Blue Plastic Tracks

Ok, a little bit later than originally planned, but here's a bunch of pictures of the Hornby Dublo railway items I picked up the other night.  These are all 00 (i.e. Dubl0) scale and are original models from when Hornby Dublo was a trademark of Mecanno (yes the one who makes the engineering type construction sets).  I don't know the age of all the parts, but the set (EDP12 - Passenger train set) was only available between 1958 and 1961, so this stuff is even older than me and in a darn sight better shape I reckon lol!

The first two pictures attached to this message are of the box full of 'boxed' items and a separate one of loose parts (mainly track).  The next message will have some individual pictures of the items in the 'box' with some nice surprises.  I have to say I'm blown away with the quality/condition of these items, the locomotive (actually a Duchess class rather than Princess) is immaculate with as far as I can tell no scratches or chips to the paint work.  Similarly the coaches in the set and the separately boxed third carriage are pristine as well, almost never seen in this I would say 'mint' condition.  Even the wheels and pickups on the loco have no marks on them indicating little to no use.

Anyway here's the first two shots;

Loose track etc...



Box of boxed items....

Now the individual items...

Signal box, this was ironically unboxed, couple of minor chips, but no major issues;



The separate carriage



A rail side passenger footbridge



A set of buffer stops and yes they are sprung working buffers!



Three sets of mint condition boxed points



A boxed (box is a bit tatty) 'through station' like the signal box a couple of small chips to the paint, but mostly good







A couple of boxes of 'people' one are passengers, the other station staff, on the back of the boxes are prices, each 'full set' was a total 2s,11d (2 shillings 11 pennies of old pre-decimal currency) equivalent of around 14p in current currency (20c?!?) which gives you a clue to the age of the items in the collection.  One passenger is unfortunately broken and missing its base, but otherwise all the models are un-chipped and in good condition.







A locomotive water pipe, this would normally have been trackside next to a water tower or standalone and plumbed into the mains water supply, this one is probably the latter).



A small catalogue and 'track plans' booklet, the latter has some extra bits inside including the original guarantee slips etc...



The centre piece, the train set (EDP12), featuring the Duchess class loco 'Duchess of Montrose' and tender along with two carriages, one a full passenger carriage like the additional one above, plus a 'brake' carriage.  Other items include the track that would have been supplied with the set (this is not included in the 'loose track' picture it is in addition to).  Also 3 packs of still sealed and unused 'insulating connectors'.





Brake carriage



Passenger carriage



Duchess class 'Duchess of Montrose'





Underside showing the third rail power pick up mechanism.



I should add all the items shown above are made of either diecast metal or in the case of the carriages and tender tin-plate, even the trackside buildings are diecast metal items and the track is tinplate with metal rails.  There are a few other little items I've not shown such as a small box of original, brand new/unused track pins, the original 'spanner' provided for the loco so you can carry out maintenance as well as some other trackside accessories like milk churns, although I suspect they are newer as they are plastic.

Anyway, in my opinion this was a stupendous score to add to my collection, at this rate one day I'll maybe get to open a museum lol!

I sure do love br green LMS locos, and this one is no exception

Yes, she is a beauty, I love that it has a gloss paint finish too, just like the real things do. I find it somewhat annoying at times that the majority of models are presented in matt paint finishes.

I like gloss finishes on special locos, such as special edition or an important loco in a manufacturer history, but usually I prefer satin, matt looks much too flat and gloss is a bit too reflective

Following on from my predilection to seek out unusual or different things, rather than be just boring, I thought I'd share some pics of some rare'ish TT:120 scale models I recently picked up off eBay.  These are 'vintage' items rather than new Hornby TT:120, made by a company caller 'Berliner' and were manufactured in the 'GDR', that is the 'German Democratic Republic' or communist east Germany for those of you too young to remember Germany before the fall of the Berlin wall

Despite their age and where they were manufactured they are neither poor quality or in bad condition, in fact for the most part they look brand new to me.  They are also exactly the same scale as Hornby's new TT:120 so should fit right in and allow me to run either models on the same track layout that I have designs on building (finally!).

Anyway here's some pics to show you what I got (I've put a standard AA battery in the pics to illustrate scale);

First up is a set that consists of a 0-8-0 tank loco and 4 matching carriages (only 1 shown)









Then I have a range of different carriages from the same company;

Firstly a 4 wheel coach in green



Then a 6 wheel coach in grey (I have 2 of these)



Finally a total of 5 green 6 wheel coaches, one of these which has the 'guards' lookout post on the back of it



and 4 of these standard green 6 wheel coaches



Personally I like them and am very impressed with the level of detail, they are also very free wheeling which is nice and again a bit surprising as older stuff is not always so well engineered.  The loco is also quite substantial weight-wise which is unexpected because of its small size, but there again not so unusual with older railway items as they often have die-cast chassis and are made to last unlike some of the more modern plastic wonders...

I've got a few more items from this maker in the post as well, including a load of brand new track which matches an included track plan (designed to go on a 5' x 3' board) complete with electric switches (points) and a couple of circuits of track.  This may well form the basis of the layout I intend to produce   I'll post pictures of it when I get it!

RIVET'S!!!!!

I just knew you would like the rivets, especially on the white & blue carriages

Anyway, the track bundle turned up today, here's a couple of pics from the original auction as they illustrate as well as I could

I also mentioned another set coming, well that arrived today as well, this one is a pretty special set as it was made specially for the companies 30th anniversary. This features a dual bogie diesel locomotive plus 4 'beer' wagons (quite a popular subject often modelled in Germany unsurprisingly)

I love the chassis and truck details on that Diesel.