Craziest N Gauge RTR Models

Adam1701D · January 28, 2011, 08:03:02 PM

What was the strangest bit of RTR N Gauge you've ever seen...?

My favourites have to be the Lima Class 31 in RENFE Green and Yellow livery, their German V100 in BR Green or blue and the Graham Farish Class 56 (any livery)...

Tank · January 28, 2011, 08:13:01 PM

For me it has to be the Lima Shunter in BR Blue livery. Why they ever thought it would be a good idea to produce such a terrible loco I'll never know!

tadpole · January 28, 2011, 11:19:38 PM

In a similar vein, there is a US switcher that appears in Dutch NS livery masquerading as a class 2200. I bought one in holland thinking it was an interesting one off, but recently saw and won and one another one on eBay. Like BR's 20s (which they sort of resemble) they usually worked in pairs or even threes/fours.

The models however, look nothing like the real thing, and grafar's class 20 would've been a better lookalike. I'm not sure who makes the model, but it runs much better than a farish (Poole) class 20.

poliss · January 28, 2011, 11:40:25 PM

If the Lima loco is the one I'm thinking of then it's based on the American, Plymouth Locomotive Works MDT 40T.
http://www.northeast.railfan.net/images/plyMDT.jpg

zwilnik · January 28, 2011, 11:46:48 PM

The main thing with the Lima one was that it's massively out of scale. It's almost useable as a H0n model

Adam1701D · January 29, 2011, 10:40:05 AM

A lot of Lima stuff was way overscale to accommodate the pancake motor bogie, especially the 31 and Deltic. Kind of a pity, because the quality of the moulding was excellent - way better than the newer GF stuff.

Bernard Taylor actually grafted a set of Lima roof grilles into a Farish 55, with amazing results.

D306Whistler · February 04, 2011, 07:13:58 PM

Does the MicroAce Nankai Rapi:t Series 50000 Kansai Airport Express qualify?

. The design is outragious but I love it!

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Lawrence · February 04, 2011, 08:17:46 PM

Quote from: D306Whistler on February 04, 2011, 07:13:58 PM
Does the MicroAce Nankai Rapi:t Series 50000 Kansai Airport Express qualify? . The design is outragious but I love it! .

Quite a stunning train that whistler, I notice from another thread you have one, not that I'm jealous of course

D306Whistler · February 12, 2011, 04:49:02 AM

Hymek & Nankai Series 50000 by class60008, on Flickr
Sorry I couldn't resist

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Tank · February 12, 2011, 10:27:17 AM

What a strange looking train!

Adam1701D · February 12, 2011, 12:43:58 PM

Wow, that should be a James Bond supervillain's personal train.

D306Whistler · February 12, 2011, 03:09:03 PM

Aye! You see, I told you the design was crazy!

. All in all, when I first saw the trains on YouTube (and in a JRS Bulletin mag) the cab looked like a Le Mans Racing driver's helmet that was bolted onto a train body that was converted from a space-station walkway. But since then, the design has grown on me and I love these trains

. Very futuristic considering they were built in 1994/1995 when Kansai International Airport was first opened in 1994

.

Claude Dreyfus · February 12, 2011, 08:36:57 PM

Against your Kansai, I play my EF55...

This is another Micro Ace model of a type of loco introduced to the Tokaido line in 1936. The streamlined front and lining on the nose gives this a real art Deco feeling. The EF55 was used on express services, however being a small class - only number three examples - were replaced by the 1950s. The fact they needed a turntable did not help - despite having two cab ends (the other being a standard design flat front)...think of it as a 1930s class 91; without the push-pull. By the way, EF55-1 (which is the basis of this model) was retained for tourist trains by JR Eastern until only a couple of years ago before retirement to a museum - I think it was as late as 2009.

Just as a further aside on the Rap:t; this was one of the very few trains to be designed by an architect - the same guy who designed all the stations along the route. Sadly, no photographs can do the depth of the dark blue livery any justice.

D306Whistler · February 12, 2011, 09:08:22 PM

Thats a nice classic machine, well advanced for its day and years ahead of the most of the world as the UK only had the London Underground trains that were electric apart from the old trams and the trollybuses. The rest of it was steam. Germany was only just making the first gen diesel railcars in the shape of the "Flying Hamburger". Now if the EF55 did have push/pull equipment, I don't think steam traction would have lasted as long as it did and there would have probably been fewer diesel locomotives built apart from areas where electric traction is not viable/or prohibited from high risk areas such as gas works or oil refineries where a spark from the OLE or third rail could cause a fire or an explosion.

poliss · February 12, 2011, 10:32:02 PM

The UK might have been mostly steam, but up here in Geordieland we had electric trains in 1905. http://www.lner.info/locos/Electric/es1.shtml
The London, Brighton & South Coast Railway had a full public service of the electric trains in 1909.
Switzerland had the Krokodil which started running in 1919. The USA had the EP-2 'Bipolar' on the Milwakee Road which also started in 1919. The Pennsylvania RR had the GG-1 which started running in 1934.

There were many other electric railways as this page first published in 1935 will show. http://mikes.railhistory.railfan.net/r066.html