As mentioned in Workbench I have been dismantling old hand built 0 gauge track, my original plan was to re use this for gauge 3 track, but the hassle of pulling it all apart has scuppered that plan now. In any case the points on reflection are too tight for G3 so Cliffe Barker track will be used with some of this bullhead with chairs and sleepers hand built to be used in 2 sidings. The old 0 gauge track has found a new home inside the forum.
But this got me thinking about how lucky we are with all the RTR track from Peco, LGB, Trainline45, Piko, Aristocraft, 10mm and no doubt others not listed here. Many are compatible or at least can be joined by suitable conversion fishplates.
But go back to before these, LGB and Peco, what did people use in 0 and 1. Well in the 50’s about your only option was to hand build it yourself using hand cut sleepers, individual chairs with around Code 220 bullhead rail. I suspect that Bonds or Bassett Lowke had builders of track for you if you were well healed enough. I had this type of track for my first Garden Railway (c1972-78), 16mm scale using second hand 0 scale 32mm gauge track. Very well it lasted as well before I moved most of it on to another Garden Railway man, saving some odd lengths of rail for sundry projects at the time. Pulling apart some of the track I have here now highlighted some of the many options that existed for this type of track.
There are 4 types of chair in this view with 3 types of fishplate some brass and steel rail with a couple of sleepers. The 4 kinds of chairs are:-
Too Left W&H plastic variety, probably comparatively new but W&H not existed for getting on 3 decades now.
Top Right Cast White-metal, these were pretty well dominant in those days.
Bottom Left Stamped Steel
Bottom Right Cast White-metal with a wooden chok
2 of the fishplates are Brass with the middle one being steel, note the imitation bolts on these something that we still rarely see today in any scale.
Construction involves cutting out or buying if you could sleepers, threading the rail onto the chairs around 30 to the yard thus 60 chairs per yard. Pinning the chairs to spaced sleepers (around 30 to the yard) then pinning into place with 120 pins. That is just 1 yard, forget the complexities of having to make point frogs, file the blades and likely do a jog in the stock rail plus making the point lever and all its attendant complexities with making it work well and all to correct gauge. I guess in our NG scale we would be a bit better off needing less of everything with around 24 sleepers to the yard. Some of the track has larger spacing between sleepers, likely for use in tunnels or out of view? Everything wood outside needed a good coat of Creosote (unavailable now) and a redo of that preservative almost every year.
But then there was this:-
This is the masochist construction required for the chairs with the wooden chocs, imagine pinning all those chairs down threading the rail into place then adding the chocs. Chocs to the outside of the rail together with all the attendant servicing outside between each running session. I got fed up with track cleaning, with this type of track I reckon I would have given up the ghost of trying to run a railway years ago.
Tis no wonder that many opted to stay with Clockwork or Live Steam in those early days, but there were a few stalwarts that did powered track using Brass Rail mostly with 3 rail or perhaps stud contact for powering the trains.
Indeed the hobby has moved on in my lifetime.
But this got me thinking about how lucky we are with all the RTR track from Peco, LGB, Trainline45, Piko, Aristocraft, 10mm and no doubt others not listed here. Many are compatible or at least can be joined by suitable conversion fishplates.
But go back to before these, LGB and Peco, what did people use in 0 and 1. Well in the 50’s about your only option was to hand build it yourself using hand cut sleepers, individual chairs with around Code 220 bullhead rail. I suspect that Bonds or Bassett Lowke had builders of track for you if you were well healed enough. I had this type of track for my first Garden Railway (c1972-78), 16mm scale using second hand 0 scale 32mm gauge track. Very well it lasted as well before I moved most of it on to another Garden Railway man, saving some odd lengths of rail for sundry projects at the time. Pulling apart some of the track I have here now highlighted some of the many options that existed for this type of track.
There are 4 types of chair in this view with 3 types of fishplate some brass and steel rail with a couple of sleepers. The 4 kinds of chairs are:-
Too Left W&H plastic variety, probably comparatively new but W&H not existed for getting on 3 decades now.
Top Right Cast White-metal, these were pretty well dominant in those days.
Bottom Left Stamped Steel
Bottom Right Cast White-metal with a wooden chok
2 of the fishplates are Brass with the middle one being steel, note the imitation bolts on these something that we still rarely see today in any scale.
Construction involves cutting out or buying if you could sleepers, threading the rail onto the chairs around 30 to the yard thus 60 chairs per yard. Pinning the chairs to spaced sleepers (around 30 to the yard) then pinning into place with 120 pins. That is just 1 yard, forget the complexities of having to make point frogs, file the blades and likely do a jog in the stock rail plus making the point lever and all its attendant complexities with making it work well and all to correct gauge. I guess in our NG scale we would be a bit better off needing less of everything with around 24 sleepers to the yard. Some of the track has larger spacing between sleepers, likely for use in tunnels or out of view? Everything wood outside needed a good coat of Creosote (unavailable now) and a redo of that preservative almost every year.
But then there was this:-
This is the masochist construction required for the chairs with the wooden chocs, imagine pinning all those chairs down threading the rail into place then adding the chocs. Chocs to the outside of the rail together with all the attendant servicing outside between each running session. I got fed up with track cleaning, with this type of track I reckon I would have given up the ghost of trying to run a railway years ago.
Tis no wonder that many opted to stay with Clockwork or Live Steam in those early days, but there were a few stalwarts that did powered track using Brass Rail mostly with 3 rail or perhaps stud contact for powering the trains.
Indeed the hobby has moved on in my lifetime.
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