Sometimes I wish I modelled in 00

Started by silly moo, January 08, 2019, 04:09:04 PM

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Train Waiting

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'Why does the Disney Castle work so well?  Because it borrows from reality without ever slipping into it.'

(Acknowledgement: John Goodall Esq, Architectural Editor, 'Country Life'.)

The Table-Top Railway is an attempt to create, in British 'N' gauge,  a 'semi-scenic' railway in the old-fashioned style, reminiscent of the layouts of the 1930s to the 1950s.

For the made-up background to the railway and list of characters, please see here: https://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=38281.msg607991#msg607991

railsquid

Quote from: tutenkhamunsleeping on January 09, 2019, 01:09:48 PM
Must confess I've pre-ordered an Accurascale Deltic in OO.

Given that the scaled-down Bachmann OO effort is still a relatively recent release in N, my thinking was that the chances of a better shaped N model of this iconic beast before I pop my cloggs are pretty slim!

Now you mention it, I have a TT-scale Deltic  :D


Lima Class 55 (Deltic) D9003 "Meld" by Rail Squid, on Flickr

chrismann

Yes as someone just getting back into railway modelling I made the decision to go for N gauge based on limited space available, but there is undoubtedly a much wider range of RTR stuff available in OO/HO...

My interest is the LMS and I was slightly surprised to find that the choice of RTR locos in LMS livery is limited compared to what's available in OO - even the LMS locos that are available in N tend to be in BR early/late livery not LMS.

I presume it reflects what people generally model, and the fact that OO is clearly a much more popular scale, and has the "toy" market to back it up.

BTW I am not from the LMS era myself although I can just remember the last few years of BR steam when I was very small!!  :D


barnyswain


PLD

Quote from: chrismann on January 15, 2019, 10:23:45 AMMy interest is the LMS and I was slightly surprised to find that the choice of RTR locos in LMS livery is limited compared to what's available in OO - even the LMS locos that are available in N tend to be in BR early/late livery not LMS.
:hmmm:
The LMS is in fact the best served of the 'big 4' by the big two RTR manufacturers; and for every loco produced for which LMS livery is appropriate, LMS livery was one of the first batch of releases! Admittedly not all liveries are constantly readily available, from the big name retailers, but they certainly have been produced and can usually be found with a bit of searching...

chrismann

#35
Quote from: PLD on January 15, 2019, 07:39:54 PM
Quote from: chrismann on January 15, 2019, 10:23:45 AMMy interest is the LMS and I was slightly surprised to find that the choice of RTR locos in LMS livery is limited compared to what's available in OO - even the LMS locos that are available in N tend to be in BR early/late livery not LMS.
:hmmm:
The LMS is in fact the best served of the 'big 4' by the big two RTR manufacturers; and for every loco produced for which LMS livery is appropriate, LMS livery was one of the first batch of releases! Admittedly not all liveries are constantly readily available, from the big name retailers, but they certainly have been produced and can usually be found with a bit of searching...

You may be right about what's been produced in recent years but is now discontinued, I don't know, but right now Graham Farish only offer the Jinty tank and the Fairburn tank in LMS livery (and the not yet released 8F). Dapol have zero LMS locos listed on their website at present (not even in BR livery). Whereas Dapol offer five GWR locos, three Southern and three LNER.

I guess they are simply offering what people currently want to buy. :)

On the plus side I did manage to find a Farish "Black 5" in LMS black at Peter's Spares... maybe I need to hang out on eBay a bit more!




Newportnobby

@chrismann
Check out Union Mills (no website) who currently have in stock

0-6-0 tender loco 'Cauliflower' in LMS black
0-8-0 tender loco G2 'Super D' in LMS black
4-4-0 2P class in LMS black

chrismann

Quote from: Newportnobby on January 15, 2019, 09:20:12 PM
@chrismann
Check out Union Mills (no website) who currently have in stock

0-6-0 tender loco 'Cauliflower' in LMS black
0-8-0 tender loco G2 'Super D' in LMS black
4-4-0 2P class in LMS black

Thank you - I didn't know about Union Mills, I will investigate...

jamespetts

In the garden shed that I have recently had built specifically for railway modelling, I am planning to have two layouts, separated vertically: at the upper level, an OO gauge layout set in the 1930s and at the lower level an N gauge layout set in the 1980s.

Had there been sufficient ready to run rolling stock available for the 1930s in N gauge, I should have had both in N gauge, as, for any given space, one can fit so much more layout into N gauge. Even with an aircraft hanger, one can still fit twice as much in with N gauge.

N gauge has decent availability for what I am planning on modelling (western region BR in the late 1980s), but availability is poor for anything pre-war and inconsistent for other time periods and regions.
Peertube > Youtube

paulprice

Quote from: chrismann on January 15, 2019, 10:23:45 AM
Yes as someone just getting back into railway modelling I made the decision to go for N gauge based on limited space available, but there is undoubtedly a much wider range of RTR stuff available in OO/HO...

My interest is the LMS and I was slightly surprised to find that the choice of RTR locos in LMS livery is limited compared to what's available in OO - even the LMS locos that are available in N tend to be in BR early/late livery not LMS.

I presume it reflects what people generally model, and the fact that OO is clearly a much more popular scale, and has the "toy" market to back it up.

BTW I am not from the LMS era myself although I can just remember the last few years of BR steam when I was very small!!  :D

Don't give up on modelling the LMS, if I can do it anyone can, with a little patience you can build up quite a locomotive collection. At the last count I have managed over 20 different classes

Paddy

Interesting topic...

Pre Bachmann taking over Graham Farish I would have said "yes" - space permitting.  However, I would say in terms of looks the current generation of N gauge is almost as good as OO.  There are some models in OO I would love to have e.g. Duke of Gloucester.

However, I do not have the physical space to model what I want in OO.  HOLLERTON JUNCTION is 5'x3' in N Gauge so I would need a 10'x6' board in OO (approx.).  I do often wonder where all these OO models go - there must be people out there with a lot of space.

In pure modelling terms I would not now move away from N.  The choice and quality is excellent IMHO.  However, the old eyes are not what they were.  :(

Paddy
HOLLERTON JUNCTION (SHED 13C)
London Midland Region
http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=11342.0


BARRIES'S TRAIN SHED - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChVzVVov7HJOrrZ6HRvV2GA

Paddy

Quote from: martyn on January 08, 2019, 06:19:19 PM
Come to think of it, I've frequently thought that 3mm was possibly the best scale; big enough to give reasonable detail, but still small enough to get an appreciable amount of railway in a given area.

Martyn

Agreed Martyn.  I think a British TT system would be almost perfect.

Paddy
HOLLERTON JUNCTION (SHED 13C)
London Midland Region
http://www.ngaugeforum.co.uk/SMFN/index.php?topic=11342.0


BARRIES'S TRAIN SHED - HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChVzVVov7HJOrrZ6HRvV2GA

Newportnobby

Quote from: chrismann on January 15, 2019, 09:28:23 PM
Quote from: Newportnobby on January 15, 2019, 09:20:12 PM
@chrismann
Check out Union Mills (no website) who currently have in stock

0-6-0 tender loco 'Cauliflower' in LMS black
0-8-0 tender loco G2 'Super D' in LMS black
4-4-0 2P class in LMS black

Thank you - I didn't know about Union Mills, I will investigate...

@chrismann I see the LMS black Jinty (Farish 372-210A) is now in the shops

chrismann

Thank you - I had thought about the Jinty, and I may still get one, though my understanding is they were used more for shunting in goods yards and as a pilot at bigger stations, rather than being in regular use on branch lines - I may be wrong, I need to do more research on that!!

Since I last posted I've managed to find a Farish Black 5 and an (older) 4P Compound in LMS livery, so I'm getting there.  :D

There's no mad rush as I'm still to finish my baseboards (working on those today) and then I need to finalise the track layout and start putting some track down. Can't decide whether to go for some of the fancier point motors such as Tortoise or Cobalt, but that's a topic for another thread!

Thanks for all the suggestions!

Les1952

#44
As someone who followed a 10-foot exhibition layout in N (Hawthorn Dene) with a 5-foot scenic layout in OO (NO PLACE) I'm not that likely to do another OO layout any time soon. Indeed NO PLACE was followed by another N-gauge ten-footer (Croft Spa) which is making its exhibition debut at Sileby in mid-Feb.

OO is not easier to get running than N.  There is more slop in the back-to-back which makes lining up couplings more difficult with short wheelbase locos.  Locos fall off poor track and split point frogs on tight radius points more easily.  EM and P4 cure these at the expense of space and price.

On the other hand getting small locos with sound is nice, though I wish you had a reliable option to fade diesels in when starting without going through the loco start sequence every time you switch the sound on.  How does one convincee a punter that the diesel entering the layout has come half a mile down a branch line when it announces it hasn't by starting its engine six inches away from appearing on the layout?


There are actually locos in N that you just can't get in OO, courtesy of Union Mills.  These include the Gresley J38, the ex-NER J25, J26 and J27, and LNWR Cauliflower 0-6-0s, the ex-NER D20 4-4-0, and the ex-GNR 0-8-0.   A real bonus for me as a North Eastern Region modeller when not doing German.


What am I going to follow Croft Spa with?  Five feet scenic again.  Probably German, and maybe HO.  Why HO rather than OO?  I hace a Roco Glaskastern 0-4-0T and a tiny Fleischmann 0-4-0 well tank which are both factory fitted with sound.  Their trackholding is far superior to most of my OO locos and it would be a shame not to give them a layout of their own.  However the final decision is a lot of months away, so who knows?


BTW- the best OO 0-4-0 I have is the Dapol B4 by a mile- a real bruiser of a loco with compensation which means it is sure footed and slow running is a treat, even over dead frogs.  A shame it looks a little odd shunting a North Eastern colliery........

Les


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