fbb's first model railway layout, bought by parents as a Christmas present, was a poor buy, but neither he nor they realised it at the time. It was early grey-track Triang and one of the locos was this one.
There was also a double-ended version ...
... and when the company introduced overhead catenary ...
... they moulded a different roof section and fitted it with pantographs thus creating a third version of an American style loco.
The UK star of the overhead world was class EM2 from the Sheffield to Manchester via Woodhead line.
Named "Electra" it was an exciting model, secretly desired by fbb in his teenage years but never acquired. Later, at Sheffield Uni, he was above to travel over (through!) the Pennines hauled by the real thing/
But back to the beginning.
Cleverly the marketing folk at Margate, ever anxious to make another sale, took a motorised bogie from the very early "American" model series ...
Cleverly the marketing folk at Margate, ever anxious to make another sale, took a motorised bogie from the very early "American" model series ...
... kept the working headlight and plonked a free-lance body on it.
... and thus produced a useful (and cheap) "toy" which would sell on both sides of the pond.
Then came Nellie.
A four wheel diesel also appeared but did not last.
Note the solid wheels, standard fare from the early Triang factory. There was even an 0-4-0 with pantograph.
But from Nellie onwards and into the Triang Hornby and Hornby eras a "basic" 0-4-0 has been part of the range.
There was a fairly crude representation of the unique GWR 101 "Holden tank ...
... which appeared in a sort-of authentic GWR colour scheme ...
... and, over the years, some decidedly non-authentic liveries.
Sensibly, for the "toy" market, no attempt was made to reproduce the correct 101 valve gear but he/she/it did have cylinders.
Also without cylinders or prototypical drive shaft was an equally crude model of the BR class 06 diesel shunter.
Once again, the undercarriage was a weakness ...
... but, hey, who cares; it was a cheap locomotive and made a good starter "set" for a youngster. It did run far too fast (about a scale 200 mph) and often flew off at the corners - but that added to the fun!
The first loco fbb bought for his outdoor layout was this ghastly version.
fbb painted his in Peterville Quarry blue and it still pops out of its box from time to time to haul a few coaches.
Smokey Joe was the next to appear (possibly?).
It has also reappeared in a wide selection of liveries.
It is very much a "freelance" design although it is often catalogued as a "pug" - which it isn't. Both Hornby and Bachmann have marketed a real pug ...
... which shows how un-pug-like the little saddle tank really is. There was also an Airfix/Kitmaster pug kit, still available but now produced by Dapol. fbb's pug, again in the Peterville Quarry blue, is a static exhibit on the station platform.
Where is all this leading, you may ask. In a word, back to Dowlais Steelworks and yet another Hornby 0-4-0 based loosely on a real loco. A keen model maker (NOT fbb!) has sought to make the crudeness less crude.
What price accuracy?
What price branding?
Corby's Falling Star?
Do you remember Corby Star.
It was a total rebrand of Corby's bus services with a nice orange livery and well printed (remember that system?) literature. Northampton correspondent Alan reminded fbb of Uncle Brian's take on "the future's bright, the future's orange".
On a recent visit, Alan noticed that the buses are now appearing in Stagecoach standard livery.
Is this the end of orange?
Are there new orange buses about to appear in a blaze of orange publicity?
Or do we expect something like "Corby Carriages" or "Corby Cruisers"?
Do the passengers really care what colour their buses are?
Do brands bring more bums?
Alan will doubtless let us know what happens (if anything) in Corby.
Prototype for Anything?
There is much debate in railway modelling circles about how realistic your layout should be. Most modellers are content to run trains that might have happened in reality; but some get very excited about accuracy.
Just occasionally something is photographed on the real railway that gives the "run what you want" brigade something of a defence against the modelling pedants. Here are a couple of pics from a web cam at Dawlish.
The loco at the front is (fbb thinks) a DRS loco, POSSIBLY like this one ...
... hauling a couple of old parcels vans.
But behind the vans was ...
... and HST (High Speed Train) power car!
An exciting four car train that could "accurately" grace any medium sized layout and satisfy the "that would never happen" brigade.
There is much debate in railway modelling circles about how realistic your layout should be. Most modellers are content to run trains that might have happened in reality; but some get very excited about accuracy.
Just occasionally something is photographed on the real railway that gives the "run what you want" brigade something of a defence against the modelling pedants. Here are a couple of pics from a web cam at Dawlish.
The loco at the front is (fbb thinks) a DRS loco, POSSIBLY like this one ...
An exciting four car train that could "accurately" grace any medium sized layout and satisfy the "that would never happen" brigade.
Next Tease-Title blog : Sunday 9th June
No. "Smokwy Joe" is a reasonably accurate, if basic, model of a Caledonian Railway 264 Class saddle-tank locomotive, with the correct BR number. In Scotland, all small 0-4-0 tank locos were known as "pugs" - the name isn't confined to the L&Y version. Usually they ran around coupled to a small crude open wagon, to carry extra coal.
ReplyDeleteThe Corby Star network & brand was a Northamptonshire County Council, in partnership with Stagecoach, initiative and part of a wider scheme to improve the town service network of a number of medium sized towns in the county (Kettering & Wellingborough both also having similar networks & branding initiatives but both of these I think used Green based liveries) and many of the buses used were actually owned by the council & leased to the operators (certainly the Solos used on these networks were though many have been sold to operators over the years). These networks have been gradually eroded over the years as demand was never quite enough to turn these full networks into commercial propositions though some have survived as parts of wider networks or in the hands of other operators. The Corby Star branding faded away years ago and the deckers were the last obvious vehicles in the orange for some time, you suspect due to their non-standard nature within Stagecoach there future was never entirely certain and they remained locally allocated until Corby Depot was downgraded so they rarely wandered. Now they can be seen operating more widely as Corby is just an outstation of Kettering and they are often reported on routes further afield and they seem to be staying so a repaint is in order.
ReplyDeleteThe double deckers are (were?) the last buses in Corby Star livery, with the Solos long gone; the downgrading of Corby to an outstation of Kettering last May was a further factor (and indeed, the newer picture looks to be in Kettering rather than Corby). While the May 2018 local timetable retained Corby Star branding, it looks as though the January 2019 version hasn't. There has been some corporate negativity about non-Stagecoach liveries of late.
ReplyDeleteRef your bit about "Prototype for Anything?". It's pretty much the same in the computer train simulator world - everyone trying to outdo each other to find the best scenario based on a working that may or may not have happened.
ReplyDeleteThings went one better a while ago. The 47 broke down and Laira sent a pair of power cars to tow the whole formation back.
ReplyDeletehttps://media.discordapp.net/attachments/180867297173438464/583359747592552483/D7mSeyiXoAEqKgn.png?width=1015&height=677
And two power cars hauling ECS sleeping cars ... https://www.google.com/search?q=sleeper+hst&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiPnaPJzNziAhVPRBUIHQvyB4MQ_AUIESgC&biw=1280&bih=578#imgrc=oWUv2r5kT5R-TM:
ReplyDelete