1977...
(http://i753.photobucket.com/albums/xx178/glencoyne/img002_zps9dc642b6.jpg)
Anyone else remember those Farish U-bend couplings? They really were quite spectacularly rubbish...
Got a set of Farish Pullmans with them on, was going to see if I can convert them to NEM, probably need to change the wheels as well as they are real pizza cutters.
I wasn't happy with these U-bend couplings, they were Farish's response to Arnold who devised the Rapido couplings which became a common standard, but Arnold patented the sprung assembly and wanted royalties for the exact reproduction of their design.
Peco got round their patent by not including a coupler spring on their wagons and Fleischmann mounted their couplings in a coupler box which used a thin sheet of metal acting as a spring.
Ah, thems were the days... :'( cue violins ;)
I remember my Grafar Pannier Tank. It used to belt along the track at Mach 1 until it got to a point whereupon the coupling rods would fall off.
They don't know they're born today... :no:
Ah, the good old days, when we only got to see new products when they actually arrived in the shops!
When the Black 5 came out (not 1977 I know) it took me 21 Saturdays of gardening for an old lady to pay for one :)
I had more money for trains as a teenager than I do now :hmmm:
Best regards
Michael
A FREE brochure???!!! Those must have been the days; brochures are about £8 now!
The Black 5 appeared in 1978 - that will be the 'exciting announcement' the ad mentions. Spawned a whole generation of badly cast whitemetal kits with slightly odd proportions. And it still wasn't as good as a Peco Jubilee. Not surprising perhaps - the Jubilee was retailing around £22 with discount in 1977 - £120 in today's money. I love the way that even in the ad the couplings don't line up, the buffer heights don't match and the wagon axleboxes are massively out of line with the ends of the axles.
Quote from: belstone on June 14, 2014, 12:25:22 PM
I love the way that even in the ad the couplings don't line up, the buffer heights don't match and the wagon axleboxes are massively out of line with the ends of the axles.
Which is why when I unearthed my old model railway box from the loft 18 months ago, there wasn't one Graham Farish wagon, they were all Peco...