[boxerbayrailway]

I enjoy coming to this thread because  it evokes thoughts of a green and pleasant land, where children were allowed to be children, steam trains chuffed across the country and simpler things were the joy of life.

 

Hmm a little deep considering I wasn't even alive then but it's what I read about or saw in old books.

 

I agree completely,  everyday life back in the past seemed to have been a lot more enjoyable with simple pleasures, that didn't even require much if any money (train spotting etc).  

I wasn't around either,  so have to be content with old books,  photos & films, and that is why the model railway is rather important to me,  it can bring the illusion of the past alive again,  if just for a brief moment  

Edited March 22, 2017 by boxerbayrailway

[Nearholmer]

Yes, in Birlstone and Paltry Circus, all the unpleasantness that actually existed (I won't list things, we all know what they were) has been tin-printed out of history, leaving only the good bits.

 

Anyway, I'm quite grateful that we've fallen to philosophy; it provides a useful smokescreen behind which to conceal the shameful lack of practical progress on the layout.

 

Now, imagine that you are leaning out, below one of those signs that had always been amended to instruct: "Passengers Must Not Clean Soot Off The Window".

[Nearholmer]

Betjeman tends to be thought of as the nostalgic's friend, invoker of past Golden Ages, so see if you can identify which poem these carefree lines come from:

 

And out of Southern Railway trains to tea

Run happy boys down various Station Roads

 

K

[Guest Isambarduk]

Sadly, a scene such as this, which I created when I was less than a quarter of my current age, would not give me satisfaction for long but it did at the time!

 

 

More about my early tinplate days at: www.davidlosmith.co.uk/TinplateHistory.htm

 

However, even now I cannot look at this image without smiling.  About this on my website I wrote:

 

"I took my Bassett Lowke Royal Scot (No. 6102 Black Watch) to a friend’s garden railway but it was a goods-only line so an ignominious goods train it had to be.  Notice how I very artistically arrange the galvanised steel dustbin just off-centre in the background."

 

Ah well happy days when "I was so much older then but I'm younger than that now."

 

David

[boxerbayrailway]

Betjeman tends to be thought of as the nostalgic's friend, invoker of past Golden Ages, so see if you can identify which poem these carefree lines come from:

 

And out of Southern Railway trains to tea

Run happy boys down various Station Roads

 

K

 

I can't be 100 % certain as Dad borrowed (stole !) my Betjeman books,  he promised to return them  - last year !      

I haven't read any of his lately but I seem to recall -  " something on the coast "  ?  Seems familiar anyway.

One of the old favorites springs to mind 

 

Highbridge wharf your hopes have died

They float like driftwood down the tide

Out, out into the open sea

Oh, sad, forgotten S and D

[Edwardian]

Yes, in Birlstone and Paltry Circus, all the unpleasantness that actually existed (I won't list things, we all know what they were) has been tin-printed out of history, leaving only the good bits.

 

 

 

Something similar is the case in an obscure part of west Norfolk.

 

So, no original sin on the Norfolk coast, either ...

[Northroader]

I can't be 100 % certain as Dad borrowed (stole !) my Betjeman books,  he promised to return them  - last year !      

I haven't read any of his lately but I seem to recall -  " something on the coast "  ?  Seems familiar anyway.

One of the old favorites springs to mind 

 

Highbridge wharf your hopes have diedThey float like driftwood down the tideOut, out into the open seaOh, sad, forgotten S and D

Is this the end of the S&D?

[Nearholmer]

Yes, it is from "Original Sin on the Sussex Coast", which is an antidote to sentimentalism about childhood years, if ever one is needed.

 

Does Mum, the Persil-user, still believe

That there's no Devil and that youth is bliss?

As certain as the sun behind the Downs

And quite as plain to see, the Devil walks.

 

Sparked by David's garden railway retrospective, here are two truly terrible photos, from when I was trying to learn garden railwaying, and trying to learn to use a camera (my father, wisely, had me use his old manual ones, no automatic features, to help me learn the affects of apertures and exposure times). It might not be readily apparent, but the trains are HD on the Up, and Triang on the Down. Plus, a photo from about twenty years ago, of a railcar that I built around a motor bogie, mostly plastic, but the curved bits are tin, because I find it easier to roll accurately.

Edited March 22, 2017 by Nearholmer

[Nearholmer]

Also in the photo album, I found these, which are an H0 scale model of an old cart-shed that was falling down in a field,which I used to cycle past regularly. It was made from wood strip and veneer, dyed with India ink, thin postcard stained with acrylic ink, and the corrugated iron is aluminium, attacked with photo-enchant, and spray-painted. It took absolutely ages to build! Early 1990s IIRC.

[Nearholmer]

There's more .......

 

- Some odd 009 bits, from the early 1980s

 

- 0n14, which I think is from the mid-1990s (the tree was modelled from one that was outside the window above my workbench)

 

- H0 from the early-1990s. I'm really disappointed that I took hardly any shots of this layout. 15ftx2ft, almost entirely detailed structure and waterfront modelling, but it got put in the naughty corner, and eventually junked, because the baseboards were too large and unwieldy, making it a real bind to exhibit.

[Donw]

IMG_0939.JPG

Is this the end of the S&D?

 

Didn't tracks run onto a pier?

Don

[phil_sutters]

Didn't tracks run onto a pier?

Don

More of a stone jetty, with the line shared by the local lifeboat at one time, from its station beside the Burnham or Burnham-on-Sea SDJR station (depending on your period).

Here is a rather fuzzy look at the same spot in 1962.

Highbridge Wharf lives on in an abridged form  - a full-sized 4mm scale model would need 10+metres x 3 metres.

Edited March 22, 2017 by phil_sutters

[raymw]

Hi Don,

 

yes - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burnham-on-Sea_railway_station and, afaik, Morrison's now closed, maybe replacing the carpark with a railway???

[Nearholmer]

More circulation, while I did the ironing ...... I had to stable the train after a bit, because it was too noisy!

[unravelled]

Some genuine old fashioned pictures. These show my father and his younger brother playing trains in the garden of their home in Oxford. The date would be about 1930.

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes the layout was relocated to the front garden.

 

 

As far as I know, none of these trains remained in the family, and my father restarted with gauge 1 in the 50s.

 

Thanks

 

Dave

[coronach]

I have recently inherited some of my late father's tinplate trains.  My other hobby is pencil drawing, for which they are an excellent and nostalgic still life subject....

 

Edited March 23, 2017 by coronach

[Donw]

Three delightful posts there.

 

Don