I wonder how many of us got a train set for Christmas!..........

[David Holman]

Much as modern Lego is impressive, their kits to build specific models are both a backward step and very expensive. Guess it is good for business, but in my day, the whole point was about creating your own stuff. We made ships and aeroplanes and, when various types of wheels appeared, railway and road vehicles too.

 There was also the brilliant "Legotechnic" - kits aimed at schools. We had several of each in my class. Motorised and unmotorised, they allowed you to explore simple concepts like levers, pulleys and gears. In the latter case, a couple of bright sparks put all the gears together in a train that produced ratios into  seven figures and we then did the maths to work out how long it would take for the wheel at the far end to turn! Happy days, before the National Curriculum, of course.

 Am sure Lego was part of my scratchbuilding education. Didn't realise it at the time, but definitely helped me learn how to visualise a model's construction. Shame I missed out on other stuff - could easily have been a rock star instead of failed triangle player...

[Georgeconna]

why do things like the above loco in your mind look great but when you see a picture of the model it looks awful!! must of been some imagination in operation, I had a black loco and 2 coaches with the blue track. 

Magnetic couplings too ala Hunt.

Edited December 22, 2022 by Georgeconna

[Broithe]

2 hours ago, David Holman said:

...could easily have been a rock star instead of failed triangle player...

We still have time to form a band...

My sole excursion into the world of public performance involved playing a triangle.

When the bit where I was required to 'play' it arrived, I struck it at exactly the right moment...

... and the string broke.

[Bob229]

16 hours ago, leslie10646 said:

Hate to say ANYTHING good about the French, but the TGV was a class train.

A lot better than the rubbish we're asked to travel in the in The Kingdom

Agree fantastic train lucky to have travelled on a few times one of my favourite you get some fright when two TGV pass each other on the high speed line

[DJ Dangerous]

3 hours ago, David Holman said:

Much as modern Lego is impressive, their kits to build specific models are both a backward step and very expensive. Guess it is good for business, but in my day, the whole point was about creating your own stuff. We made ships and aeroplanes and, when various types of wheels appeared, railway and road vehicles too.

 There was also the brilliant "Legotechnic" - kits aimed at schools. We had several of each in my class. Motorised and unmotorised, they allowed you to explore simple concepts like levers, pulleys and gears. In the latter case, a couple of bright sparks put all the gears together in a train that produced ratios into  seven figures and we then did the maths to work out how long it would take for the wheel at the far end to turn! Happy days, before the National Curriculum, of course.

 Am sure Lego was part of my scratchbuilding education. Didn't realise it at the time, but definitely helped me learn how to visualise a model's construction. Shame I missed out on other stuff - could easily have been a rock star instead of failed triangle player...

 

Ah come on, Lego is still awesome.

Look at these random sets of blocks - no instructions necessary!

https://www.ebay.es/itm/284522956871

https://www.ebay.es/itm/295282884577

https://www.ebay.es/itm/295432007487

And when I was a kid, I'd have killed for something like these two:

https://www.ebay.es/itm/175429479716

Without them, nothing that I made actually floated.

I guess if we'd had blue carpet, it might have helped...

 

 

 

 

[murphaph]

Those are cracking memories to have photographed. I have a handful of pictures of treasured toys that I probably lost in the back garden later on, but nothing like that!

[DJ Dangerous]

3 minutes ago, murphaph said:

Those are cracking memories to have photographed. I have a handful of pictures of treasured toys that I probably lost in the back garden later on, but nothing like that!

 

Nothing was ever really to scale as I wasn't academic enough to be reading the instructions, would just mash some stuff together.

Used to steal my Dad's camera from time to time, hence there are some photos in existance!

[Broithe]

13 minutes ago, DJ Dangerous said:

 reading the instructions...

I bought my nephew a 'generic non-Lego building set' in the mid 80s. It was supposed to be suitable for creating various ship models, impressively featured in pictures on the top of the box.

Realising that I was likely to be required to 'assist' in the construction, I decided to have a few practice runs beforehand, carefully perusing the instructions, so as to appear competent on the day.

Upon opening the box, I discovered that the instructions were only in Spanish...

 

Luckily, we had a chap in the factory who had arrived in England as a child refugee from the Spanish Civil War. I gave him a 'working number' for one of my projects and put up some 'danger' barriers, so that we could work unmolested on a more important project, hidden behind some cabinets. I often wonder what would have happened, if we'd been caught building Lego ships...

[jhb171achill]

19 hours ago, Broithe said:

Ah, I did have the Lego motor unit and the individual rails.

Lego had the advantage of packing down with little airspace and not being very fragile.

With traction tyres and ridged rails, it would ascend a fair slope and rather extreme bridges could be constructed.

The batteries fitted in the larger box, above the motor housing.

You could, of course, make all sorts of things with the motor as the basis, not just railway-related items.

Genuinely, the amount of creative play time I had with that stuff as a nipper was unbelievable. One of the best inventions ever as a children’s toy - or hobby.

[Broithe]

3 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

Genuinely, the amount of creative play time I had with that stuff as a nipper was unbelievable. One of the best inventions ever as a children’s toy - or hobby.

And Meccano, of course, although I had the Trix system - similar enough, but presumably metric...

[Mayner]

17 hours ago, jhb171achill said:

Genuinely, the amount of creative play time I had with that stuff as a nipper was unbelievable. One of the best inventions ever as a children’s toy - or hobby.

 

20 hours ago, DJ Dangerous said:

 

 

 

 

 

Photos of Lego on the heart rug in the parlour brings back memories. When I was little I wanted to be a farmer and made farms and played with my Corgi tractors on the rug, and later started building Lego bungalows.

I ended up working as a Site/Project Manager for many years coordinating large groups of people playing with 1:1 scale blocks and machinery.

Early days playing with Lego may have helped me start thinking 'outside of the box' important for solving 1:1 scale real life problems as a manager.

Daughter (13) has ordered a Lego "Harry Potter" set for Christmas and has taken on the project management side from her old Dad, with a growing portfolio of assembled Lego Sets taking over china cabinets and display cases around the house!

[Georgeconna]

21 hours ago, DJ Dangerous said:

 

Ah come on, Lego is still awesome.

Look at these random sets of blocks - no instructions necessary!

https://www.ebay.es/itm/284522956871

https://www.ebay.es/itm/295282884577

https://www.ebay.es/itm/295432007487

And when I was a kid, I'd have killed for something like these two:

https://www.ebay.es/itm/175429479716

Without them, nothing that I made actually floated.

I guess if we'd had blue carpet, it might have helped...

 

 

 

 

Those boats needed a large weight as a keel in order to float properly. We have some back in the day, Great in the bath!

 

[skinner75]

On 22/12/2022 at 7:57 AM, David Holman said:

Much as modern Lego is impressive, their kits to build specific models are both a backward step and very expensive. Guess it is good for business, but in my day, the whole point was about creating your own stuff. We made ships and aeroplanes and, when various types of wheels appeared, railway and road vehicles too.

 There was also the brilliant "Legotechnic" - kits aimed at schools. We had several of each in my class. Motorised and unmotorised, they allowed you to explore simple concepts like levers, pulleys and gears. In the latter case, a couple of bright sparks put all the gears together in a train that produced ratios into  seven figures and we then did the maths to work out how long it would take for the wheel at the far end to turn! Happy days, before the National Curriculum, of course.

 Am sure Lego was part of my scratchbuilding education. Didn't realise it at the time, but definitely helped me learn how to visualise a model's construction. Shame I missed out on other stuff - could easily have been a rock star instead of failed triangle player...

Along that very line - in the video below, they create a gear train with a ration of 1 Googol:1 - madness!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwXK4e4uqXY

[Broithe]

35 minutes ago, skinner75 said:

Along that very line - in the video below, they create a gear train with a ration of 1 Googol:1 - madness!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwXK4e4uqXY

There is a clock in Belgium that will take 25,800 years for one of the dials to rotate once.

http://discoveringbelgium.blogspot.com/2012/06/zimmer-tower-in-lier-worlds-slowest.html

[Bob229]

On 21/12/2022 at 11:41 AM, skinner75 said:

I remember having a BR blue Deltic, and the Lima Class33 in CIE colours with a couple of Lima CIE coaches

Had a Lima BR Deltic really liked it sadly long gone,  have to get an Accurascale version 

[leslie10646]

My infamy has spread and one of my neighbours bought me a trainset this Christmas. Here seen on the kitchen table with a few of Linda's toys (she loves signal boxes, hence the Kernow one of Bude), the Tayto lorry needs no explanation beyond that she was born almost within the sound of the Tayto factory hooter) and the church is actually sold as "Saint Andrews", which is the church we attend. I didn't add the UTA bus and her Flying Banana!

Damned clever these Chinese, chuffs, bells and whistles no less. Happy Christmas to you all!

 

Edited December 23, 2022 by leslie10646

[CFD]

My first introduction to trains was the Lego 171 train set. Myself and my brother got a set each for Christmas back in the late 70's. I still have both sets complete with original boxes. 

 

The Shell wagons and set sets of points were later birthday additions...! 

 

 

[Leyny]

40 years ago this Christmas, Santa brought 8-year old me a Lima CIE Train Set. I was in heaven. Of course a few years later I realised that '215' was just a repainted BR Class 33 and the coaches were repainted BR Mk 1's, but before that penny dropped many a happy hour was spent playing with it, especially with the train wash in the siding. In terms of scale speed it would probably have left the TGV for dust which was probably a big factor in the motor of the loco burning out within a couple of years. Nevertheless it lit a flame of interest in railways, especially Irish railways, both full size and miniature that has never gone out. This thread itself is testament to the value of introducing kids to model trains at a young age, most kids will lose interest after a while but those that don't will make up the majority of your future hardcore. 

[Auto-Train Original]

Early 1970s my father took me to the shop on Monck Place in Phisborough and told me to pick out a carriage. I picked a Hornby/Triang Mk1. A few days later for Christmas I got a Hornby starter set with an O8 and some wagons. Still with the hobby now.

[leslie10646]

I don't see many "new trainsets" being shown off yet!

So let me start the ball rolling .....

This was the Family pressie to me - bought at auction at few months ago. A Rivarossi "Henschel Wegmann Train" complete with the streamlined tank locomotive 61.001.

The train was an especially lightweight set - the similarities to the Flying Hamburger etc  are fairly obvious, except that this was STEAM, not diesel. It ran between Dresden and Berlin in the late 1930s on two expresses each way, each day at an average speed of 64mph for the 109 miles.

61.001 was a BALTIC Tank - one of the type that does seem to have done the job! This loco was reputedly capable of over 100mph, but I doubt if such a speed was needed regularly. I bought it because the very similar sister 61.002 (actually a 4-6-6T) provided the frames and 7'6" drivers for 18.201, the only steam engine I have done 100mph behind.

Happy Boxing Day!

[Hadren Railway]

While no trainsets on my end, I am in the midst of building the Dapol Std 4 I got, with the 9F to follow once I can get some maroon paint for it.

(Also plenty of wheelsets, so I can finally start building up a good fleet of rolling stock with the printer)

[Galteemore]

1 hour ago, Hadren Railway said:

While no trainsets on my end, I am in the midst of building the Dapol Std 4 I got, with the 9F to follow once I can get some maroon paint for it.

(Also plenty of wheelsets, so I can finally start building up a good fleet of rolling stock with the printer)

Any more details on the rolling stock please ?

Edited December 26, 2022 by Galteemore

[jhb171achill]

1 hour ago, Hadren Railway said:

While no trainsets on my end, I am in the midst of building the Dapol Std 4 I got, with the 9F to follow once I can get some maroon paint for it.

(Also plenty of wheelsets, so I can finally start building up a good fleet of rolling stock with the printer)

A 9F in maroon? That would look quite interesting...........

[Hadren Railway]

1 hour ago, Galteemore said:

Any more details on the rolling stock please ?

Sure. Everything is based on some simple chassis designed using the dimensions of the Tri-Ang short wheelbase wagon and the medium wheelbase Hornby one (The same chassis used for the trainset 4-wheelers). Some of the designs aren't usable because I didn't know what I was doing when I made them, but all the ones shown here have all been printed successfully (albeit, most of them almost a year ago). The coach body, however, has been giving me far more trouble that it's worth (This is I think the fourth or fifth version so far).

48 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

A 9F in maroon? That would look quite interesting...........

Indeed it does...

[Galteemore]

5 minutes ago, Hadren Railway said:

Sure. Everything is based on some simple chassis designed using the dimensions of the Tri-Ang short wheelbase wagon and the medium wheelbase Hornby one (The same chassis used for the trainset 4-wheelers). Some of the designs aren't usable because I didn't know what I was doing when I made them, but all the ones shown here have all been printed successfully (albeit, most of them almost a year ago). The coach body, however, has been giving me far more trouble that it's worth (This is I think the fourth or fifth version so far).

Indeed it does...

Thanks for the explanation- sounds great !

[jhb171achill]

31 minutes ago, Hadren Railway said:

Sure. Everything is based on some simple chassis designed using the dimensions of the Tri-Ang short wheelbase wagon and the medium wheelbase Hornby one (The same chassis used for the trainset 4-wheelers). Some of the designs aren't usable because I didn't know what I was doing when I made them, but all the ones shown here have all been printed successfully (albeit, most of them almost a year ago). The coach body, however, has been giving me far more trouble that it's worth (This is I think the fourth or fifth version so far).

Indeed it does...

Ah! “Thomas”-style stuff….. looks interesting!

[Dave Dawes]

15 hours ago, leslie10646 said:

I don't see many "new trainsets" being shown off yet!

So let me start the ball rolling .....

This was the Family pressie to me - bought at auction at few months ago. A Rivarossi "Henschel Wegmann Train" complete with the streamlined tank locomotive 61.001.

The train was an especially lightweight set - the similarities to the Flying Hamburger etc  are fairly obvious, except that this was STEAM, not diesel. It ran between Dresden and Berlin in the late 1930s on two expresses each way, each day at an average speed of 64mph for the 109 miles.

61.001 was a BALTIC Tank - one of the type that does seem to have done the job! This loco was reputedly capable of over 100mph, but I doubt if such a speed was needed regularly. I bought it because the very similar sister 61.002 (actually a 4-6-6T) provided the frames and 7'6" drivers for 18.201, the only steam engine I have done 100mph behind.

Happy Boxing Day!

No trainsets but a lovely class 121 in grey and yellow from my wife, well chuffed 

[Irishswissernie]

'Dorothea' a Bachmann Quarry Hunslet arrived on the 23 December, although the same scale she is somewhat smaller than a Class 121. 

[David Holman]

Recent 009 locos are quite something -they not only look good, but run well too. Have seen quite a few 009 cameos at shows and the overall standard of modelling has been brilliant. A tiny footprint, but still with operational interest because they run beautifully.

 Set up and pack away time is minimal too. Makes you think...

[Galteemore]

Yes, my brother had a complete 009 layout built and operating in the time it took me to build one engine! 

[leslie10646]

Wow, no new entries to this column. Some of you must have got a new trainset for Christmas!

So here's mine!

My Big Son kindly bought his Old Man this engine famous  for its activities during The (second) Railway Race to the North (1895)

Hattons do a suitable (ish) train. The Race train would have been bogies, but fairly like this!

But I really got her to go with my LNWR corridor set (long after The Race) - see my entry of this set with a GNR Class PP masquerading as a DNGR Boat Train.

MY REAL CHRISTMAS PRESENT HAS JUST ARRIVED AS I STOPPED TYPING THIS!

The Postman has just delivered my new Three Year Driving Licence - you see I've got Glaucoma and just one eye, so Praise the Lord, I passed the eyesight test!

 

 

 

Edited December 28, 2023 by leslie10646

[Galteemore]

Beautiful Leslie. LNWR and SECR late 19th century liveries are hard to beat! 

[Andy Cundick]

Funnily enough my railway present from the Memsahib was LNW as well a Mallard kit for a North Western Steam railcar is there a theme developing here ? Andy

[leslie10646]

On the fourth Day of Christmas, we got round to opening the pressies (after Family activity Days 1,2,3)

So I gave my favourite train watcher:

An Accurascale  Rail Operations Group Class 37 - her favourite loco when train watching at never-boring Goring. Now, how do I get a scrap EMU set for it to pull .........

Note the locomotive is named after a lady in Greek mythology which is  appropriate as the recipient  is probably the only person on this forum, apart from @Galteemore who can read ancient Greek.

Edited December 28, 2023 by leslie10646

[David Holman]

 A [very] long time since I had a train set for Christmas and these days, my wife knows only too well that my model making tastes are decidedly niche. However, there is still stuff I can put in a request for and two things came up this year. 

 First was a proper bench vice, the sort that needs bolting to the bench, instead of a basic clamp. And very nice it is too and is already being put to good use.

 The other item is a kit - one of those laser cut plywood jobbies that you can buy in garden centres this side of the water. It's a pendulum clock [or will be, hopefully], one of a growing range of models that require no glue or anything else in the way of tools, but plenty of patience and careful reading of the instructions. Love watching the Repair Shop on TV, so am copying horologist Steven Fletcher's method of keeping all the various parts and sub-assemblies in separate containers. Having always wondered how mechanical clocks actually work, hopefully I'm going to learn a bit more about them.