Hi I will be acquiring a pair of Lone Star Treble-O-Trains OOO/N gauge 0-8-0s They are non Powered Dummy Units but I want to know more about them, I Don't know too much about them other then one has a Red base and black wheels plus boiler and the other one with a black base Red wheels and a black boiler, and they have the British Couplings... If anyone could inform me on when (what years) these models were built, and how much they were originally plus their history? their isn't a whole lot about them and if they have plastic wheels or not? it would be greatly appricated
I just did a Google search for Lone Star Treble O lectric. Lots of info.
Check it out.
Mike.
My You Tube
It wasn't called "N" scale then and in fact my recollection is that Lone Star, in common with some other British "OOO scale" trains, was 152:1 ratio (or rather, the scale was ambiguous and flexible and perhaps there was no one ratio) versus 160:1 for N as we know it (but even that is not universal).
I remember seeing a tiny layout at a train show in the 1960s that was likely Lone Star stuff because I knew what TT looked like and this was smaller, but what I recall was an F unit - looking loco (vaguely F, so to speak). Never saw an 0-8-0. The stuff ran which was amazing at the time. Huge couplers. I also seem to recall that when true N took hold, but so much of the rolling stock was foreign, that there was a very brief revival of interest in old used Lone Star shells to be used at early kitbash fodder, including the old push-pull unpowered stuff. Today's collectors would shudder ....
Dave Nelson
British OO trains use HO track gauge but instead of 1:87 scale use a larger linear scale of 1:76, or 4mm to 1 foot. OOO in Britain is/was half of that, 2mm = 1 foot or as noted earlier, 1:152 scale.
However, I believe "British N scale" is generally regarded to be 1:148 scale.
I have quite a bit of Lone Star Treble O stuff from my childhood including the 0-8-0. They are definitely past the "best before" date. My 0-8-0 hit the rails last about 14 years ago when my love of MRR resurfaced. The motor fell to pieces a few days after I started running it, I believe failing bakelite holding it all together just disintegrated. Even the track is somewhat brittle and quite useless after 60 years.
I had enough to fill a 5' x 10' layout but due to the age factor, it will now stay in the box as a cherished memory. It ran great for hours on end when I was a kid. I would go to my room turn on a train and read while it plied its way around our plywood Pacific for hours.
There are some good Treble O sites that are full of info and Ebay will show you it is not worth the effort to try and sell.
I would think the original price on your loco in 1960 would be a dollar or two.
http://www.irwinsjournal.com/a1g/a1glocos/TrebleO.html
Brent
"All of the world's problems are the result of the difference between how we think and how the world works."