Those that now know my penchant for USA & Japanese stuff may be surprised to know that my first loco was a S&DJR Johnson 8F, which eventually got repainted to LMS to sit alongside my second loco, the much loved Black 5, still probably the only British loco I would buy today!

1st N gauge 'stuff' I bought was following a phone call from local hospital who told me our 'on the way' 1st child was going to need/want a train set so.............................. a quick trip into Basingstoke and came home with a brand new 1986  . GWR 57XX pannier starter set.
That engines still going strong but a bit noisey nowadays

My 1st N Gauge loco was a Farish 4F.. Still have it and runs like a dream.

Cudders

1978... Christmas.. a Lima class 31..

made me very happy despite the pancake motor.  I remember my dad Christmas morning accidentally plugging the track into the 12V uncontrolled socket, the ol 31 taking off like a startled cat, flying off the curve and and snapping a buffer!.  Amazingly I just remember laughing my head off (both of us) rather than being upset.  I have an original grafar poster from that year too, with a portrait of a black 5 on 1 side and all over the grafar offerings on the other, I have the black 5 side plaque mounted finally this year!

Graham

Langley 22xx body kit plus GF Hall chassis from Hattons over 20 years ago. The chassis needed tweaking to run any thing like smoothly and has since had a replacement GP chassis fitted during the last 5 years. Still looks good as a green GW loco as in early 30's. 

Regards

Frank

Hi,

It was only 3 year ago but it was a Grafar GP tank in LNER green. It gives off cliouds of smoke from the cab every so often but it still works.

Alex

This one -

received Christmas of 1968, and looking well played with, its gone many miles I can tell you.

A Minitrix F9A in Santa Fe 'Warbonnet' paint scheme. came in a box set Trix marketed as 'postage stamp trains'
together with five freight cars, all of which I still have.

This engine is 43 years old and still runs perfectly, though noisy and fast by modern standards.

i got duchess of hamilton and some maroon mk1 coaches when i was a child, must have been for christmas or something...

i still have them. other stock i later collected was a green class 101, a black five, a gp tank, a class 08 in green, suburban coaches, lots of private owner wagons...  the duchess of hamilton is now dcc chipped and comes out sometimes. everything else i sold to finance my new collection of 80s / 90s stock.


tim

Quote from: alex crawford on June 16, 2011, 07:29:23 PM
Hi,

It was only 3 year ago but it was a Grafar GP tank in LNER green. It gives off cliouds of smoke from the cab every so often but it still works.

Alex

Sounds like it desperately needs an overhaul....otherwise you may kill the armature...

Cheers,
Alan

First one I bought was a Farish J94, allegedly for SWMBO, with a couple of wagons for it to pull. That was about 10 years ago, and it still has hardly turned a wheel 

[/quote]

Sounds like it desperately needs an overhaul....otherwise you may kill the armature...

Cheers,
Alan
[/quote]

Apart from a couple of drops of oil, what would a service consist off?

Alex

Quote from: alex crawford on June 16, 2011, 09:04:50 PM

Apart from a couple of drops of oil, what would a service consist off?

Personally, I'd strip the whole thing down and clean and check every component (replacing anything worn where necessary) before carefully reassembling. Smoking is close to death or an indication of poor oiling that's got somewhere it shouldn't. This in turn can cause smoking and high current consumption (a motor killer through overheating). If it's an original 3 pole motored loco I'd be especially concerned as the armatures are more easily damaged on these models, and if it's smoking it may be close to cooking its armature if something isn't done to resolve this.

Best Regards,
Alan

Oh, memories!
My first N gauge purchases, well birthday presents, were:

a   class 08 in BR blue and a GP tank in southern green along with a Lima MK1 coach and 2   container wagons.
I also had a few Minitrix points and a loop of track. These were all new back in 1984!
Ran them all on a Hornby controller until my dad got a second hand H&M Duette.
These are what I started with, I've never had an   trainset!

Yep, me too, it was 1975,I bought a green Lima Brush Type 2 diesel, from Bakers Toy and Cycle shop in Aylesbury - the times I visited that shop over the years. Sadly long closed now.

I had a circle of Peco Settrack and a Minitrix box-van (BR livery but I'm sure continental deasign) to go with it.

The loco, I concur was a diabolical runner, and also, because of the way it picked up power through a sprung arrangement sat higher one end than the other! I still have the body and other bits of it, but way beyond repair - and why woud I want to anyway!

Just compare it to the Farsh Class 37 and 24 of recent release...well you can't really can you? it just makes you realise how technology has moved on...

Roy

 

My first n-gauge model was a second hand farish 47, brass geared, which amazingly still runs, it is a tad noisy but several people have commented that it sounds quite good, they have obviously never heard a real 47 running............

Stuart