Icons of N gauge

[PLD]

Agree with many of the above:

Rolling stock - it is those items that brought something new to the market so yes to:

Peco "wonderful wagons" - a little dated now but at the time the widest and most comprehensive range in the scale.
Peco/Riverossi Jubilee - So far ahead of it's time.
Dapol 48xx - not a great model in itself, but the first from a new entrant who went on to become the second biggest supplier. That competition is what drove Farish on to ever higher standards.
Farish Jubilee - Farish's response to Dapol's entry to the market.

People:
Andy Calvert - Many fine and varied layouts plus in his time as the N-gauge society Trade Officer responsible for the development of the Society range of kits.

Layouts:
I'll nominate
Andy Calvert's 'Nether Stowey' - for me that was the layout that proved that shunting WAS a viable prospect in N-gauge even with late 80s/early 90s locos if they were properly maintained.
'Kinlett Wharf' - overhead electrics done to a standard that put most 4mm attempts to shame.
'Littledale' (I think certainly "little" something) Settle & Carlisle based on the circuit in the early 1990s - the first layout I saw that really put the trains in the landscape.

[Karhedron]

I would add Vale of Oxbury to the list of iconic layouts. A lovely railway in a landscape.

[gc4946]

The "icons" I would nominate for because they marked milestones in British N gauge over the years:

Peco's Fairburn and Hymek loco body kits - in the 60s, allowed models of British prototypes, albeit using continental European chassis, for those who only had a modicum of skill;

Wrenn/Lima's range, first introduced mid-late 60s;

Peco/Rivarossi's Jubilee, launched late 60s;

Farish's Holden tank and 94XX, in 1970/71;

Farish's "new" metal 0-6-0 chassis launched with the 94XX, late 70s;

CJM's renditions of several diesel classes from the mid-80s, using flywheel-driven chassis and other refinements;

Dapol's 14xx launched in 2003, first new loco by them in N;

Peco's 2251 0-6-0 - first mass-produced British outline DCC factory fitted loco;

Farish's Jubilee - the first of the all-new Blue Riband locos (with tender drive)

Farish's WD Austerity - first mass-produced British outline loco fitted with coreless motor.

[oreamnos]

Bassenthwaite Lake by Don Annison.  IMHO the best representation ever of open water on a layout.

An "icon" for the wrong reasons - Poole's "one-size-fits-all" wheelbase for all it's Co-Co diesels, and I think you can even add the Class 40 1Co-Co1 and the Class 31 A1A-A1A to that list, too.  The upshot was it meant that when a gear inevitably split you could easily cannibalize one from any other loco.

Matt

[Adam1701D]

I would also like to nomimate the Graham Farish Black 5 of 1978 - the locomotive that launched a thousand kits!

[Paddy]

I would add Graham Farish's DELTIC Prototype DP1.  Never thought we would see a RTR version of that loco especially to the detail/quality of what was delivered.

Kind regards

Paddy
Dream It | Believe It | Achieve It

[Chetcombe]

Great idea for a thread

For me the Hornby Minitrix diesels were indestructably reliable, so I nominate the Warship and the Class 27 (and yes I know 'indestructably' is a made up word, but it seems to be an appropriate description!).

From the modern era it has to be the Blue Pullman - it is superb

And finally one that hasn't been nominated by anyone else so far and that is the NGF itself. As an overseas based British outline modeller, it has provided me with indispensable help and advice. I am sure the same applies to UK based folks as well!

[ohlavache]

It's not British N gauge, but one iconic locomotive for me is definitely Minitrix PtL 2/2.

http://kbaystsb.blogspot.fr/2007/12/minitrix-12017-ptl-22.html
http://kpev.blogspot.fr/2008/06/minitrix-12005-t2.html

In the 90s I was impressed, and I'm still.

For British N gauge, I would say Dapol's Bubblecars.
And my heart would also choose Union Mills' Adams.

[NeMo]

I would add Vale of Oxbury to the list of iconic layouts. A lovely railway in a landscape.

Indeed it is very pretty, and exquisitely elegant in build. But for some reason I can't quite explain, when I got to see it in the flesh at Railex (Aylesbury) last year I didn't love it as much as I thought I would. Possibly the operations were just a bit slow for my taste. Maybe its the vast open spaces of remarkably uniform fields without much going on in them. Not sure.

Cheers, NeMo

[REGP]

I would also like to nomimate the Graham Farish Black 5 of 1978 - the locomotive that launched a thousand kits!

That's the one that started me on N Gauge, I still have it and it still runs (after several repairs that is).

So I certainly nominate it as an icon!

Ray

[Claude Dreyfus]

My twopenneth...I'll freely admit a number of these have already been chosen (the same reasons), but then again, they're icons aren't they?

The Minitrix Warship/class 27 - ubiquitous, ultra reliable and seemingly indestructible
The PECO Jubilee - way ahead of its time in terms of reliability and detail
The generic Farish 'big Four' carriage - still the starting point for scratch building and conversions
The Fleischmann DB class 218 - Although early, it seemed to find its way onto so many UK layouts as the 'visitor' in the 70s and the 80s - probably because it was so much more reliable than anything else available at the time!
The Kato Eurostar - okay it was 1/160, but a model of such quality of a prototype operating in the UK marked it out as something special
The Farish building range - they may have been crude, but how many of us started our modelling with these simple, but neat kits?
The Viking Porsche 911, Audi 100, VW 411 and Ford Capri set - how many of these were sold?

[D1042 Western Princess]

For me the Hornby Minitrix diesels were indestructably reliable, so I nominate the Warship

An underrated machine which would pull a house (almost literally).
I once deliberately tried to make it slip just to see how much it could pull - 15 coaches around TWO 180 degree first radius Peco Setrack curves without a problem. I couldn't try more as the back coach was no more than ABOUT 3 INCHES from the loco!
P/S Does anyone know how much that model could pull before it slipped (on straight, level track)?

[Pengi]

Agree with Kato Eurostar and the Blue Pullman.

Also would add the Kato tram systems (track and trams) and Kato track itself.

[paulprice]

What about the PECO wagon kits, even my ham fisted Cousin who was a die hard 00 fan could put one together that ran, but could not build a 00 kit to save his life.

[railsquid]

Also would add the Kato tram systems (track and trams) and Kato track itself.

Hmm, not quite British? They'd definitely feature on a Japanese list.