Locos on Parade: a photo the Co Director hasn't seen (yet!)

Are secondhand locos to G scale railway people like shoes and handbags to (most) women: you can never have enough?  Ann is somewhat aware of these coming into the house - she can tell it's a loco by its size and weight of the parcel at the post office but even she (nor I till tonight) has seen them displayed all together.

The two red engines (see next post) cost more than the sum of all the others put together probably (one is a loco from a starter set and hard to value seperately).  I've been lucky (or patient) with assorted ebay bargains and two of these come from a deceased estate sale - a Borsig top left, and a Porter bottom right.  The Porter was an indulgence - I liked the look of it, whilst the Borsig was to enable double headed running  - I figure same engine, same gearbox, same chip, then not so much to go wrong.  Same is true of the two Stainz although they have yet to be chipped.    

Of the locos, then the two green Stainz (top right) are not chipped, as is (not) the centre Corpet Louvet.  The others are all chipped, but only the Cambrai (bottom left) and Baltic (centre row and centre) have built in sound.  There is a sound wagon that originally came with the Spreewald that will provide sound to a matching DCC ID number.  

Didn't set out to end up with this many, but various 'bargains' happened along the way.   My favourite is still probably the Spreewald. (-2-6-0) whilst Ann likes the Zillertal (0-6-2) although once the red engines are up and going then I can see her allegiance changing. Currently she wants to see one (something) with the smoke oil.... 

The Spreewald - my favourite to date

The Zillertal - Ann's favourite to date.  

   

What I should have been buying...

I've mentioned before (an early post about research and inspiration - Model Railroader ) that shunting and splitting/spotting/organising trains was an early concept behind patio rails and that still remains a major operational reason.   In the article there were blue/red/black etc wagons - which in HO/OO guage were mostly small two axle wagons that wouldn't be that big.  Of course, G scale makes everything somewhat larger, and whilst I've been buying 300 mm long stuff (alot of G scale stuff on bogies is 415mm or even longer), even that at 4-5 wagons takes up alot of space.

Recently I discovered that I could Hartland Locomotive Works mini series from Back to Bay 6.  These are coming out at approx 175mm including couplings.  The cheapest way to get them is the "take and make" kits", that involve a bit of assembly and screwing (I think I assembled mine in under ten minutes).   The goods wagon has under 20 parts (including screws).  OK, so these are never going to win prizes for detail - for example there's no buffers but the moulded detail is there on bolts etc and they are certainly going to be durable.

I got a basic wagon (as above) and an ore wagon (which is in the video with the Red Diesel).  Colours can vary and are apparently a random choice although I suspect a telephone call will give you a choice from what he has in stock.   At £12.50 each plus postage I shall be back for more of these (stake wagons and tank wagons too).   

This shows them alongside comparable LGB wagons.  

Red Diesel

One of the bargains I've picked up on Ebay on my journey so far has been an LGB "Schoema" 0-4-0 shunter which cost me the price of an LGB Sound card, and came fitted with such and was already chipped.   The front headlight has moved out of the lantern and I need to unscrew the body and replace it, but for now it's my first diesel with sound.  It's got a really nice "engine turning over" sound on the start up sequence which I like.  The video isn't the best - I think my camera doesn't do very good video under artificial light (previously it's all been daylight) but some experimentation will tell.

The still photos though are the usual excellent quality I have come to expect. 

The first truck behind this is a Hartland Locomotive ore truck, followed by some LGB ore trucks. 

This last one shows a couple of POLA figures that I bought.   To me the figure on the right is thinking something along the lines of "will the boss finish speaking to his girlfriend/wife/ex about dinner/the kids/ alimony and we can all get a move on with the job and get out of the cold and into the warmth for a  coffee".   

G scale on a budget - Part 2

More pictures of ebay bargains.  I've since discovered from the original purchase of these that the plastic footsteps on the ore wagons are very prone to break, as are the plastic framing on top of the newer tank wagons (notice break front and back).  Boxed stuff is packed with plastic inserts to protect these vulnerable parts.  The tank wagon is also missing is drain plug should I wish to fill it with water and then drain it...   A little glue may save the day and repair things though.  I understand the plastic that LGB use can be somewhat glue resistant, so I'll try plastic weld and then Araldite is probably the order of the day.

G scale on a budget - Part 1

It has been said that G scale means expensive, and like lots of statements the truth is "it depends".  Those who want live steam and super detail can pay for it.   There is also the question of "new and shiny" vs the used and 'played with'.  Prices originally looked very comparable with HO/OO scale and am discovering that I may not have compared like with like.  It may seem like I have bottomless money pit for purchases but the following illustrate how "if it looks right, and the price is right, it can be right".  Possibly it also reflects my learning about descriptions on things on Ebay, especially if unboxed.

The following are pictures of the stake wagons featured earlier.  The first one has the buffer and the (detachable) vacuum pipe for the brakes.  On the second model its lost its vacuum pipe and the the third has lost its buffer and pipe.  The effect from my viewpoint of running stuff in the garden (where the originals may well have got lost in previously) is minimal.

More on Goods loads

The original philosophy was to have 'shunting and delivery" options for actual operation.   Experience and (limited) size of garden are colouring this a bit, although the discovery of Hartland Locomotive Works' small wagons (to be covered in a later post) has again altered this, this time for a more positive experience.

Anyhow, I want to have loads that are 'delivered' and look the part.  I suppose this is my reaction to riding the Chemin der Fer in Provence when we saw milk and other produce being taken on board, and newspapers and a bicycle (wrapped) being delivered: this was a working railway dong useful stuff for people.

I had previously bought some Playmobil Milk churns, and the yellow fencing is also playmobil.  The fencing was to see "put down and take up use" on the original patio concept.  The sacks are a 1:32 item from Britains - ultimately to get the sticky label taken off, resprayed and weathered and replaced with a decal of something more appropriate, probably either fertilizer from Hydro or a building item (e.g. sand, cement).  The beer crates come from two sources- the red ones come from the back of a much smaller scale lorry, whilst the Zillertal ones are from an Austrian guy aimed at G scale modellers - presumably with the famous Zillertal Beer Keg wagon from LGB in mind (I didn't originally want Green Zillertal ones) - that a German chum got for me.  Personally I suspect that these would either be transported in a box car (to protect the bottles), or a smaller wagon as part of a mixed load for one small halt.

  

Taking Stock: Goods Vans and loads

As the saying goes "have been busy" and lots of it to do with railroads both miniature and real, so lots to appear on the blog now that I'm settled for a bit.  First up on the blog is a look at my current (plain) goods wagons.  There was an article in Model Rail International 2011 (which seems to be some sort of yearly special) about the logging industry both American and Continental (mostly Austrian/Swiss and Rhb/Zillertal) but it covered making model logging loads from real timber.   I was aware of this when I engaged on the great garden tidy up and kept back some of the wood, and have added to it more recently.  One of the important things was to use wood of roughly the same diameter within a load.

I've been bidding over time on Ebay to get a number of the stake wagons - which generally seem to be in demand - at a reasonable price.  Remains to be seen if I keep all of them as logging wagons and the logs themselves still need chains etc to secure them.  The other loads get more discussion in my next post.