Hornby Dublo Railway Collection

Farewell My Duchess

2012-03-02T16:17:00.004-08:00

What a lot has happened in the past year! I have neglected to write for this blog since committing to write a mountain of insensibly serious stuff for several other journals, with not an ounce of silliness to be found between the lines. However, a recent event has spurred me to return here once more and pour out the nonsense that I have tucked in my cheeks for later mastication. This event was both incredibly sad and yet delightful at the same time. My train set has gone.

Yes sirs, if you have been saving up your coins or robbing all the post offices within a three mile radius of your home, in order to buy this historic collection, you are come too late, it has been sold. Return those postage stamps and hang your heads, the deed is done.

It is worth noting that the event was fast and relatively painless, just that tugging ache in the chest when I look at the empty space where once sat the Duchess of Atholl. What power emptiness wields over us, filled only by our imaginings of times past and times that might have been. It’s an interesting demonstration of the fact that the only thing that can really hurt us is the fruit of our imagination. Gosh, that’s profound for a Friday afternoon! I close the door on that era of my life, but as they say, as one door closes, another one opens.

I say, ….It’s awfully dark in here!

So, congratulations anonymous buyer from Mystery Island. Thank you Lord, that my partner in grime, my fourteen children and I, may eat of pease pudding and turnip for another year.

Do not despair though you gloomy people, I will rally and you may seek me out on a couple of other interesting places. The Goad is my book in the making. Excerpts are published from time to time on the blog, whilst the doughy interior rises separately on my computer. The Goad, subtitled: Confessions of a Real Estate Con Artist, is a little on the unusual side, portraying a merciless, maniacal German who believes he is a God and who has a penchant for clever and ruthless acts of theft. It’s pretty serious stuff, especially if you have been right and royally stuffed by such a con merchant …..like we have. Oh! Did I just let the secret to poverty out of the bag? Fear not though, the blaggard will meet his doom once the story has been told to it’s bitter end.

Other than squirting water up llamas noses and knitting mobile phone holders for dragons, don’t laugh! I’m serious. You can see my efforts here, you will find me toiling at another new project called Natural Fibre EcoVillage, expounding the virtues of living in close proximity to other human beings. Pop along and have a gander at the plans, you never know, you might want to join!

Until I think of something else to say. Toodlepip.

Seriously Guys

2011-07-22T10:04:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I placed my head on the chopping block and instead of chopping it off, you choose to urinate on me and stick a dahlia in my ear. I know model railway enthusiasts are weird at their very best and are the epitomy of the square-eyed 'anorak', but the messages I have received from people concerning this blog are not good posting material.

in reply to a few of them:

'Dave from Sunderland' - shooting all the trainspotters ISN'T going to make a blind bit of difference to the population crisis in the world. Run along to your local train station and do the maths yourself. I am not a trainspotter in any case, but although you might see 3 or 4 of them every time you catch your local to the big city, has it occurred to you they might be the same people each day?

'Rammy' - Choo-choo's is ancient baby talk. It really isn't a good idea to teach your baby to speak total rubbish and then have to correct yourself later. Children have far more intelligence than most people give them credit for. It's the stupid adults they have to be warned about!

'Ken from Boston' - thank you for your kind offer ..........but no thanks. In any case I choose not to eat dead animals, so your salami would be weasted on me. It's just not my cup of tea - OK?

Anyone out there want to buy my trainset?

Inglourious Disasters

2010-03-23T10:19:00.000-07:00

My email inbox is frequently clogged with deranged collections of weird photographs, jokes, powerpoints with soppy music and other viral pieces, mostly compiled by bored employees. As I have regular contact with the executive end of the corporate ladder, I amuse myself by forwarding the emails which sport relevant company disclaimers at the bottom. "This is what you are paying your employees to create! - can't you give them something better to do?"

I agree, some of them are amusing or even downright funny. Occasionally, I receive the more interesting variety, one of which I share with you today.

The compiler was clever enough to remove the company disclaimer from the footnote, so unfortunately, I am unable to dole out the credit where it's due. If you are the author of this missive or the photographer, let me know so that I can pat you heartily on the back. Nice work!

Here it is - just as it came to me:

Good news: It was a normal day in Sharon Springs , KS when a Union Pacific crew boarded a loaded coal train for the long trek to Salina .

The Bad news: Just a few miles into the trip a wheel bearing became overheated and melted, letting a metal support drop down and grind on the rail, creating white hot molten metal droppings spewing down to the rail.

The Good news: A very alert crew noticed smoke about halfway back in the train and immediately stopped the train in compliance with the rules.

The Bad news: The train stopped with the hot wheel over a wooden bridge with creosote ties and trusses.

The crew tried to explain to higher-ups but were instructed not to move the train!

They were instructed Rules prohibit moving the train when a part is defective!

The Railway Man: A True Story of War, Remembrance, and Forgiveness

The final comment sums it up nicely:

"Don't let common sense get in the way of a good disaster"

This Stuff Really IS For Sale!

2010-01-25T08:59:00.000-08:00

I know this Blog has been a long time in the making and recently I have been rather slack in posting (house-building and studying tend to fill in the gaps between eating and sleeping these days). However, the time has arrived methinks to face the prospect that this train set really IS for sale.

I do understand that I am located on the other side of nowhere (2 1/2 hours from the nearest town and road that actually goes somewhere other than a dead-end). I appreciate that this isn't a place to casually 'pop by' for a gander on a Sunday afternoon.

I can promise you that you won't be disappointed. I have created a pretty extensive picture gallery of the set, even though there aren't any photos of the layout in operation (something to do with not having a house for ten years ....too busy hugging trees!). So I have to do something to entice you.

Setting The Price

Let's say I start the bidding at $2450.

You say "What? Are you kidding?"

I say "Well perhaps I can move a little bit, as I can see you are a dedicated Dublo'er and I really do want this outfit to go to a GOOD home. I comes embedded with all my fond memories you know!. What about $2200?"

......after a little more haggling we arrive at the mutually agreeable price of $1980 and I run off and carefully wrap the whole shebang for FREE shipping to you as long as you are in Canada or the lower 48 States, whilst you lean out of your window and pop a cheque in the post. I have no idea how much it weighs or how much it will cost to send, but that's my problem.

Sound fair?

The one proviso is that you toddle off and have a look at this new environmental website
whatismissing.net Click on the link 'Unchop a Tree' (this video is also viewable at Treehuggers ) - The last bit is REALLY moving .............if you're a softy like me.

If this proviso is a bit too 'ECO-bunny' for you - that's fine. I'm forgiving.

Duchess of Montrose - No. 46232

2009-12-11T09:05:00.000-08:00

Flu !! I mean … FLU !! I make the trip into the big city once a year and what do I get for my trouble? The flu bug. You wonder why I’m a sociophobe and choose to live in the backwaters of the backwaters of British Columbia? All those germ-ridden automatons doped on Tylenol and Nightnurse making daily excursions to air-conditioned offices to spread their dis-ease.

One advantage of being sociophobic is that I can say what I like and blame it on my ‘condition’.

……hurrummmmph…..back to the blog.

Did you miss me? Did you wonder if I had fallen off the edge of the Universe? No posts for so many months. I’ve been a touch busy and the summer months are mostly spent outside. However, as the clock strikes minus twenty Celcius, my blood congeals and brain activity slows sufficiently to be able to write more nonsense for this blog. So to welcome you back, I would receive no greater pleasure than to introduce you to none other than the Duchess of Montrose herslef (I rather like the word ‘herslef’, so it remains uncorrected).

Queen of the railroad, this Princess Coronation Class locomotive was designed by William Stanier and built by London Midland and Scottish Railway between 1937 and 1948. A total of thirty eight were built, but only 3 remain intact: The Duchess of Sutherland, Duchess of Hamilton and City of Birmingham.

If you so desire, you can read more details about this beautiful machine under the Duchess of Atholl post.

As for this Dublo model of the Duchess of Montrose, she is a real slinky baby. To study her lithe body snaking around the room with a long train of LMS coaches is a treat, matching even Kate Winlset at her callipygian best. Damage to her paintwork is minimal – just a few minor chips and she is in good running order. The Duchess was one of the most popular locomotives on the Dublo mainline in the late 1940’s and 50’s. It’s beautifully crafted and represents one of the favourite classes of locomotive running at the time.

If you head over to Wikipedia there is a story about one of the early record breaking attempts almost ending in disaster when insufficient braking time was allowed before hitting the Crewe changeovers. The Duchess remained on the rails, but the bumps caused more than a little consternation and broke a lot of crockery (that’s back in the days when tea was served in china cups!! Hahaha… now the tea is served cold so you don’t scald your hands through the thin plastic cup.

Anyway, here she is again, so please put your hands together and give her a welcome that will ignite the coals in her scuttle:

The Duchess of Montrose --------------------------------------

Dinky Abuse and Other Sad Tales

2009-07-01T06:02:00.001-07:00

Dinky Toys

Did you play with your Dinky when you were a kid? I played with mine to the point of abuse as the following pictures attest. Indoors or outdoors. Secretly in the bedroom or openly in the garden, I smacked my Dinkies all the way to adulthood. Eventually, I married and had to curtail my Dinky-bashing habits. As is the fate of so many die-cast lovers, wives dowse the childhood enthusiasms like so many buckets of cold water on a horny dog. The urge has subsided somewhat since those seedy times, thus my Dinky collection joins the sale alongside Dublo. The memories, like the toys, are faded from too much sunlight.

Hang on... You're not a Dinky!

You probably already know that both Dinky and Hornby Dublo are from the same Frank Hornby stable!

What? No boxes!

Don’t give me a hard time about it. I probably sucked the colourful cardboard to death, the same as I probably licked the toxic paint and ate the small sharp components, that nowadays, are called ‘Choking Hazards’. When I was young, the main choking hazard was from smoking. However, babies love to extend their environmental mapping through oral sensory awareness. In other words, they put things in their mouths. Occasionally they swallow things. I am given to understand that parents used to search for the missing truck wheels amongst the nappy contents and fix the toys. Parents weren’t so squeamish in the ‘olden days’, eh?.

Dinky History

The history of Dinky is somewhat on a parallel to Dublo
, but starting a year earlier in 1933. I believe some of the toys were made in the same Liverpool factory, where coffee was spilled in the mazac mixer (you’ll have to read the Alternative Dublo History for more of that story). They were also made extensively in France, but featured the more bizarre chunky styling of Citroen and Peugeot, designed for circumnavigating the Arc de Triumph without sustaining serious injury, instead of the twee Ford and Austin Morris, designed for drivers who would need a stiff G & T should anyone even dare to honk a horn at them! What blighters! What cads!

Dinky Toys became Dinky Toys (if that makes sense) in 1934, after a year of sporting that gorgeously stiff English title - ‘Modelled Miniatures’. Actually, Modelled Miniatures were mostly accessories for the railway stuff, but the idea caught on and the range was extended to include motor cars.

A flatulent, Austrian midget named Adolf Hitler detested all things Dinky and Dublo and allegedly, started a war to prevent their continuing production. Uh Oh! I can feel this article slithering into the snake pit of non-Political Correctness. I caution against reading further, if you lean towards a more delicate political constitution!. …….He especially hated Triumph cars, believing they were designed either to encourage children to mimic the immodest sound of his own involuntary flatus or to represent British ‘triumph’ in World War One (I would like to add a personal note here, that nobody ever triumphs or wins in a war. EVER!). Hitler therefore, determined to prevent anyone from practicing noises with model cars, by ensuring raw materials were diverted to other, more practical, uses like bombs and tanks and heroic medals as well as silly helmets. Instead, he caused the post-war launch of model versions of the military vehicles that had so upset his digestion in the first place. That’s karma for you!. I shall draw a line under this topic whilst I’m still ahead.

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1947 saw the launch of real rubber tyres, which were kinder on babies’ teeth andless likely to grate on Granny’s nerves. They also put an end to the epidemic of tiny indented tracks in polished wooden surfaces. Unfortunately, the tyres came off rather easily and lead to a new wave of three-wheeled toy cars.

1963 brings up a familiar name – Tri-ang. They jumped in and bought the tooling for Dinky. A few years later in 1967, the new plastic dinky Speedwheels were launched and this ensured the decline of the toy car industry as well as bringing an end to the choking hazard of miniature rubber tyres.

Lesney (trademarked as ‘Matchbox’) released their own version called ‘Superfast’ and Corgi brought out ‘Hotwheels’ and every little boy (and the occasional girl) had their favourite. Just as with the train set manufacturing, all the car manufacturers eventually bought each other out until nobody knew who made what. It didn’t matter, because the era of sturdy toys had passed. You can stick your modern plastic cars in the orifice from which you get the most satisfaction these days. Plastic, Bubble packs, Blister packs and polythene bags are no match for cardboard and metal and toxic paint.

For a full history of Dinky you’ll have to go elsewhere. I’m bored now.

If you’re interested, I have already mentioned the regular meeting of ex-toy making executives in a potting shed in Purley. Send a resume and a bottle of Glenfiddich if you wish to join the club.

I forgot to include details about the Dinky toys included here! What a turkey!
I'm sure they all have names and if you are a Dinky enthusiast, then you'll already know what they are. Nopoint me wasting my time telling you.

You may also notice that I was not joking when I said they had been abused. Let's call them a FREE gift to whoever buys the train set.

I am overwhelmed by my own generosity sometimes......

Rail Track Signals - A Thrilling Discovery!

2009-06-18T15:49:00.000-07:00

Train Track Signals

I thought that braking systems were exciting, but when I began researching signal arms, I realized I had entered a whole new world and darn near wet my pants with excitement! There is an entire community devoted to railway signals. Numerous websites dedicated to revealing the darkest secrets of the lower quadrant, swapping milepost pictures and even a forum where you can talk about your experiences and feelings concerning signals.

In a way, this makes me really sad that I am selling my train set. I could have been a part of this society many years ago. A life wasted! I have been a little concerned about my heart over the last couple of years and perhaps this new surge of excitement would be enough to blow a gasket!

I was going to use this article to explain the different types of signals and how they are used………… but somewhere on the page I lost the will to live.

I am being unkind here. Very unkind. I am sure the people sharing their experiences on the signals forum are really nice people, far kinder and more harmonious than I could ever be.

…..but I DO have a life.

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So here they are, the signals in this jumbo Dublo train set. They are all manual signals, so you had better be swift on your feet if you are to run a clean outfit and not allow your imaginary train drivers to break any rules.

Box One (of course they are boxed!)

Double Arm - Upper Quadrant Signals

Box Two

Single Arm - Upper Quadrant Signals

Box Three

Single Arm - Upper Quadrant Signals

Unfortunately, the lever is missing from the signal on the right, but otherwise, the items are all in really good order ......and so are the boxes, ok? Also note that the box says 'D1'. Now that is a rarity! Means its early stuff.

....and an oddity to finish with. Made by 'Crescent'? ....maybe? One arm is disconnected and it's a bit chunkier than the average signal post, but it should work if your drivers are paying attention.

….and if you are dead from the waist up, I include here some very basic rules for signal operation:

Home and Distant are two…………phhhhhtttttt!

If you really are interested in learning about signals, try these websites:

http://www.railsigns.co.uk/home.html
http://www.signalbox.org/index.php

Otherwise stick around for some jokes instead

Search for The Matrix on ZML

A Brit, an American, a gorgeous blonde and a terrifying fat lady are sharing a compartment on a train.

As the train passes through a dark tunnel there is a loud SLAP!.

Once out of the tunnel, the blonde, the Brit and the fat lady all look at the American, who is sporting a big red slap mark on his cheek.

** The blonde thinks - "that American son of a bitch wanted to touch me and by mistake, he must have put his hand on the fat lady, who in turn must have slapped his face"

** The fat lady thinks - "that dirty old American must have tried to grope the blond and she whacked him"

** The American thinks - "That damned Brit put his hand on the blonde and she slapped me by mistake"

** The Brit thinks - "I can’t wait for the next tunnel so I can smack that stupid American again!"

There, that was more entertaining wasn’t it?

As for the signals

A stop signal has a red arm with a with band near to one end. When the arm is horizontal (consider when the beer is level in the glass), it means you have to stop (if YOU are driving the train).

If the arm is dangling (that’s the lower quadrant) then you don’t have to stop.

If there is a little notch cut out of one end then it’s a ‘Distant’ signal.

Beep Beep Beep….

Oh shucks! I’ve run out of time today. You’ll have to wait for the next thrilling article to learn more or alternatively nip down to your local newsagents and place an order for ‘Signalman’s Weekly’ or ‘Rail Signal Enthusiast’.

Until next time. zzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZ

Locomotive Turntable

2009-06-10T08:19:00.000-07:00

Locomotive Turntable

Let’s have a quiz: Only one piece of information in this article is actually true. Can you work out what it is?

Just look at modern locos, there’s no front end and there is no back end – there’s only a middle. How in the world can you run an attractive railway outfit with unending locomotives? The answer is, of course, you can’t.

In the good ol’ days, that I’m too young to remember …..what will I call the olden days when I grow old? Will they be the bad ol’ days? Or the mediocre ol’ days? ….anyway, in the good ol’ days, locomotives weren’t designed to run high speed in reverse and in any case the driver couldn’t see where he was going. So engines had to be turned around when they reached the end of the line.

Picking up a one hundred and fifty ton chunk of iron and turning it around was no joke and the men, who were known as Turncoats, vanished into the walls every time another loco came into the yard for turning. Some people have the audacity to accuse me of making this up, but this is all Big G’s honest truth.

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Hornby Dublo's Solution

Anyway, the original idea was to make the train driver carry out a three point turn, but this required so much space and caused so many accidents when trains reversed into the station car park denting cars and squashing former passengers, that it was abandoned.

It was Linus Swivel who came up with the idea in 1432 after watching a siege engine in action at Reims. Build a large circular platform. Drive the engine onto the platform and then rotate the platform around a central pivot using a team of oxen. Fantastic! In typical British style though, the invention had to be taken overseas to receive the funding and accolade it deserved. Thankfully, it was good enough to usurp the new American concept of ‘Disposable loco’s’. When the engine reached the end of the line, it was dropped into a big hole for recycling at some later date.

Bored with this nonsense yet? I am. Hornby Dublo came up with a beautiful turntable, but I have to say that I found it much easier to pick the loco off the rails and turn it around by hand. This job was made even easier with the launch of the Hornby Dublo ‘Railer’. I understand that this is not really a decent way to behave over such a serious issue, but when you are alone in your loft (and the hatch is locked), then you can do what you like, can’t you? ……unless your name is Norm.

Norm you are an ace!

My Own Method of Turning The Train - 'The Dublo Railer'

Answer to the quiz: the story about turning trains using three point turns is actually the only true part of the article! Did you get that right? Perhaps the car park wasn’t the best place to carry out such maneuvers, but they used to have ‘Y’ turns or sidings for this function.

Hornby Dublo - 2 Track Engine Shed

2009-05-21T08:31:00.000-07:00

I have accrued quite a few buildings for the set over the years, but only one of them counts as a genuine Hornby Dublo...... at least that's what I believe at the moment.

When Hornby launched Dublo in 1938 (sadly, Mr Hornby didn't make the debut party, having gone underground by this time....... was that a sick joke or what?) - the buildings and accessories were made from wood. Hand crafted! This was shortly replaced by diecast, which was considerably easier to mass produce.

1959 saw the introduction of plastic and the engine shed was the first item to receive the oil-based treatment. and it just so happens that this is what I have for you today!

For a well used plastic building celebrating its 50th birthday, it's in pretty good nick. If I make it to 50 with only a couple of lugs missing and a loose window, I shall be mightily pleased.

There was a minor hiccough when 2-rail Dublo was introduced, in that the buildings were designed for the extra height created by the thick 3 rail track. I don't think there were too many complaints and the range of buildings soon included lower platforms for 2-rail coaches. Least-ways, no-one sued for breaking a leg whilst stepping off a train.

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Did you know that every single second of every single day, more than 15,000 disposable nappies (diapers for the uninitiated) are thrown away. That's considerably more than 1.3 billion plastic nappies, each wrapped in its own plastic bag and transported by fleets of trucks to landfill sites around the world, every single day! ....and China and India are being targeted by the manufacturers as we speak.

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Now, I hope you're sitting down right now (...well, they must be if they're reading this, bonehead!) ....Guess what? Yep, it's boxed. Take a look at this and then go and change your underwear:

That's worth locking yourself in the bathroom for isn't it? You don't see many boxed buildings floating around.

I have many other buildings, but they are mostly home-built or Airfix models, that do not like being boxed, moved or in anyway touched. They break easily.

Trix Locomotive 80020 - Hot Snot!

2009-05-14T09:28:00.000-07:00

Hot snot? - I am not altogether sure that is an appropriate term for this family blog, let alone a suitable metaphor for the locomotive, but all school boys worth their salt know everything there is to know about snot, so let's not play 'parenting' (you know that game, where you pretend to be shocked at something your child says or does, even though you have become far ruder and more gross than he?).

There is another more appropriate metaphor, that the Canadians have amended to their peculiar sensitivities as 'shoot off a silver shovel', but then they allow the whole family to use the word 'frig' knowing full well that this is just a sanitized version of the more commonly used, but vulgar term, which I decline to use here, cos' I would be banned by some of the parental control mechanisms on the Internet.

Parental control? That's a laugh! Mothers not allowing their little babies to watch the horrors widely shown on the daily news, but then plonking them in front of an animated video with all manner of gore and violence......and subjecting them to all manner of chemical and biological poisoning by feeding them trash and taking them to doctors to receive potentized chemical bombardment and............

Sorry about that...... I forgot to take my medication this morning!

Whilst browsing the net I came across this excellent book, which is a must-have for all model rail enthusiasts. Covering loads of the technical details and some devices of which I hadn't even heard of to make train operations more realistic and entertaining.
Click Here to read more...

Anyway, what we 'ave for your delectation today my luvlie's is another treat from Trix. I don't know nuffink' about it and can't find nuffink' about it either!

0-6-0 Locomotive #80020. Made in black molded plastic and the fastest thing on 3-rails. Scaletically (I just made that up), 80020 is too fast, but that doesn't stop little boys from having fun. Turn the controller up full and it will derail on any curve and even the slightest irregularity in the fish plates.

The plastic allows it to bounce though, so it is in good condition, despite the treatment I remember giving it 35 years (or more) ago. How long?

If you happen to know anything about the history of the original Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) engine or even the date of manufacture of the Trix model, I should like to hear from you.

Class 5600/6600 Collett 0-6-2 Tank Engine

2009-05-12T10:09:00.000-07:00

How in the blazes did Trix get in on the scene? Oi! Will someone lock that back door – all kinds of riff-raff are sneaking in here!

For some strange reason two Trix locomotives wound up in this collection. The first one shown here is in abominable condition. She’s lost her bogey (euch!) and someone (not me!) has taken a chipping hammer to the paintwork.

Trix, Class 5600 Collett 0-6-2 Tank Locomotive, No. 6664 in British Railways lined green livery

The Class 5600 Tank Locomotive was the design of Charlie Collett, who presumably was a steam fanatic like Mr Gresley and my Dad, who was actually a boiler maker on the steam locomotives. The first of the 5600 series came into service in 1924 and the last one removed from mainline service with British Rail in 1965. You have to assume therefore, that it was a pretty good engine!

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....thank you for that little word for the would-be hippies - back to trains:

Mainly used for hauling coal from the pit heads of Wales (I am not calling the Welsh ‘pit-heads’ by the way …..although I knew a few who would fit that description quite well!) to the docks and factories and power stations.

Specification:

Water Capacity – 1900 gals
Coal Capacity – 3.75 tons
Boiler Pressure – 200psi
Weight – 62 to 69 tons (depending on who you believe), plus the fireman’s lunch box
Tractive Effort – 25,800lbs
Drivers Inside Leg – 24inches

Charles Collett was the Chief Mechanical Engineer for the Great Western Railways (GWR) and he it was, who thunked up this great little mover and shaker of a tank engine to replace the small and inefficient ‘coal rats’.

Two hundred of them were built between 1924 and 1928 and they ended up in all manner of jobs in many locations around the UK. As far as I know, nine of these engines have been saved from the scrap yard and I think five are in active service including this little baby at Swanage ‘6695’.

If you want a ride on one then I highly recommend the Swanage Railway Museum. Take a long weekend and some old clothes and get thoroughly sooty and sweaty amongst this great collection of steam trains and associated ironwork.

For some strange reason the engines were numbered 5600 to 5699 and 6600 to 6699. One must assume, must one, that the 6600 series were slightly modified from the 5600 series. The later series being about 1 ton heavier.

Here’s another one of those photo’s kindly stolen from Wikipedia, which is a great source of information, but not always trusted to be 100% accurate!

'6664' in the flesh!

As for the Trix model of ‘6664’ it is designed to run on 3 rail and does perfectly well on the Dublo track even though the electrics were wired somewhat differently.

Of course, this trix, 5600 Tank loco does not come with a box. I’m sorry, but the quality of red Trix boxes is nowhere near the Hornby Dublo standard. Half the weight, cheap wood pulp and ….well, that’s why there’s no box. Nothing to do with the verminous creature who took the chipping hammer to the locomotive!

Now then, the other Trix Twin loco is a different scuttle of coal entirely…..

Watering the Engine

2009-05-05T09:41:00.000-07:00

Steam engines didn't just burn a huge pile of coal, they also sucked up and vented a massive volume of water. When a Coronation Class loco decided to 'lay down some rubber, man' ...hmmm? she could spew out as much as 45 gallons of vaporized water per mile of track. A little 0-6-0 tank, shunting stock in the yard, on the other hand might run for a whole shift on 50 or 60 gallons.

45 gallons per mile meant that the Ol' Duchess locomotive needed to carry a huge volume of water just to make it to Bill's mothers'! 5000 gallons of water plus 10 tons of coal makes for a pretty big tender and that wouldn't actually get her very far. She needed to take on water several times during a run from Liverpool Street to Edinburgh (does the Edinburgh train leave from Liverpool Street station?).

Bring on the Water Crane. (This is where it get's boring and anorak-ish)

Water cranes were often situated at railway stations so that the loco could refuel whilst stationery. The water crane was essentially a ginormous standpipe capable of dumping up to 10 cubic meters of water per minute into a tank. That would make filling the bath a bit quicker eh?

There. That's it. That's all you ever wanted to know about water cranes. If you really want to see one, I have it on good authority that the new Bullring/Moorhouse Station shopping center in Birmingham has one on display.

Water cranes weren't the only method of watering the engine, the alternative method of scooping it from a chute in the track bed, whilst on the move, was great fun for kids who liked getting wet. It wouldn't suit the environmentalists these days though. Maybe I will write more about that when I am less hungry. It must be time for a scooby snack!

Hornby Dublo's water crane with real moving arm! .....and a beautiful cardboard box in a rich deep blue colour:

I suppose I could explain that the water crane was usually fed from a header tank perched on the highest available rooftop or failing that from a .......you guessed it! ....a water tower! The greater the 'head' (for you Yanks, that's the vertical distance between the water level and the spout. I pick on the Americans, because they don't generally know anything about header tanks. The oomph behind the water tap in the average American household water supply is usually generated by a pressure tank, whereas the British preferred to place water storage tanks in their roof spaces to freeze in in the winter (character building you know) and also (poor grammar to use 'and' in conjunction with 'also') for drowning rats and mice and harboring all kinds of diseases. It also causes that delightfully British lack of shower power. sigh!

Here's Hornby Dublo's attempt at a water tank. It appears to be modeled on the powder pink tank on the Swanage line, although the Hornby designer was a little more crusty and couldn't bring himself to use powder pink for a boys toy I think it falls a little below the usual standard. It could have been modeled on one of the more ornate versions.

It's in good nick, but alas and alack - NO BOX!

Taking Life Seriously

2009-04-30T09:30:00.001-07:00

I poke fun at everyone and everything - usually I have myself at the top of the list to take the rap. Religion is my favourite target, train spotters come a close second and then everything and everyone else is bundled together in the third class humour carriage. but I just have to share with you something I found, which, for some bizarre reason I cannot mock or ridicule! It has to be a first.

I am struck dumb.

.....and then along came 'Norm'

Norm is about as square as you can get. He lives in a world of his own creation. there is no God but Norm in his world. And Norm has grabbed railway modeling under the arms and hoisted her onto a platform so high, it's hard to see anything for the clouds.

Take a look at this Norms Railway

If I were to build a psychological profile for Norm, he would be about 58 years old and single. He probably dabbled in marriage when he was 19, but found that he loved trains better than girls. He is disillusioned with the world as it is, but fortified with an imagination so vivid, he set aside time in order to build a better place.

His bathroom is immaculate, his bed is always neatly made, his fridge is showroom condition and NOTHING is out of date amongst its contents.... actually, that cream cheese looks a bit peaky! He doesn't eat much or even particularly healthy food, does Norm. He shops on Tuesdays, laundry..... well, enough of Norm's personal habits.

How am I doing Norm?

His artwork and modeling are FANTASTIC! He's not puritanical by any means, he likes things to look as they would in 'real' life and if that means squirting some weathering paint on his locomotives and shoveling dirt in the wagons then so be it. The windows on the buildings are designer smeared and there's even authentic dog's mess beside the rails in the sidings.

Here's Norm's blog and I am very happy to provide inbound links for him to bump his blog up in the search engines.

This website here probably won't elevate you to Norm's standard, but it's pretty good nonetheless.

Thanks Norm. I am humbled and out of respect for your work I shall spend an entire day without partaking of ANY self-flagellation.

Thumbs up! (I even resisted the temptation to steal his photographs).

Loading Guage - Mind Your Head

2009-04-29T06:51:00.000-07:00

The loading gauge is defined as - The profile above the rail tracks through which a rail vehicle must pass. According to other sources the loading gauge is the profile of the train and the structure gauge is the size and profile of tunnels, bridges and doors through which the train must pass.

Therefore, the loading gauge MUST be smaller than the structure gauge. Sounds good on paper, but add 'human' to the equation and the results are sometimes very messy!

For the really macabre amongst our readers, there are some really scary photos of train wrecks at DarkRoastBlend

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The greatest problem for modern rail logistics is that international shipping containers come in numerous different sizes. Logically, an 8' tall container might sound safer than a 9'6" container, but when placed on the wrong type of truck bed, the results can be disastrous.

Hornby Dublo was very careful to ensure that Mum didn't have to worry about little Johnny getting stuck under a bridge. In fact HD were always keen to represent in their catalogues precisely how their trains should be played with:

Just for your own safety then, this set comes complete with two BOXED loading gauges! In this instance, a loading gauge is a bar suspended over the rail, beneath which a train should be able to pass without banging its head. Kinda simple stuff really, providing the bar is set at the right height!

The dingly dangly things are still intact and they have never been abused! ....well perhaps once, when I tried to get a kitten on the well wagon....

The Worlds Worst Train Accident

2009-04-28T09:22:00.001-07:00

If you are in any doubt as to who is in charge of this planet, a look at the worst train accidents on record should be enough to remind you that Mother Nature, The Great Universe or just plain Ol' God is actually at the helm.

In December 2004 a new world record was set for the number of people killed in one rail accident. The death toll for the 'Queen of the Sea' accident in Sri Lanka is estimated at 1700, knocking spots off the previous record (if I allow myself to be so glib) held by Bihar, India when a cyclone blew a train off a bridge into the Bagmati river, killing 800 passengers.

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What could possibly have caused such a monstrous accident? A wave. A tsunami in fact. A 20 foot wall of sea water (and all the debris that such a wall can carry) jumped out the sea and swept through the jungle in time to meet the 9am from Colombo, ironically called 'Queen of the Sea'.

According to records, about 1500 tickets were sold for the journey, but in typical Asian style, the train gathered a couple of hundred free-loaders, who clung to the sides and roof. Maybe G*D was a ticket collector in a previous life! Just a thought.

Is that what's known as blasphemy? It's OK, I can confess all of my wordly sins in good time and still catch the slow train to heaven. If that fails, I have it on good authority that St Peter is open to a bit of bribery - fond of the yellow metal I understand! It might be worth noting that most of the passengers were Buddhist, just in case you thought the Catholics, Jews and Muslims were the bad guys!

1700 people were on board the Queen of the Sea and only a handful survived. Don't let that put you off train travel though. It's still one of the safest modes of transport ever devised by man. That's a crass statement! Put another way, it's one of the most inefficient methods of killing people ever devised.

The Buffer Stops Here

2009-04-22T07:28:00.000-07:00

3 Rail Buffer Stops

Buffer stops are supposed to prevent trains from rolling off the end of a track. There isn't much I can say about them really, except don't ram them with the 2.45 Bristol Express Train! Buffer stops are not designed to stop a train - OK?

However! If you are really bored ....and I mean REALLY bored, then there is a thrilling article for you to read at Wiley Interscience

I have stolen an extract from it to entice you:

........ application of multibody dynamics to the determination of global physical behavior patterns that mimic traditional empirical laws. The main idea is to sift out such patterns from virtual experiments carried out with a simulation package. The concrete investigation in this setting is the dynamics of trains colliding onto buffer stops. Using a rigid-body model with nonlinear couplers featuring hysteresis, it is shown that, for typical train constellations, the highest load at the buffer stops is almost independent of the number of coaches, and that the value and the location of the maximum force within the train does not increase from a particular train length on. These results are compared with traditional formulas for dimensioning of buffer stops used in rail-vehicle industry.

The author could fill an evening or two with riveting conversation, I am quite sure!

Wikipedia has the usual assortment of fact and fiction, but the following picture shows a Frenchman using buffer stops to stop his train:

There are some other interesting shots of buffers designed to stop trains travelling at speeds of 15km/h, but I wouldn't want to be holding a cup of British Rail coffee during impact!

Hornby Dublo designed some really nice buffers though, but if you try the 15km/h test, you will most likely find the buffer remains attached to the rail and the baseboard breaks away from the wall.

This set includes 8 buffer stops, 6 of which are boxed!

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The green box cost 1/4 for the pair of stops, but the blue box cost 2/2 (that's 2 shillings and tuppence for the newcomers....read earlier post about money). That's inflation for you. It must have been Harold Wilson at the helm!

Corrrrr! - Juicy boxes or what?

They have all been used and if you click on the images you can see a detailed view of the minute scars they bear. Nothing is missing from them though and they are all absolutely guaranteed to stop a train with ten carriages traveling at 15km/h within 3 feet.

HIgh Sided Wagons

2009-04-16T07:00:00.000-07:00

Let's cut the chin-wagging for a bit and slap some pictures in the scrapbook for you. I have rambled on quite a lot about rolling stock already and have spent far too much time working myself into a state of frothy excitation over the supposed contents of the trucks. Here then is a quick (relatively) look at high-sider's in the box:

NE 12T High Sided Wagon #404844

Green, no scratches or dents, metal wheels ....YES!, only a tiny bit of British weathering has adjusted the condition of this vehicle.

12T High Sided Wagon #M608344

Similar to the one above, but in a lovely grey tone ...? with realistic markings on the printed tin. What can I say? I'm trying to make it sound attractive! Oh - of course, it's genuine hornby dublo!

It's slightly more weathered than the green one and has a sticky mark where a decal was once peeled off. It'll come off, but I leave it on for authenticity sake. hmm?

Metal wheels! and someone (perhaps me) has added a few fake metal drums for cargo. I know some purists don't allow their rolling stock to carry anything that was not supplied by the manufacturer. Freaks! Weirdo's!

North Thames Gas 12T High Sided Truck - #357260

Ignoring the fact that it's an imposter made by Lima Trains and ignoring the fact that the coupling is incompatible with Hornby Dublo and ignoring the fact that it's the only Lima item in the set, push your prejudices aside and put your hands together for this lovely little MINT CONDITION truck! Never before rolled on the rails and still in it's box, which is a little scruffy on the corners, but that's because it's modern cheap rubbish cardboard.

It also cost 17p (as in 'pee'), so that makes it an early 1970's vintage.

Talking of vintage, if your digestion is up the spout like mine is...was? Acids and alkalis in your diet are probably out of balance! Click here to take a gander at tummy chemistry. Yep, you do actually have to cough up a little bit of cash for the knowledge of how to put your system back to rights, but no more than the cost of a wee book. It's bloomin' well worth it! Big sighhhhhhhhh!

Let's have another Hornby article:

LMS High Sided Coal Wagon with Genuine plastic anthracite coal insert! - #608344

What was wrong with the designers at Meccano? Couldn't they even think of a different number to paint on the side of a rail truck? Why does this wagon bear the same number as the grey one, yet it has London Midland & Scottish as its registered owner?

It's nice - ok? It has a few very minor scuffs - it's been played with - alright? That number thing has really put me a in a bad mood.

The box is fantastic - even I got the hots when I saw it! I feel better already.

Lock yourself in a cupboard with that one for a while then!

Last and most certainly the least, comes the the other Trackmaster thingymejig from Pyramid Toys mentioned in a previous post.

NE #83610 High Sided Truck by Trackmaster

Good quality card in a dull yellow colour - carefully peel open the little flap at one end and out pops one of the earliest plastic high sided wagons ever made!

Pyramid Toys was bought out by Rovex in 1951, because they wanted to get into the toy train market. Therefore this dates to pre-1951. Rovex traded as Tri-ang. Eventually all the model railway manufacturers would buy each other out and all would be called Hornby and nobody would know who owned what or who made what, but nobody would care anymore because they finally realized that somehow they had lost Hornby Dublo and that was the only train set that was worth playing with!

The last I heard, the executives had formed a cardboard box sniffing society and meet in a potting shed on Thursday evenings somewhere in Purley.

Here it is:

Nice heh? Decent condition too. Shame it's not a Dublo! Of course, the more astute readers of thisblog might notice that the box has a picture of a Box Van on the side. Don't let minor details like that destroy your life ok?

There. I think I stayed fairly well on track with this post and didn't tread on too many toes along the way.

Mallard 60022 - A4 Class 4-6-2 Locomotive

2009-04-09T08:05:00.000-07:00

60022 Mallard – A4 Gresley Class Locomotive

Pop along to The National Railway Museum in York and you will find one of the centre pieces of the magnificent display is this massive chunk of iron called ‘Mallard’. If you are awake at the time, you might also notice that it’s a different colour and bears a different serial number to this model.

The Class A4 locomotive, including Mallard, was designed by Sir Nigel Gresley, built at Doncaster Works by LNER in the 1930’s and released onto the rails in 1938, whence, at just 5 months old, she set about establishing the world rail speed record.

Designed to pull passenger trains at speeds up to 100mph, the Gresley class was the first to make use of a wind tunnel to improve aerodynamics (a 3 year old could have managed that without a wind tunnel!). Anyway, she was shoved onto the East Coast Mainline, pointed downhill and let loose to set a stunning 126mph steam-powered record. Scary stuff for a 70 foot smoking iron ramrod weighing in at over 165 tons! Unfortunately, she stubbed her toe (big end bearing) before she could make it back to the celebrations arranged at Kings Cross and she limped to Peterborough with a blanket over her head. ‘Ivatt Alantic’ was sent to kings Cross instead and photographs of the Mallard handed out to the press, hoping that no-one would notice the difference. Apparently, the ruse worked!

When Mallard roared for the crowds in 1938 she was decorated with a pretty paint called ‘Garter Blue’, the same colour that the Queen prefers to hold up her stockings and those of a few of her knights (she hands them out as pressies to ‘the favoured’ ones). She was also numbered 4468 (Mallard – not the Queen of England). In 1942 she was toned down to ‘Wartime Black’ (both Mallard and Her Majesty, who was a motor mechanic in the army – honestly!). After a couple of minor alterations she was restored (we are talking about the steam engine again now) to Garter Blue in 1948 for the Locomotive Exchange Trials and renumbered ‘22’.

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When British Railways found themselves in possession of Mallard, they slapped a dark blue coat on her and renumbered her 60022. Not quite finally, on the 4th July 1949 she was camouflaged in Brunswick Green and this remained her drab attire until 1963 when she was pulled from active service and handed over to the museum for restoration. Knowing restorers, they wouldn’t sleep until they had scrubbed every last drop of green and black from her and found the perfect shade of Garter blue (a night time raid on Queenie’s knicker drawer availed them of a sample. Police apprehended the man on the roof of Buckingham Palace, but not before he had tied the garter to a stolen palace gate key and thrown it over the fence to a tall man in dark glasses, wearing a black suit and a Parker with a faux furry hood).

You don’t believe me do you? Search you now, the bowels of the BBC news archives for the man on the roof of Buckingham Palace and tell me I’m wrong!

....at least that was the tale I was told in the 'Wheel Tappers & Shunters' pub and they are more honest than bankers!

So now she sits, snug, but unfired, in the halls of York museum, awaiting your awe at her size and smell . (yes, we are still with Mallard).

So, back to business, you lucky Dublo’ers get the crappy green version! with 60022 stuck on a high nose belfry and that should, if you have been paying any attention to anything I’ve said, give you a clue to her date of manufacture.

Hornby Dublo produced a model of Sir Nigel Gresley in the garter blue as one of their very first locomotives in 1938 and the body of one of these has found its way into my collection. Someone has roughly attempted a re-paint job, but that’s not much good without wheels. In any case, you get a free Sir Nigel Gresley body with every Mallard you buy from me!

The tender looks like it has been in a fire! The coal has melted and warped. That might explain the rest of the missing parts too.

Mallard is gorgeous. Virtually spotless and in the ORIGINAL box.....which is not quite so spotless. The box has a bit of 16th century cellotape wrapped around it and has seen better days.

Braking The Slow Train

2009-04-06T06:20:00.000-07:00

Brake Vans (also known as Guards Vans)

Slow freight trains literally dragged their brake vans behind them to keep the train linkage under tension. Essentially defunct now, the brake van once served a major role in containing the terrifying spectre of rail disasters. Unfortunately, the demon of rail-borne accidents had his wicked way a great many times before the idea of braking was given serious consideration.

George Westinghouse – the unheralded hero of safe train travel

George was the man that worked out that train brakes still needed to be applied even if everything else failed. This same system (modified) is used in heavy goods vehicles, buses and trains the world over.

The basic principle is devastatingly simple – when the engine is running, air pressure is built up in a compressor that is used to remove the brake shoes from the wheels, when the brake lever is released. If power is lost or a leak develops in the braking system, then the brakes are automatically applied. A fool-proof safety system.

Actually, this simplistic view of train braking is too simple and a much more controllable system was designed ensuring that the brakes were not applied too suddenly, with dramatic consequences – to learn more about how air brakes work read http://www.psrm.org/faqs/brakes.html

….but it wasn’t always like that! In days of yore when men were men and women twice as hairy (this could be the beginning of a little ditty –suggestions for the next line on a postcard please!) … All manner of scary tactics were applied to make a train stop in a controlled manner.

Attention Railway Modellers - excellent tips and resources for everyone

The first efforts involved:

Steam pressure from the boiler was reversed through the drive chain forcing the wheels to turn backwards. This frequently ended in mechancial damage!

The engine driver leaning down hard on a lever that pushed a bloc of metal onto one of the locomotives driving wheels.

The lever was eventually replaced with a threaded rod and control wheel that could be turned to gradually apply the pressure.

A system of chains linking the carriages was tried for a while that enabled the same handle to apply brake shoes to each carriage in the train.

The super-hero braking system involved a man leaping from carriage roof to carriage roof (in days before concertina corridor connections or vestibules) and applying a brake handle on each carriage when given the signal to do so using a coded blast on the train’s whistle. Needless to say the trains frequently arrived at their destination minus the brakeman! Called 'Cooning the Buggy' by those in the trade, it would tend to indicate that it was the domain of the black skinned, still suffering the torment of racial abuse/unofficial slavery in the mid 19th century America, where this practice was prevalent.

A similar super-human system required a brakeman to jump off the train and run along aside the train throwing the brake levers. I imagine that the designer of this system also ran slave ships from the Ivory Coast to replenish the broken brakemen!

Another braking system that was very short-lived used steam from the boiler to apply pressure to the brake shoes on the carriages. Unfortunately, the steam rapidly cooled and condensed and proved extremely ineffective.

The Brake Van

Before the Westinghouse air brake system came into being in 1869 and for many ensuing years, whilst new carriages and wagons were built and existing railway stock upgraded, the brake van was employed on freight trains throughout Britain, Australia and several other countries.

The brake van was attached to the very back of the train and constituted little more than a very heavy box containing a large brake wheel that the brakeman or guard would turn to apply the brakes, thus slowing the train from the back end at the same time as the locomotive brakes were applied. Not the most effective braking system ever designed and the train was limited to a top speed of around 25mph. Freight trains were considerably heavier and more cumbersome than passenger trains.

Occasionally the brake van was modified to carry mail bags or other light goods and more often than not a drunken brakeman!

Brake or Guard vans, as they were often referred to, continued in use in Britain until the mid 1980’s although all new rolling stock manufactured before then employed a Westinghouse or similar braking system.

In earlier days the guards van would often keep the brake partially applied throughout a journey, to prevent the loose wagon couplings from jerking and snapping off and to prevent the highly dangerous shunting effect that lead to many derailments.

This Hornby Dublo outfit contains several brake wagons representing the earlier braking tasks and more recent guard duties.

Hornby Dublo Brake Wagons 178717 and E178717

Both of the above wagons are from the golden days of early Dublo. All-metal construction didn't weather quite as well as the more modern plastic versions and both have slight roof damage. Although they both bear the same serial number, one van has a grey roof and a chimney (to keep the guard warm), the white roofed wagon was presumably used in summer to prevent the poor chap from cooking in his box! Both guards vans have very slight paint chips, but otherwise intact, unbroken and sound great on the rails with their lovely metal wheels!

Note the 20T weight tag - almost double the usual freight wagon weight.

Super-Detail Molded Plastic Guards Vans 730973 and 730012

Brake van 730973 and van 730012 are identical except in colour and both are boxed and in immaculate condition. The Super-detail plastic molding dates them to the post '58 era. The larger size also reveals them to be more advanced wagons than their predecessors with the open foot plates. Probably, they carried mail in these wagons.

Train Wreck

Quite where this one came from I don't know, but it isn't a Dublo truck - the wheels do not fall off Hornby Dublo trucks! I used it in a display with a crane in a siding. In any case, it's a dead brake van.

What's next on the agenda? Let's go back to the box and have a look!

The First Steam Locomotive

2009-04-03T07:32:00.000-07:00

The Alternative History of Steam

Although an American, John Fitch, was the first person to build a working steam powered rail locomotive, the idea fell flat on its face soon after its launch in 1784. Americans were too attached to their horses to let a machine move them around. "It jus' ain't manly ye hear"

Ten years later a Scotsman by the name of Murdoch built a steam powered locomotive, but his design was built for the roads and eventually paved the way for the steam revolution in Britain.

In 1804 Richard Trevithick managed to coax his own steam locomotive along a tramline in 'The Valleys' of South Wales...... never to be heard of again.

Eventually George Stephenson and his son Robert ... and perhaps one or three other people came up with a better design for the steam producing boiler and bolting it to a steel carriage, entered it into a competition to find the best locomotive to pull the first ever train service in the world. The 'Rocket' won the race without any real competition.

George and Robert Stephenson's 12mph 'Rocket'

The Rainhill Trials

The trials were established to find the best vehicle to run a regular passenger service between two major industrial cities in Northern England - Liverpool and Manchester. Steam power wasn't a condition of the trials, which took place over a five day period starting on the 6th October 1829, but it was certainly the only contender.

The trials were set to run on a very short length of track and it was stipulated that the engines had some means of stopping, just in case the operators hadn't considered that aspect.

The Rules (abbreviated version)

1. The locomotive must be weighed (cold and empty) and a load would then be assigned to the train of three times its weight. The operator had to guess how much fuel and water he would need for firing the boiler plus 35 miles of travel on the rails. He was then provided with this fuel and water and the time was measured for the fireman to build a head of steam.

2. The tender carrying the fuel and water for the locomotive was included in the load assigned to each engine. Engines carrying the fuel and water on the locomotive would receive a discount from their load. (they thought of everything eh?)

3. The locomotive must be pushed to the start line by hand - WHAT?? and then once the boiler reaches a pressure of 50psi it can take off (that is if the boiler didn't blow up before hand)

4. The track was one and three quarter miles long. One eighth of a mile at each end would be allowed for building up speed AND for stopping (quite important that on a straight piece of track), thus the timing would be taken over one and a half miles each way.

5. The engine had to reach a speed of ten miles per hour.

I would like to take brief interlude here to expand upon more recent developments in technology that are ridiculed, because they are not sufficiently powerful .....YET. After 100 years the steam engine was replaced by the internal combustion engine and not long after the engine was designed, someone had the bright idea of splitting water down into its constituent elements of hydrogen and oxygen and using this to fuel the engine. Such a vehicle was running in 1937.

Now ask yourself why you are still spending a fortune on hydrocarbon fuel?
Why we allow billions of tonnes of toxic fumes to be released into the atmosphere.... and fall back down again - let's not forget!
Why millions of people have been killed and mutilated through countless, pointless wars (often launched with a different excuse for public consumption) and why the global economy has been (so far) based upon the value of oil?

Water fuel engines are in their infancy. they have a long way to go and some people already have cars that run on nothing but water (and very little of that!).

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eeeerrrrrrr.....where was I?

Ruel Number 6. That's not how you spell rule!

Once more from the top:

Number 6. The locomotive shall make ten trips (equal to the distance from Liverpool to Manchester - thirty five miles. She will then be refueled and pushed back to the start line where she will make another ten trips, representing the return trip. What? You want to go BACK to Liverpool?

Number 7. The locomotive and driver have to survive the journey.

Sadly, they didn't include passengers and bystanders in the rules and Stephenson's Rocket, having won the trials promptly squashed the Member of Parliament for Liverpool at Parkside station during the inauguration run the following year.

Out of ten entries in the trials only five made it to the starting line. Does not augur well methinks!

The first entry 'Cycloped' failed, when the horse that powered the engine by walking on a moving belt, fell through the bottom of the machine. Eeh! Uur! Cycloped wasn't seriously injured, but went on to further misery when George Orwell got hold of him on Animal Farm and handed him over to the pigs for some serious abuse.

The second entry 'Perseverance' was damaged en route to the trials. Rumour has it, it fell off the back of the cart. Just a thought here - what mode of transport do you use to transport a steam locomotive when their are no rails OR roads ....or trucks or planes or EVEN slaves? It was repaired in time for the fifth day, but couldn't overtake the snails on the grass verge, so got back on the M1 and drove home again in a snot, causing untold damage to fences and property along the route. The police gave chase on penny-farthing bicycles, but couldn't catch him.

Number three was 'Sans Pareil' - when you choose a name like that you should make sure you mean it! It blew a cylinder and failed to finish, but it did actually go on to work for a couple of years.

The fourth engine was a demon. At 28mph it knocked spots off the competition... for a few minutes at least. Mechanical failures dogged this one to the grave, but the design was good, just poor quality iron!

Thus, at an average of 12mph, the rocket won by default, earning five hundred pounds prize money and going on to form the basis of what so many people fell in love with in subsequent years.

Steam.

Some of this information was stolen from Wikipedia other information I found in a guidebook to the London Science Museum and other information i just made up to make it more interesting. That's how history is made!

It's Only The Postman...

2009-04-02T06:59:00.000-07:00

Hornby Dublo TPO Royal Mail Van Set

If you haven't seen the film 'Iris' then you wouldn't understand my occasional reference to 'it's only the postman'. Run along now to your local video shop (my local is 2 1/2 hours drive away!) and rent the film. Grab a box of kleenex and a glass of wine and watch the funny/sad moments as God slowly lowers Judi Dench into the viscid vat of Alzheimer's disease.

The film lacks the continuity of the heart string tugs that another director might provide, but offers several gluteal glimpses of the callipygian Kate Winslet.... which almost makes up for it! (actually it's worth watching just for Kate Winslet skinny dipping)

Since watching the film, my wife has adopted the phrase 'it's only the postman' to refer to the more distracted and forgetful moments in our lives.

Watch the film - you'll understand then! Jim Broadbent's performance is terrific.

As for the Royal Mail set - this falls a little short of perfect too (the actors performances were ALL brilliant by the way, it's the direction and editing that is below par) .... A few parts are missing like the mail bags and it has, most obviously, seen better days. I picked it up at Beattie's model train Mecca in London one day, when I was ....ooooh, just a tadpole. I pretended that Phil Collins had already boarded the train before I got to it and made off with the mail sacks. Now THAT is a superb film! 'Buster'. Phil Collins as Buster in the Great Train Robbery remake.

The coach has a few minor scratches and the rail is bit rough looking too, but it's an all metal version (sintered steel wheels). The switch is included as is the familiar blue and white striped box, which also bears the scars of a careless young brat. It looks like part of the mail bag exchanger mechnism is missing too.

I am making it out to be worse than it is though - i wouldn't have bought it if it had been trash.

Have another look:

All-in-all a nice addition to the set.

Bulk Grain Wagon - B885040 (genuine Hornby Dublo)

2009-04-01T09:39:00.000-07:00

Here's another from the plastic age ....what was that song about the plastic age "living in the plastic age, doo doo do doo doo do doo"?

The grey bulk grain carrier B885040 was the very first Hornby Dublo 'super detail' model wagon to roll out of the Liverpool factory in 1958, when they retooled for plastic molding.

(they sang with really weird electronic voices - either that or they were from another planet)

Most of these wagons have gathered dust over the years. Yes, I know I should have made my wife dust them more frequently, but at 12 years old I wasn't very demonstrative. I haven't scrubbed them with any kind of fluid, merely flicked over them with a paint brush (no paint - OF COURSE! duh! Oh - I do so dislike that sound....It's SO American!)

No damage and no paint to chip. Kissable in fact.

Buggles!! Living in the plastic age! circa 1979. Hey, the old grey matter hasn't deserted me entirely.

It's only the postman! what?

Refrigerated Box Van - W59850

2009-04-01T09:07:00.000-07:00

White Refrigerated Box Van - W59850

This is a bit of a strange item, though I can't think why. It just is - ok?

The all plastic body on a 'Mazac' base (you'll have to read my Feb 19th post 'Hornby Dublo - The Alternative Story' to learn more about Mazac) and plastic wheels drops this baby into the post '58 era.

When Wrenn took over the tools from Tri-ang in 1968, they obviously thought it was such a nifty truck that they continued production, although they slapped a decal on the side saying 'Eskimo' and a picture of a rather non-PC personage wrapped up in seal skin. This caught on more than the Dublo version for I rarely see any of the original HD models floating around.

I have already thrown in my story of the chap who froze in a refrigerated truck, even though it wasn't cold inside, so I won't tell it again here.

Did I?

Here she is:

Not bad looking. A few very minor scuffs and the black wire thingys have become a little bent through vandalism and bad driving. Otherwise she is ready to roll.

Why does the word fridge have a 'D' in it and refrigerate doesn't? ...I think we should blame the Americans once more. Sins of their fathers and all that....

More Rolling Stock - Box Vans

2009-03-31T09:28:00.000-07:00

Hornby Dublo Box Vans

....actually, like the low-siders, there are a few impostors amongst the box wagons.

12T Box van - N182153 - Hornby Dublo - The Genuine Article

First on the catwalk today is a tasty dish from the North Esst N182153. A 12 ton box van with all metal construction. Of course in the real world, you know, the one you see when you look out of the window? .... well out there in the big boys world the box vans were wooden sided.

I briefly poked my head into the stuffy offices of the rolling stock know-it-all's and, through the shifting cloud of cigarette smoke and the consequential tear-streamed eyes, I ridiculously asked a few questions about the history of this type of wagon. If you understand just one thing that I have written on this blog so far, believe me when I say that, if you find the history of the construction of rail goods wagons even vaguely interesting, then you need professional help!

Take a look at this website It deserves an award, though for what I am at a loss.

I was lucky to come away with the one tiny piece of sanity I had set aside especially to be able to find the post office to draw my old age pension.

The sides would have been made from 1 x 6 boards, coachbolted .....yaaawwwnnnn.. into place with either an internal steel skeleton. The original exo-skeletons were found to rot very quickly. zzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZ

This one has slight bit of corrosion on the corner of the roof where a bit of paint has chipped. If you borrow my magnifying glass here____ you can just make it out in the top left corner.

Ignoring the slight imperfections, it has the saving grace of noisy metal wheels. sigh...

Next ladies and gentlemen..... that reminds me - can anyone tell me if there is such a creature as a woman who takes an interest in Hornby Dublo trains? I have yet to encounter one and, well..... my wife doesn't understand me - you know how the story goes! I am only interested to know. No other reason. You know how trains have been a yang dominion since the Victorians drove sex into the closet.

Discretion is my watch-word, I need not add But did anyway. It's ok, my wife has long since stopped reading this blog.

I think!

Did I lose the thread somewhere?

Box Wagon B757051 - Hornby Dublo

Plastic body dates this one to almost within my lifetime. Here you will notice, if you look carefully, the exo-skeleton that I mentioned earlier (I recommend that you take notes if you cannot remember things too well) is clearly visible in this fine example of plastic moulding. The plastic construction certainly enabled greater detail to be included in the models.

The roof is a little scuffed, but it looks incredibly authentic... and that's the whole point isn't it?

10 Ton Fish Van - 168975

When messr's Hornby, Dublo and co. came up with this idea, they were appealing to the 'Little Schoolboy within'. The thought of stinky fish and entrails and gore, ripe in the summer heat of an enclosed rail wagon is enough to excite the most ancient and wise of men to revert to boyhood.

This all metal vehicle has sealed doors for long life smell retention and even a cardboard box containing a little tube of authentic 'whife d'halibut' to squirt in the wagon's air vent.

That was a wee jokie - OK? The air vent is actually sealed.

Metal wheels. Condition very nice.

You naughty little box fetishists will also note the condition of the cardboard is unsullied! Enjoy.

Trackmaster Box Van - 86203

Where this unusal specimen was found i do not know, but it has a colleague in the high sided department too.

The roof is warped - You see! I warned you about too much plastic and how it warps in the sun...but you don't listen to me. Oh no...

The roof is warped (I just said that, didn't I?) and more importantly, the couplings are incompat..EEE..bLe, as my wonderful french teacher, Mr Michel Thomas, would say. Incidentally, if you ever want to learn a European language, chug down to your local library and get a copy of Michel Thomas on CD. I learned more in half an hour with him than I learned in 5 years of French lessons at school. A vocabulary of 3000 French words in 30 minutes, he promises the listener and damn me if he didn't accomplish just that!

The couplings can be replaced of course, but the one saving grace of this beast is the ....cardboard box?

Last in this field is another creation from the Playcraft crib.

(Playcraft P6571) 10T Box Wagon W2910

There is something not quite right with this one, although I am sure the designer researched or at least tottered down to the freight yard to copy one. It's a long wheelbase which, when scaled up, would make it about 45' as opposed to the standard 33 foot trucks that became the standard of the century. Yet the stated weight is only 10 tons.

The slatted sides would indicate that this wagon was probably designed for livestock, yet the inscription on the side clearly says FRUIT and PASSENGERS. This wagon is equipped with electric lights, so it's not an old design. Perhaps it was used for the quasi-legitimate immigration trade across European borders. I heard a story about one person who stowed away in an empty freezer wagon. When he realized he was locked inside the cold store, he froze to death. The refrigeration unit hadn't been switched on as the wagon was empty. Such is the power of the mind eh?

The doors slide smoothly on fancy French runners. The red lights come on at the tail end. There isn't a mark on it. Like the other Playcraft (Jouef) items, it does have the original box, but .....the modern boxes just don't make the grade for me ....shakes head despondently...

More coming soon....

Low Sided Wagons

2009-03-30T07:00:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I have to work for a living and sometimes I work for love and occasionally I find time to post on my blogs!

Low Sided Wagons

Over the years my train set has accrued some impostors amongst the rolling stock. Some have been built from kits, most notably Airfix kits and others have been inherited, purchased or otherwise purloined from other sources. One or two items could be described as rather tacky, so any Hornby Dublo purists reading this will have to close their eyes occasionally or have a handful of sedatives nearby.

21T Single Bolster 8920022 (genuine HD)

This wagon bears a few of the minor scars expected from use in a busy railway, but is intact and undamaged. Plastic wheels dates this truck as post '58.

SNCF Low Sided Bogie (Juoef/Playcraft impostor!)

Quite how this one came into being I don't recall, but it's plastic construction, non-Hornby Dublo coupling and French National Railways logo make a it a bit of a mismatch. Maybe it can be swapped at an international model railway swap-shop!

Generally in good nick. Nothing broken or bent and no paint to scratch.

30T Bogie Bolster M720550

Here's a strange thing (If you find this at all interesting, you can be classed as a sad git like me!)...... This is a genuine Dublo bogie bolster wagon in a Trix Twin box bogie bolster box! What do you make of that?

Once again, it's in good condition barring the few paint wounds. No damage or dents. Lovely metal wheels - feel that quali'y Sir!

Low Sided Wagon with cable Drums - M486

Here's the genuine article! A low-sider complete with cable drums AND in a very nice piece of cardboard. You won't find better than this to idle away a winter's evening in the loft!..... maybe you would, but your private loft-life is your own business.

A few minor chips and a slight wrinkle on the cable drum covers is all that can be classed as imperfect with this little beauty. Metal wheels too and just look at that boX!

To finish off with we have another couple of all plastic objets d'art.

STVA Car Transporter and Low Bed Bogie Wagon (Jouef/Playcraft)

The car transporter supports a handful of delightfully nasty little plastic cars that would put any christmas cracker or cereal packet novelty manufacturer to shame.

Although STVA is a French company, it also operates a fleet in Italy, Spain and the UK, by far the biggest overland car transport company in Europe, with some 4000 rail cars and 700 road transporters. The company began operations in 1950 and until the car manufacturers were sucked down the toilet bowl in the recent 'economic crisis' (don't get me started on this one), STVA was carrying something like 2.7 million plastic cars every year.

The second wagon is a low bed bogie wagon carrying a replica transformer (it's not live so you can't electrocute yourself! - no safety issues here..... except, of course, that the small parts may be swallowed so don't put them in your mouth, OK? and whilst on the subject, don't put your dog in the microwave to dry....)

These two Jouef wagons have the Dublo coupling so they can be trained...... if you so desire.

Plastic, unscratched, complete - what more can I say about them?

Let me root around for some more delectable Dublo truffles.