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Hello everyone, I'm having a major clearout at the moment and I'm disposing of all my '0' gauge tinplate stuff except for my British made locos and rolling stock. Over the years I'd let myself go running off at a tangent with my collecting and ended up knee deep in Marx and Lionel. Then while digging in a cupboard I rediscovered the 8 year old raw beginnings of my Yankee modelling and collecting urges. As I looked on these early beginnings it all came back to me. I'd been modelling in ultra finescale P4 and 'S' for years, I'd even made some stunning individual models, BUT it had become all too plain to me that I'd be an old grey haired woman long before I'd actually have a working layout built to these standards. (bear in mind that I was making everything by hand except for wheels, gears and motors which I was buying in). [img]http://locomotiveannie.homestead.com/files/19thCentSScaleOpenWagon.jpg[/img] An example of one of my mid 19th Century open coal wagons in Finescale 'S'. Deciding that all I wanted to do was play trains I began to collect Hornby '0' gauge tinplate trains as well as any other British made '0' gauge trains that fell within my budget. Clockwork locos were a major item on my shopping lists as I never never never never wanted to see another precision made miniature can motor again! I also began to consider the possibility of modelling an American shortline in the garden which is where my newly rediscovered relics come in. [img]http://locomotiveannie.homestead.com/files/0-4-2B.jpg[/img] One of my hugely modified Hornby tinplate locos. Because I was still feeling very very annoyed about finescale modelling I began to build some test models for my shortline using cheaply available plastic trainset locos as a basis. The track gauge was '0' and the wheel standards were gloriously coarse, but I used the British 7mm to the foot scale rather than the American 1/4" to the foot standard. This did cause problems later, which is why I ended up knee deep in Marx and Lionel rather than carrying on with my own handwork. [img]http://locomotiveannie.homestead.com/files/BatteryWesternLoco.jpg[/img] Unknown make of battery loco repainted and coupled to an unfinished tender based on yet another make of toy train's tender moulding. [img]http://locomotiveannie.homestead.com/files/BatteryWesternLococ2.jpg[/img] A better look at the loco. I still have some of these salted away 'cause I liked them lots. Anybody recognise the make? [img]http://locomotiveannie.homestead.com/files/RioGrandeBatteryLoco.jpg[/img] More toy train bashing. I have no idea why I never completed this loco because it was showing a lot of promise. [img]http://locomotiveannie.homestead.com/files/RioGrandeBatteryLococ2.jpg[/img] The tender was made from two plastic toy train tenders if I remember correctly. I still quite like it, - brakeman's cabin and all :-) In the end my finescale modelling instincts must've finally broken loose because I built this gondola up from individual planks and cut loose with nut and bolt detail. I even made the archbar trucks! The wheels are seriously coarse scale though :-) Please excuse the poor photo I can't use my digital camera for toffee. [img]http://locomotiveannie.homestead.com/files/DRSLGondola.jpg[/img] So it looks like history repeating itself with me buying up almost every New Bright loco and tender in captivity, - it feels very much like a place I've been before. The nominal scale '0' gauge toy train locos I used a basis for my original 'bashing' had a very good mech, with rubber traction tyres and they ran on two 'D' cells. They could draw a a useful length train too since the battery weight was right over the driving wheels. I'm now finding myself wondering why on earth I gave up on this project. I've got plenty of junk Marx plastic cars, I'm sure if I cut them in quarters and boosted them up to full sized '0' with filler inserts I could end up with quite a nice train for my locos to haul. As for finding my old handmade gondola, - that's exactly what I want to do in 'G' 1:20 scale. I'll even use exactly the same method to build my 'G' scale cars, - it's great fun building cars up plank by plank :-) So there you go, some old skeletons from my cupboard. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has a few lying somewhere about in a dark place. Annie
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