Peco Skips as RTR O9?

Having been seduced by the Peco 009 'Rugga' V-Skips as a fine example of UK-made ready-to-run model railway equipment, my mind has started to wonder if they could form the basis of O9 models. This may seem a wild idea but there are two factors to consider:

• Real skip wagons came in a variety of sizes.
• The necessities of RTR 009 manufacture mean that the models are closer to 5mm+ scale than 4mm.

So some research started, firstly by posing a wagon with a 7mm scale figure to see how it might look:

It doesn't look too ridiculous so I carried out some further research. Two sources were consulted:

1. The 2016 NGRS reprint of the Robert Huddson 1915 Edition 'Light Railway Material', p49.
   This contains dimensions of a 20" gauge 13.5 cubic feet 'double side tip wagon'
2. 'The Blakesley Miniature Railway', Dr Bob Tebb, Silver Link 2009, p94
   This describes skips made by Busch of Bauten, Saxony, which may have been the type supplied to Blakesley Hall.

From that information I compiled the following table of dimensions at 1/43rd scale:

	Peco (mm)	Hudson (mm)	Hudson 1/43	Blakesley (mm)	Blakesley 1/43
Wheel Diameter	6.0	225	5.2	300	7.0
Height from Rails	18.5	1000	23.3		0.0
Width over all	25.0	1250	29.1	1160	27.0
Length Over all	31.0	1500	34.9	1530	35.6

As can be seen, the Peco skip is a little smaller than these examples but not beyond the realms of possibility. However, if you re-calculate the dimensions to 1/48th scale....

	Peco (mm)	Hudson (mm)	Hudson 1/48	Blakesley (mm)	Blakesley 1/48
Wheel Diameter	6.0	225	4.7	300	6.3
Height from Rails	18.5	1000	20.8		0.0
Width over all	25.0	1250	26.0	1160	24.2
Length Over all	31.0	1500	31.3	1530	31.9

That brings the dimensions even closer and makes the Peco V-Skip a realistic prospect for O9 (or indeed On18) use. Just be mindful that is is a lot smaller than most other commercially available O9 wagons and locomotives (which may be larger than scale). I posed my wagon with SMR no.3, which is a reasonable 15" gauge pleasure line sized machine and it doesn't look too bad, but a shorter loco such as a scale length Lister would look even better....

Food for thought?

Colin

Shifting Sands - North of the Humber

You may have seen mention last time that I needed to get Shifting Sands out of storage and wondered what on earth for....

Well, our friends in the Hull MRS have given the opportunity to show the layout in public on June 3rd at their 'Summer Show' held at the their clubrooms at the Walton Street Leisure Centre - details here. As usual I will need to check everything over, test the stock, make a couple of scenic tweaks before the show and find all the bits to make it look like this:

There is the prospect of some visiting locomotives on the day, and the usual real-life 15" gauge problem of non-matching couplings...

Colin

You can’t do that!

The title might be the (light hearted) reaction in some quarters to the project I hinted at over a month ago... yes, the mystery scale was 009!

As every idea to build another O9 layout has fallen flat on its face, especially anything away from my usual miniature railway themes, it makes sense for a small project to evolve that doesn’t have the pressure of expectation placed on it. By developing this in 009 I will hopefully be able to use up some items of 4mm scale material held in stock, plus be able to purchase some of the items that as a 7mm scale modeller are largely unavailable to me, such as the Wills ‘Scenic Series’ kits.

As can be seen a baseboard has been constructed, the trackwork laid, painted and ballasted, and there is good progress on the foundations of the scenery. I've never been a fan of polystyrene (and I'm still not) and this is really the first time I have used it like this. It has proved quick and relatively easy, I don't think I could have made these landforms using formers and infill in the limited time I have had available. 

Speaking of which, along the line I have to admit that there have been doubts about progressing this scheme. Although good progress was made thanks to planned time off work, outside of that time has been hard to find. On top of that I have wavered on the 009 vs O9 debate a few times (a certain person regularly asks if it is O9 yet) but I plan to complete the project as planned, if only to justify the Peco skips I received as a gift! As ‘Shifting Sands’ will need to be brought into action within the next month progress may not really make it that far too quickly…

Colin