All drifting off topic and time for closing down..... unless, of course.... we answer the question which is bugging me.....

The OLDEST commercial  N gauge model.... I'll put me money on Arnold.

Quote from: Bealman on October 13, 2015, 10:38:45 AM
All drifting off topic and time for closing down..... unless, of course.... we answer the question which is bugging me.....

The OLDEST commercial  N gauge model.... I'll put me money on Arnold.

If you are thinking of the model itself rather than the prototype being modelled then the accolade must surely go to the Bing set dating from 1912, and therefore half a century before Arnold. One version comprised a "George The Fifth" 4-4-0 locomotive and three-axle tender, in lined green, accompanied by three four-axle passenger coaches - two 1st/2nd/3rd in lined blue and red and one LNWR 1st/3rd in chocolate and cream, in a card box. One came up at Christie's in 2006 and sold for about £300.



Another version comprised the same loco in LNWR black livery with three coaches and a brake van all in lined plum & spilt milk livery, contained in a red Bing card box. This photo is from the LNWR set at the Brighton Toy Museum which seems to have an extra brake van. One came up on eBay in 2012 and sold for a similar sum as the one auctioned at Christie's.



The model has an approximately nine millimetre wheelbase but was not designed to run on rails.

Quote from: maridunian on October 13, 2015, 10:59:38 AM

Quote from: gc4946 on October 09, 2015, 06:54:24 AM
Possibly Minitrix's Der Adler boxed train pack.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MINITRIX-N-GAUGE-LIMITED-EDITION-DER-ADLER-SET-/131051237714

Der Adler was built in 1835 for the Nürnberg-Fürth railway.

Der Adler was of course built in Newcastle, and "By 1838 the type had become the standard passenger design by Robert Stephenson and Company" - from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patentee_locomotive

Mike

One of them, the Harvey Combe ,was used in the construction of the London to Birmingham.   About halfway down this link there is an engraving of it in Berkhamsted, a few yards from where I live.

http://gerald-massey.org.uk/Railway/c12_locomotive_(II).htm

Cheers  Jon 

Interesting illustration, were the earliest passenger coaches just horsedrawn stagecoaches
put onto a rail chassis?

Quote from: Agrippa on October 13, 2015, 12:15:10 PM
Interesting illustration, were the earliest passenger coaches just horsedrawn stagecoaches
put onto a rail chassis?

Yes, some were. The design of the first true passenger coaches also owed a lot to horsedrawn carriages.

Quote from: keithfre on October 13, 2015, 01:17:00 PM

Quote from: Agrippa on October 13, 2015, 12:15:10 PM
Interesting illustration, were the earliest passenger coaches just horsedrawn stagecoaches
put onto a rail chassis?

Yes, some were. The design of the first true passenger coaches also owed a lot to horsedrawn carriages.

This is why we often speak of carriages (and wagons) to this very day and the 4' 8¹/₂" gauge also derives from horse-drawn times. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_gauge

Mike