As I mentioned in my last post I'd taken up with collecting Marx
trains and I managed to collect quite a few of them too; - actually it
was a huge amount, - an embarasingly huge amount (blush).
Well it was fun for a while playing trains the Yankee way, but
eventually I came to realise that my heart really wasn't in it.
Basically to cut a very long story short I've sold off all the Marx,
Lionel, Ives, American Flyer etc etc I'd managed to hoard away and now
I'm back with my beloved Hornby trains again. Fortunately I hadn't
been silly enough to get rid of my small Hornby collection and it was
like Christmas all over again when I took them out of the storage
boxes where I'd carefully packed them away.
I was overjoyed when a friend told me that he wanted to quit all his
Hornby trains in favour of collecting Lionel. I ratted around in all
my storage boxes and gathered everything I could find that had
'Lionel' written on it and much swapping of toy trains was undertaken
between us with the final result that both of us ended up being very
pleased with our newly aquired trains and rolling stock.
I've actually decided that the best way to avoid the expense involved
in purchasing locomotives is to build replicas from galvanised steel
and tinplate. I was fortunate to come across a body someone had built
after the style of a Hornby No:1 4-4-4 tank engine. It had a few
faults, but it was very soundly constructed in a heavier gauge sheet
steel than the original Hornby locos and it has proved to be a very
sound basis on which to create a nice large tank engine for my new
layout. I will confess to making the rebuild somewhat S.E.C.R. like,
but I'm happy with how it's all coming together.
The mech is one of the later Lionel DC four coupled items that use a
can motor instead of all the heavy AC gubbins, but I did replace the
original cast alloy wheels with a set of cast iron wheels rescued from
the sad remains of an old 1950s Lionel 'Scout'. These DC mechs are
very free running mechs and are a lot less trouble to run as they
don't need hideous amounts of amps like the AC mechs and reversing is
soooooo simple (I hate 'E' units).
Anne.
Hello everybody,
Yes I've been a stranger here myself which is a bit grim considering
that it's my group. Well I've been collecting Marx trains for about
the past year and it's wonderful. If you want plenty of fun for your
dollar/pound then forget about overpriced Hornby 3 rail, ACE, Bassett
Lowko & etc and seek out plain ordinary cheap Marx. Their electric
mechs are virtually indestructable and run forever with only basic
maintainence needed. For the price of one English tinplate loco I
can have half a dozen or more Marx locos; - 'nuff said.
Cheers, Annie.
Hi Everyone,
I don't know if anyone's interested but at Barrow Hill Roundhouse Railway Centre
in Chesterfield (Derbyshire), there are two Open weekends coming up. The first
is 'A Celebration of Model Engineering' and is this weekend (July 5th and 6th
2003), or a 'Great Western Railway Steam Gala' on the 12th and 13th. Both are
10am till 5pm, or you can pre-book a ticket which lets you get in at 7am so you
can take photos and videos.
There's loads of space for model exhibitors so if you want to put your models on
display or just come and see what everyone else has to offer then we'd love to
see you.
I have a poster in Microsoft word format with all the details on which I can
email to you if you are interested, or we have a website address -
www.barrowhill.org.uk . Alternatively, you can email us on
project_man@... if you want further information. If you want to
bring a model exhibit, or even a trade stand, then email us with your phone
number and I'll get the project manager to call you back.
We're trying to make both events bigger and better than ever before so if you
want to be part of it, then come and see us. (We have the last original,
operational turntable in Britain and unlimited steam train rides so it's not all
models!)
We look forward to seeing you there!!
Kind Regards,
Sarah
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Hello Everyone,
For some time now I've been becoming increasingly frustrated at the
cost of Hornby '0' Gauge locos. Oh you can get some very nice
'clockers' readily enough (I like clockers), but as for the electric
locos, - forget it. In a word they cost $$$$$$$$$, - and that can be
for a lot of wounded old tat! (funny how you can't get brand new
tinplate '0' Gauge anymore in the shops, - it was there when I was a
kiddie .....)
So what is a girl to do when she wants to buy locos she can actually
RUN without having an attack of nerves (or worse) over every
derailment? Well I do look after my locos (and rolling stock), I
don't go throwing them at the wall or anything, deliberately crashing
them & etc; - BUT I still would like to be able to buy nice locos
cheaply that I can run and thereby have some FUN :-) And I don't
want to go finescale ..... (shudder) - been there, done that, bought
the @$#%&*!! tee-shirt.
The answer (taa-dah!!) is to buy nice Marx '0' gauge locos, - well not
so nice Marx locos truth be told, - but slightly shabby/playworn =
cheap prices and these locos are built like battleships and are
usually runners despite being 50+ years old. Truely tatty locos that
are runners are absolutely marvellous for repowering Hornby clockers.
Lionel locos are good too, BUT they tend to be more expensive and
sought after. Thank heavens for the massive outputs of the US
factories and their much larger slice of the market!!
Sooooo drive away boredom and play trains again with nice Marx locos
instead :-)
Best wishes, Annie X
Hello everyone,
This is my nice quiet little group for Tinplate Trains. Please feel
free to look at the files and photos; - I have quite a few 'litho'
files for coaches and wagons, - so help yourself to what takes your
fancy.
Anne.
Merry Christmas everyone,
What's Santa going to put in your stocking then?
Unfortunately I don't think I will be getting a trainset for
Christmas, - but at least I can reproduce the Christmas morning sound
of a clockwork engine being wound and the distinctive roar as a
clockwork engine and tinplate coaches accelerates away on tinplate
track. :-)
Anne.
Hello everyone,
Has anybody tried this? It's fun and a loco with a sweet running mech
is essential. And by the way it seems to be the really playworn locos
in my collection that are the sweetest runners. Nicely run in I
suppose :-)
Anne
Hello everybody,
I can't help noticing the abscence of the good old fashioned Christmas
trainset from the toy shops. Oh sure there are various plastic things
from Taiwan that would only be a source of disappointment to any
child, - and then there are various H0/00 trainsets around all of
which are $$$$$ for what they are; - but where are the good old chunky
large locos of good character with child friendly wheel standards?
So far I've only seen one, - a 'G' scale American tender loco, frieght
car and tramway styled coach with an oval of track; - it's all in
sturdy plastic, - looks like wot it supposed to look like and it costs
$NZ49.00. I'm thinking about getting one actually to run a model
maker's eye over, - should be fun :-) ...... But where are the other
good old fashioned Christmas trainsets ....... are they a dying breed?
Anne.
--- In funwithtinplate@y..., "curly472001" <Graham.G.P.Powell@b...> wrote:
> To Anne and all the others,
> I have just managed to join your little group with help
> from Martin Wynne on the 7mm modelling list.
> I don't have any Hornby tinplate ( my boys did!) but I am a
> full time loco builder and I have made 3 rail engines for a
> Bassett Lowke railway. I like to make my own models from junk!!.
> (Customers models are made from better materials I hasten to add).
> Engines are tinplate, steel frames, cast iron wheels and coaches
> are made from card. All good clean fun.
> I will be interested to see what others get up to.
> Graham Powell
> Highbridge
> Somerset
Hello Graham,
Tinplate is wonderful stuff! At one time I had several folk at my
place of work looking out for empty catering sized coffee cans for me;
- in the end I had to plead with them to stop because I had so many!
I also use galvanised steel sheet, - my Adams B4 is almost entirely
made from this material. Quite a while ago I purchased a damaged 8x4
sheet of galvanised sheet steel from a merchants for the princely sum
of $NZ7.00; - somehow I don't think I will run short for a while!
Using these kinds of materials means that I can try something out and
if it doesn't work I haven't suffered much of a loss.
Anne.
To Anne and all the others,
I have just managed to join your little group with help
from Martin Wynne on the 7mm modelling list.
I don't have any Hornby tinplate ( my boys did!) but I am a
full time loco builder and I have made 3 rail engines for a
Bassett Lowke railway. I like to make my own models from junk!!.
(Customers models are made from better materials I hasten to add).
Engines are tinplate, steel frames, cast iron wheels and coaches
are made from card. All good clean fun.
I will be interested to see what others get up to.
Graham Powell
Highbridge
Somerset
Hello,
I've had a pair of wounded Trix Twin locos stashed awat for quite a
while. They're somewhat beyond all hope to restore, but the mechs
themselves could be repairable. I was wondering about using one of
the mechs to build a narrow gauge loco for my '0' coarse layout, - the
plan for 'Gwen' in one of the seriously old Railway Modellers in my
collection comes to mind. Strange but true by the way, but a quick
experiment with one of the locos proved that it would sit nicely on a
running rail and the conductor rail of some Milsbro track I have to
hand; - then 'HO' was meant to mean half '0' wasn't it?
Anne.
I've found a brass rail section intended for garden railways that
exactly matches Hornby tinplate rail and I was wondering about hand
laying this on wooden sleepers. Then again Peco SM32 track has a good
appearance for Coarse '0', - the only fault being that some tinplate
loco and wheel profiles are coarse enough to just touch the rail
fixings. It is possible to shave back the plastic just enough so that
nothing touches, - but it is a real pain having to do it. Tenmille
bullhead rail and chairs for garden railways are nicely shaped and
clear these old wheels just fine, - which makes me wonder if Tenmille
has yard lengths of flexible track since the job of cutting about a
million wooden sleepers doesn't appeal to me much.
I was thinking of using code 100 as conductor rail by the way.
Anne.
Hello everyone,
This afternoon I uploaded a good few Litho coach sides in the Hornby
style and well as some genuine Litho wagons by Milsbro and Steadman.
The coach sides are my own work and are for the S&DJt.Rly, the L&SWR
and the Midland Rly; - which of course reflects my own needs (which is
why I did them in the first place). The majority of the coach sides
and ends are intended to fit 'beyond all hope' Hornby No:1 coaches,
but there are also Litho parts intended for scratch-building.
Anne.
Hello,
This email message is a notification to let you know that
a file has been uploaded to the Files area of the funwithtinplate
group.
File : /LithoCoachSides2/S&DJt coach.jpg
Uploaded by : artidomal
Description : A S&DJt.Rly 6 compartment coach. Tinplate inspired and not a
scale model.
You can access this file at the URL
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/funwithtinplate/files/LithoCoachSides2/S%26DJt%\
20coach.jpg
To learn more about file sharing for your group, please visit
http://help.yahoo.com/help/uk/groups/files
Regards,
artidomal
Hello,
This email message is a notification to let you know that
a file has been uploaded to the Files area of the funwithtinplate
group.
File : /LithoCoachSides2/LSWR bogie 3rd.jpg
Uploaded by : artidomal
Description : An L&SWR 8 compartment bogie 3rd coach. This is intended to
build a tinplate inspired Coarse Scale model.
You can access this file at the URL
http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/funwithtinplate/files/LithoCoachSides2/LSWR%20b\
ogie%203rd.jpg
To learn more about file sharing for your group, please visit
http://help.yahoo.com/help/uk/groups/files
Regards,
artidomal
The Auckland branch of the HRCA attends 'Model X'
and exhibits both a large '0' Gauge Layout as well as
a Dublo layout every year as a regular event.
Possibly this year's '0' layout was about the best one
we've put together so far; - mainly because for the
first time we set up a four road through station using
two station buildings set up on long platforms either
side of the outer roads as well as two platform
shelters on a long island platform set between roads #2
and #3. All these platforms were 'dressed' with
miniature people as well as a complete selection of the
Hornby range of platform accessories. Behind the station
was a townstreet built up from 'Silver Crane' biscut
tins with 'Minic' vehicles as well as repro trees made
just as Hornby made them from slices cut from the
inside of loofas and dyed green. One of our members had
also spent much time painstakingly reproducing a set
of repro Hornby countryside sections to fit inside a
2ft radius curve; - these fully equipt with 'loofa'
hedges and trees correctly placed as per the genuine
article. Perhaps our only problem was that between us all
we could only come up with 3 sheep and a pig to put
in the fields; - so I supose it must've been a bad
year for farming (???!!!). Though there was also a
Landrover, a steam traction engine and a tractor in the
fields which at least managed to nicely set the scene.
After setting out a fair few signals of all years and
types in hopefully more or less the correct places as
well as 3 footbridges, two level crossings and 4
signal boxes a MPD was set up using one of Hornby's
magnificent large two road engine sheds (a clockwork one).
This being done to provide a place where we could
display those locos which weren't in use. Next we laid
down a pair of goods sidings with two goods depots and
a platform crane so that the wee folk of the town
would be provided with a local goods service, - and
that basically was that!<br>After much staring at the
township from the 'public side' over the weekend the only
lack we could find was that our town definately needed
something to represent the roads and footpaths. The large
green dropsheet we use to cover the tables the layout
was built upon is fine enough to represent the
majority of the landscape, - but not roads unfortunately.
Our talented lady member who made the countryside
sections has promised to attend to this need in time for
out layout's next outing. So if a few more animals
can be mustered up to to go in the fields as well our
layout should be looking very fine indeed.<br>Oh by the
way I must mention that my wee Type '101' based
0-4-2T had an outing or two on the layout over the
weekend. It ran very well indeed, better than I thought
actually; - hauled 13 Hornby tank wagons and a brake van
around the layout, - though a little 'sand' was needed
to get things rolling. For those who might want to
convert a beyond all hope 'clocker' and want to know the
'tech' I used a fairly basic 12volt 'can' motor such as
can be found at 'Dick Smith', a pair of gears (20T &
40T) and worm made by 'Cosmo Drills', 4 Hornby 'M1'
wheels (the ones that have crankbosses/crankpins), all
this being fitted into a stripped out 'M1' chassis. On
mine I converted over to 3mm stainless axles and
bronze 'tophat' bushes because the chassis was so worn,
- and really I do think this is essential to obtain
a smoothly running and reliable loco. Perhaps the
worst bit was making the 3 rail collector and setting
it up correctly (3 attempts!!), but the final result
has been definately worth it.<br>Recently I noticed
that the boiler on a worse for wear Hornby 'M0' has a
most GWR like taper. Now if I was to fit this into a
type '101' and set it up so the boiler had a nice
length to it, fit type '101' wheels to a 'M1' chassis
and use Hornby '4-4'4T' repro bogie wheels I could
make a very nice GWR styled 4-4-2T........ Fun with
tinplate!
Whenever I go to a swap meet I'm always keen to
dig around in those boxes of wounded old stuff under
the tables. Why? - because with patience and a few
hours at the workbench alsorts of 'Neverwassas' are
possible. And besides it stops less than best and
incomplete locos and wagons from just being 'binned'. My
latest effort is a Hornby Type '101' tank engine that I
fitted with the boiler from a ruinous 'M1' clocker
tender engine, using the remains of the 'M1's' chassis
as well as some other odd bits from the scrap box
and a few hand made pieces to create a nice little
0-4-2 tank engine. To finish off I used LSWR Adams
fittings (chimney, dome, safety valves, tank fillers etc)
which were obtained from 'Home of '0' Gauge'; - though
for all these 'non-tinplate' fittings my wee loco is
still plainly a tinplate/coarse scale '0' gauge loco
and that pleases me a lot. In this case my
'Neverwassa' tank engine will be electricly powered via a 12
volt DC can motor and gears from <br>'Dick Smith'
intended for constructors of robotic devices, but I have a
sister engine in mind (with Drummond fittings perhaps?)
that will use a standard 'M1' clockwork mech. All I
need to now do is find sufficient wounded bits to
begin!
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