Edit: a) I intended this topic to be an addition to the scale model topic by @Nudielad
b) corrected mistake in the titleThis is probably where I end up looking like I’m turning this forum into international
old naturists but hopefully might find some of you interested in railway modelling and vintage sets.
With the exception of the turntable which I bought from eBay a few years ago, everything shown belonged to my dad. Buy a kid a train set now and it will be plastic stuff that once broken is broken but these were taken apart and put back together, spare parts obtained and fitted and soldering skills developed. I never learned how to repair these properly. My dads layout had long been dumped in a skip before I was born and the engines, rolling stock, and whatever building and scenery that could be saved got confined to the cupboard of my grandparents spare/ hobby room.
I remember being really young on occasion my grandad would set up an oval circuit and a couple of sidings, gradually adding a couple of electrically operated points and signals but never the full layout. Back then there were only three locos that I was aware of, the three closest to the camera on the second picture. My grandad began suffering some health problems when I was 11 and died about a year and half later so I’d guess he never got these out for me after I got to about 9 or 10. I never knew how these things worked, my own train sets were just plug the bloody thing in and get on with it but these needed some wiring doing first.
Rummaging around in the cupboard years later mid to late teens I found the other broken locos 1 of the black tank engines which was almost complete but non runner, the shell and chassis to make up another and another of the blue sir Nigel Gresley, as you can see, in poor condition. I think maybe that was my dads original one which he abandoned and fount it cheaper to replace.
Years later I figured out that I could use a modern standard hornby controller (I say modern but still pre digital) if I cut off the track connecting clip and twisted the bare wires onto the terminals on the old track then discovered gauge master combo controllers and used that instead. Still can’t get the old original dublo control and transformer working. I also got the second of the black tank engines repaired, mostly did it myself buying replacement parts off eBay and fitting them under my dads instructions.
Unfortunately repairing one engine once is not enough practice to be able to repair the lot without his guidance. Not long after this he moved to Scotland where he died soon after. I’m also living in a cramped council bed sit with no space to have a workshop or a layout and for all YouTube is a useful learning tool, it cannot replace in person teaching.
That does not mean I’m giving up. My current project is to tidy up the tender for Gresley. Apparently my grandad used evostik to glue the original plastic coal load back down which warped the plastic and oozed over the body work. I bought a replacement acrylic coal load but getting evostik off the damn thing without scrubbing the paint off too is the first hurdle which I’m not doing very well at. The lettering is rubbing off and cloths end up looking blue afterwards. Any modellers can offer advice post below or pm me.