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Posted - October 04 2017 : 07:28:07 AM
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A bit of a general question here…. I like plastic building kits, such as those sold by Tyco, Pola, IHC, Model Power, Life-Like etc. I have quite a lot of Pola kits, many of which were once sold in England under the Playcraft name, some later turned up again under the Hornby name and some were even sold here by Pola themselves. With US brands I notice that many of the Life-Like kits also came from Pola and research has shown that this was true of most other brands including Tyco. There are some sites on the internet that illustrate different brands of kits and these often mention any 'after life' that specific kits may have had with other brands. Sadly some of these sites are getting a bit old and many links are broken with lots of pictures now sadly missing For example the Tyco 'Centre Street' series was marketed again in its entirety by IHC and was very nearly incorportaed into the Hornby range in 1983 (until custmers saw it in the catalogue!). Walther's Trainline Series kits features a good many ex-Tyco models, including two kits that were once sold as part of the US-1 Trucking series…… Also, I notice that the original Aurora Building kits (also once sold in England by Playcraft) have been sold ready assembled by Tyco as 'Lighted Buildings' and more recently in kit form by IHC. At least one of the rare but beautiful Revell railroad kits has been re-issued by Revell themselves So my question is - Has anyone ever studied this whole subject and collated what kits were sold and by whom? I am wondering about how to go about this myself, but clearly if someone has already done lots of research…….. Fingers crossed! James
Edited by - jamesday@btinternet.com on October 04 2017 11:53:19 AM
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Posted - October 04 2017 : 10:19:44 AM
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An education for me, James, thank you for the background. I am an odd bug as I collect and run both British OO on one side of the garage and Tyco HO upon the other. It is a bit like having two mistresses.
In any event, all this was news to me, though I did have some dim awareness that manufacturers routinely bought one another's dies and remarketed the old wine in new skins.
From my own experience in the 1990's, before the advent of the internet, I had to scrape and scrounge to find anything British and counted myself fortunate to get a few mail order Dapol structures which I coveted over the decades. Once or twice I tried to Anglocize a few Pola kits, and an observer remarked, "that looks a little Frankish, does it not?"
Now, with internet, my British ambitions are limited only to the cost of shipping and customs duty.
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Posted - October 04 2017 : 10:59:09 AM
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Thank Chops,
Mine too, although the advent of new 'facilities' on e-bay have made it easier to get US vendors to sell to the UK than before, although it is not necessarily cheap! Not sure how it is in reverse?
I agree with you - POLA kits do generally look what we would call 'Continental' and this was particularly noticeable in the Playcraft range (British H0 as opposed to 00) where only a handful had been specially made by POLA for the British market. These were later sold by Hornby.
Take a look at a display we did late last year:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xY5DMEQWBII&t=93s
I have spent ages looking for the Tyco US-1 Truck stop kit, only to find I had a boxed Hornby version of the same Pola kit, which looks very different due to the different colours used!
Over here Hornby imported POLA kits to sell from the early 70s until 2004, but with the switch to the pre-assembled resin 'Skaledale' range made in the far east, this has stopped. Not surprising then that the last, very good and specifically British range that POLA made for them is now being produced by Faller (who took over POLA) and these are sold by Gaugemaster as the Fordhampton range!
James
Edited by - jamesday@btinternet.com on October 04 2017 11:01:24 AM
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Posted - October 04 2017 : 3:03:08 PM
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That was quite something! By "we" you refer to a club or a family effort? I was loving what appeared to be a Playcraft locomotive, the designation of which, er, that green one...sweetly sliding into the station.
I noticed, however, that the automotive traffic was firmly upon the right side of the road. Would it have been possible to run it on the left?
Then, the next video was the same layout with some North American pieces, including what appeared to be a rather magnificent set of Life Like subway cars upon an El.
Most enjoyable.
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Posted - October 04 2017 : 3:12:26 PM
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This an example of the depths to which I had to dive in my quest for British structures: I garnered this castle from my eldest daughter's former toy chest she had outgrown. The internet has broadened my small horizons.
Needless to say, there was still learning curves ahead...
Edited by - Chops124 on October 04 2017 3:14:25 PM
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Posted - October 04 2017 : 3:44:44 PM
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Hello Chops,
Those tension lock couplings can be very unforgiving! Love the castle - I live in Warwick, so we have a real one, but sadly not right next to the Railroad!
The building on the shelf looks amazing! It must be nice to have all that space. Our homs are relatively compact and usually without a basement, although sometimes we can use the attics.
Yes it can run on the right, but if you are using the Aurora Intersection it comes with road marking for right hand running and it seemed churlish to erase the stop lines! As you say, we also use the track for other things, so it seemed sensible to leave it.
Here is an earlier layout where we ran on the left:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvpuVDqImg0&t=16s
We were running all British outline that day!
The 'we' is just me and my chum Malcolm, who makes the videos. Both of us are members of the TCS, which is a bit like a UK version of the TCA, but covers any make, age or gauge.
James
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Posted - October 04 2017 : 9:58:35 PM
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Hah! I wouldv'e erased the stop lines, the churl that I am! Yes, one forgets that a 4 x 8 takes up a bit of real estate, which in part why British layouts fascinate me: the authors of these gems have gone to extraordinary lengths of creativity to build marvelous scenes in the smallest of areas. It requires great discipline and focus.
The Walther's station in the back ground was fished from a scrap pile about the same time as I was putting the Disney castle in the dust bin. Too large for a 4x8, it is used upon a 2x6 module in a series of Club modules, and fits there rather well.
The cream and blue structure below it is one of my "Frankish" attempts from earlier days. I was hoping someone would say that it reminded them of Brighton Beach. No such luck.
If I haven't tortured you with this video, well here it is, I think the rest of the TFer's must be getting a bit tired of it...I have not had a chance to see your posted video, but I shall shortly, when I return this evening.
https://youtu.be/pZfePF_tClQ
Edited by - Chops124 on October 04 2017 10:05:23 PM
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Posted - October 04 2017 : 10:45:29 PM
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shoulda mailed me that castle grrrr
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Posted - October 04 2017 : 11:39:54 PM
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A great pleasure to watch your earlier layout. Clever use of magnets; I wasn't sure how that slight of hand was done.
What I would like to know: was there an automatic stop on the passenger train on the lower level as it glided up to the platform? A signal at the fore of the platform lead me to believe there might be.
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Posted - October 05 2017 : 12:42:20 AM
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also I am looking for some building kits CHEAP Maybe I'll get lucky & find them on Saturday hehe
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Posted - October 05 2017 : 05:22:32 AM
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Chops,
Loved the videos, especially the one about the crossing gates. Was that an Airfix Waterloo Farm House I could see, together with a huge castle that looks rather like the one down the road here.
You clearly like the older Edwardian era locos? The Tri-ang Nellie is wonderful too.
Yes the trains can stop, but in response to public control of a button that works the signal too. This is now done through an interface box to stop the little blighters stopping and starting the trains repeatedly!
There is an adjustable slow speed section that also kicks in when the signal goes red and this is essential when using geared locos like the Jouef for Playcraft models or even the Rivarossi Royal Scot that have are much more free running than more mormal worn drive locos!
It is easy to set up the stop and slow sections using isolating rails that most track systems have, but these had to be specially created for the Life-Like Power-Loc track by removing some copper connecting clips and grinding away bit of the rail ends to ensure they do not touch the adjoining live rails! We then screwed a length of these together to keep the isolating sections complete, thus making setting up easier!
James
Edited by - jamesday@btinternet.com on October 05 2017 08:49:19 AM
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Posted - October 05 2017 : 10:23:39 AM
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Yes, the Airfix was another pre-internet grab for something, anything, remotely British. More than Waterloo, my sister used to take riding lessons at these stables in Britain, back in '67, and this Airfix had the look.
Next British video will feature dragons. My teenage daughter is reminding me we need to do this...
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Posted - October 14 2017 : 11:10:38 AM
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I was very pleased to find that Gaugemaster in the UK stock some of the Walther's Trainline kits, so it will be posible to create the TYCO look without buying expensive secondhand items or having to pay import duty.
However the cloud is that they charge is pounds what Walthers charge in USD AND they are not offering the deals that Walthers do....
Never mind!
James
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