Lone Star - 000

[Mirrlees]

Did not realise this booklet existed but here it is 

I believe, but will stand corrected, that N Gauge and N scale, evolved from this.




Cheers

[Oldman]

If I remember rightly the buildings were a sort of rubbery plastic.

[Bartercode]

The layout on the cover is the Inversnecky & Drambuie Railway (or something like that), part of which still exists at the NRM

[silly moo]

That layout is scrathbuilt I think, quite an undertaking in the '60s with the materials that were available to railway modellers then, balsa wood, sawdust, card and glue.

The Lone Star 000 models that were available at the time were quite crude and in the beginning weren't motorized, so he probably scratch built his locos and rolling stock too.

Have you got the actual booklet? It would be interesting to see what's inside.

[railsquid]

The N gauge society handbook reprints a couple of pre-war articles, the earliest from 1927, detailing some 2mm scale (motorised!) scratchbuilt trains and layouts, that and what I vaguely remember reading elsewhere indicates British 2mm/N-scale is much older than Lone Star. I believe Lone Star produced the first British RTR N gauge locomotives. I agree with silly moo that the picture on the booklet shows probably a scratch-built layout, it certainly looks much more sophisticated than Lone Star (who I'm fairly certain never produced kettles). I'd be interested to see the booklet too.

See also this thread.

(FWIW here's 50-ish years of N gauge history side by side):

[silly moo]

Lone Star never produced Ready to Run kettles only push along ones. I think the size of available motors had a lot to do with the choice of 1:148 scale. It must have been very difficult to motorise the early scratch built 2mm scale locos.

I bet the early scrathbuilders would be amazed to see how N has progressed over the years, I think locos like the Dapol Terrier and Minitrix Glaskasten would knock their socks off 

[Nigel Cliffe]

As others have said, the layout on the picture is the Inversnecky, there are a few photos on the 2mm website of this seminal layout, and a description written RWG Bryant who built the layout.  The Inversnecky was scratchbuilt, begun in the 1940's.
http://www.2mm.org.uk/articles/inversnecky/index.htm

LoneStar stuff was somewhat cruder. 

The Carter booklet is worth a read, though I wouldn't spend a lot of money on a copy.  It gives the impression that some of the methods advanced by Carter were theoretical, not actually tested, and probably wouldn't work.  Oh, and you can't run double track because when two locos pass, the magnets in the motors will cause both to stick together, remember that when planning your N gauge layout, its an easy beginner's mistake !

N gauge wasn't an evolution of LoneStar.  LoneStar stuff is not compatible with N.  The LoneStar products just died out due to lack of development. 
N was developed in Germany by Arnold, and owes very little, if anything, to the 000 products of the UK.  In the late 1960's, mechanically decent N items from Germany were available, and Pritchard (owner of Peco) decided to put considerably effort behind N, making track and wagons, announcing several locos (though only making one of them), decided on a new scale of 1:148. And, thus we have British N. 

2mmFS evolved from the earlier 000 scale, which was a scratchbuilder's approach in the 1950's and first half of the 1960s. The stated scale for scratchbuilding was 1:152 (2mm/ft).  The impact of the Groves' finescale track and wheel standard, now known as 2FS, and the Groves' layout and locos caused people to change to it very rapidly, abandoning the older 000 track dimensions.  The 2mm Scale Association pre-dates Arnold's N gauge, and the 2FS finescale track and wheel standard pre-dates British N gauge by quite a few years.


-  Nigel

[violets49]

Thats odd Nigel, My earliest attempts at serious railway modelling was lone star ooo and as time went on I added other 9mm gauge stuff and they all worked very well together. Naturally the lone star stuff was disposed of as better models became available but they worked well with the later N stuff. I doubt though, if they would cope with modern N scale track but neither would LIMA.

[ODRAILS]

Thats odd Nigel, My earliest attempts at serious railway modelling was lone star ooo and as time went on I added other 9mm gauge stuff and they all worked very well together. Naturally the lone star stuff was disposed of as better models became available but they worked well with the later N stuff. I doubt though, if they would cope with modern N scale track but neither would LIMA.

My first N gauge experiences in the early 1970s were with a Lone Star 000 Baby Deltic (which was very robust) and a Farish 94xx pannier (which wasn't and it's chassis fell apart). After the Farish experience it took me over 40 years to try N gauge again !

[Ian Bowden]

Way back in 1966 my school model railway society had a lone star OOO setup. I didn't do much with it but I do remember the motor drive was fed by rubber bands from the motor to the wheels.

[70000]

Lone Star never produced Ready to Run kettles only push along ones.

I had a number of the push-a-long Lone Star trains from the 1960's (bought from Woolworths) but somewhere I have a listing of the Treble-O-Lectric stock which includes a motorised Indiana Harbor Belt 0-8-0. I think the tender was powered rather than the locomotive though.

[colpatben]

As others have said, the layout on the picture is the Inversnecky, there are a few photos on the 2mm website of this seminal layout, and a description written RWG Bryant who built the layout.  The Inversnecky was scratchbuilt, begun in the 1940's.
http://www.2mm.org.uk/articles/inversnecky/index.htm

-  Nigel

Guitar or Mandolin Case layouts is this a new challenge for those who build Box File layouts and similar  ?

[Bealman]

i had a push along set when I was very young, quite extensive, if I recall. I remember the track fitting together with it's built in ballast.

Like Triang standard track, and today's Kato!

[Bob Tidbury]

One year there was a display at T I N G S with a complete layout ,on the top was a big sign saying that lone star ooo was in fact the first D C C as you pushed it along with your digit.
Bob Tidbury

[Bealman]

 

Genuine Ha Ha!

Good one, Bob!