A visit yesterday to the nearest branch of Hobbycraft enabled me to buy four short lengths of straight Hornby OO/HO-gauge model railway track ... and when I got home I discovered that my cheap toy train loco and rolling stock will just about run on it. (The axles and wheels are wide enough for the wheels to sit on top of the rails even though the flanges on the wheels are about 1mm inside the inner edge of the rails.)
I have begun re-modelling the locomotive ... but the results are not quite as good as I hoped. (The model doesn't look quite right, and needs another pair of wheels.)
With luck I hope to be able to buy another toy train set (or several) later today, and this should enable me to re-model the locomotive with an additional pair of wheels ... or even to build more than one.
I have begun re-modelling the locomotive ... but the results are not quite as good as I hoped. (The model doesn't look quite right, and needs another pair of wheels.)
With luck I hope to be able to buy another toy train set (or several) later today, and this should enable me to re-model the locomotive with an additional pair of wheels ... or even to build more than one.
You could fit plasticard skirts like the tramway locos and imagine it has extra wheels behind the skirts.
ReplyDeleteNobby,
ReplyDeleteWhat an excellent idea! I may well give it a go to see what it looks like.
All the best,
Bon
You could also make the curved front and rear of the footplate into 'cowcatchers' - not only found in America :0)
ReplyDeleteNobby,
ReplyDeleteThe model comes with a cowcatcher, but I removed it so that I could attach rolling stock to the front of the loco. I have - however - kept it to one side ... just in case.
All the best,
Bob
It seems to me that these little locomotives would be eminently suitable for wild, or at most semi-tamed, country. From your pictures I infer such a Continent, heavily wooded hilly, farms scattered and barely broken in, towns widely separated, but important hubs of commerce... The railways I imagine mostly the metal straps on wooden backing variety, the single steel extrusions being rare, expensive and in use only in wealthier and more settled regions. I'd keep these little tank engines as they are... just dirtied up a bit...
ReplyDeleteArchduke Piccolo,
ReplyDeleteYou have pretty well described the sort of look that I want to aim for; strong little locos that are simple and easy to maintain, pulling basic rolling stock (passenger carriages, box cars/vans, open trucks, and flatbed wagons) over lightly built tracks.
All the best,
Bob
The train looks good. I hope to be able to keep up with the blog better as a lot of interesting things have been going on.
ReplyDeleteSean,
ReplyDeleteThe loco looks all right ... but I think that it could look a bit better.
I have now managed to acquire a couple more of these cheap train sets, and I hope to write a 'How to ...' blog entry (or entries) about the re-modelling of the loco that comes with the train set so that it is a better 'fit' with my small, gridded tabletop.
All the best,
Bob