I am considering modeling some of Britian’s Railways. I’m thinking of doing a “current” layout, where there are more up-to-date diesels and electrics, as well as some old ones. I’ve visited Hornby.com, but their trains are all in British currency and I think that the plug ins on the control boxes wouldn’t work here. Are there any good websites for British Model Railroading? Any advice. Thank you in advance.
The controllers Hornby supply wouldn’t work over there - they’re wired for a 230v mains input (the USA has 110v mains). However, they’ll run with standard power packs and DCC (they’re delivered wired for 2-rail 12v DC running, DCC fitting is either a socket or some simple soldering) so you’d be able to get them working. I’m not sure about stockists in the US though there are a few over here who will ship trans-Atlantic. Bachmann have been making big inroads into the OO diesel market in recent years too - their model of the EMD Class 66 has been a great success to name but one. If you’re looking for information you could try using www.google.co.uk and checking the box to “Search pages from the UK” - then type what you’re interested in. Prototype photos are widespread and will give you an idea of what runs together. Hope this is of help!
I’m an admirer of British railroads myself - especially the steam era. I say go for it and enjoy…
Tracklayer
Standard US 12v throttles will work fine the motors are the same in Bachmann UK models as the US ones. Hornby, Heljan UK and Bachmann UK are the main manufacturers of modern locos and stock and there are a lot of plastic kits for wagons.
For shops try www.ehattons.com as there are lots of pics on the website of the models. I’m afraid you’ll have to ask about shipping rates and price conversion, try emailling them sales@hattons.co.uk.
ukmodelshops website usually has lots of useful links as well.
for modern image pictures of briti***rains do searches on Google Images, try -
use the word class as a prefix and then - 66 or 67 or 47 or 57 or 37 for freight that should find a few good sites
I have a Bachmann class 158 DMU purchased in Scotland and it runs just fine here in Ohio.
It is conventional DC, no DCC.
Dale
Pokeman,
If you look at the small adverts in Model Railroader you will find some shops in the US who import UK models.
Can also vouch for Hattons in Liverpool - I used to live in Japan and Hattons regularly sent models to me there - once a model didn’t arrive - I contacted them and they sent me a replacement free of charge!!
What Exactly is 00 scale? Would it work here?
I saw that about the guys here in the US who import UK products. Do they have a website?
Pokemon,
OO runs on the same track as HO (16.5mm) - the difference between OO and HO is that OO is 1:72 scale ratio and HO is 1:87.
In real life, the size of UK locomotives are smaller than US locomotives as our loading gauge is smaller than ours. Some of our locos (cl.66) were made in the US and when I saw a pic of a Cl.66 in the building shop alongside a UP diesel it looked miniscule even though it used the same diesel engine .
In model terms a smaller UK loco becomes bigger in 1:76 so that it does not look out-of-place beside an American loco in 1:87. At the moment on my layout I have a streamlined LNER A4 steam loco as well as a Clinchfield Challenger - looks quite good!!
Visit the forum at www.rmweb.co.uk and see what goes on over here!! Enjoy!!
Since I am building an eclectic railway in Southeast Asia that has a mixture of US, British and Japanese engines and rolling stock, I recommend Ebay UK.
If you go to the the Ebay US or Canada site main page, go to the drop down menu at the bottom of the left hand column, you will find the link to Ebay UK. When get to Ebay UK you will find that it is laid out different from North America. You will find model railways under collectables, not toys and hobbies. The best sub category is scales/gauges not manufacturer.
My Canadian sign on works on EBay UK.
If you are going to bid you have to make sure that the seller ships worldwide, rather than just ships to the UK.
I find that if you click “watch this item” on the UK site, Ebay will add your watch item to your home My Ebay, but I have never been able to get it to save my searches or categories, so I broswer bookmark the EBay UK N scale page, then sign in if I want to bid on something.
It is also more customary in the UK to start with a very low bid 99 pence and have a long auction, usually seven days, than it is in North America. I’ve seen auctions on locomotives start at 99p and end at £75.
I have been very satisified with all the sellers I have dealt with on Ebay UK so far. In fact in a couple of occasions, the items from the UK arrived quicker than items I had ordered from the US
Pokemon,
You might want to visit the site of the British Railway Modellers of North America:
http://home.ca.inter.net/~brmna/index.html
Bob
NMRA Life 0543
Found one!!!
international hobbies, no website I’m afraid but email interhob@thegrid.net page 42 of the september MR.
No dealings with them but it’s the only one on your side of the pond I’ve found so far.
good luck
by the way standard Peco track, code 100 and finescale code 75 are british style
There are a number of dealers handling Briti***rains in North America – most are in Canada, but a few in the US. There is an ad in Model Railroader, but the BRMNA website has a list of “Member Dealers”.
Modern British OO is quite compatible with HO. Major difference will be couplings, but they are starting to use the NEM coupler pocket.
I definitely second going to Hatton’s in Liverpool–the ehattons link mentioned above. I’ve done about 500 dollars in business with them. It takes a few weeks to ship but everything came out great. I bought Bachmann Branchline’s Virgin Trains Super Voyager and Voyager sets (which do not include track or power pack) and Hornby’s Midland Mainline HST 125 set. I have had no problem running these on my Atlas or KATO Unitrack layouts using MRC power packs. I love the Virgin Trains sets because 1) they are my favorite UK railraod 2) they use a coupling system that involves pegs and cylinders. The latter means that these cars never derail, even at maximum throttle setting. The coupling system might not be prototypical but I sure wish we had something like that here. I’d give up accuracy for my cars not decoupling at any slight rise in my garage floor.
if you think trying to find Briti***rains in HO is a Pisser, try doing it in large scale! Outside of live steam there is Zip, Zilch and Nadda!
What if I said Hornby carrys live steam In HO/OO guage http://www.hornby.com/pages/livestm_live.aspx. [8D][8D]
Allied model trains culver to z city. CA
00 (Double Oh) is 4mm to the foot…1/72 almost exclusively British outline running on (incorrect) 16.5mm gauge track (i.e. 4’1 1/2" gauge vice 4’ 8 1/4" gauge… for modern stuff)
if it’s 12volt DC and 16.5mm track it will work anywhere H0 works… BUT… if it’s very old there’s a slim chance it might be 3rd rail… check 1st because there will be no insulation between the wheels so 2 rail will short out and probably do damage. Modern stuff is all 2 rail as far as I know.
You will only find a very smallamount of Bachman (I think) UK H0 because they are the only ones that “got it wrong” when they star ted here. there is no commercial point in doing H0 / UK because all UK modellers in that size range work in 4mm = 1ft not 3.5mm.
You MIGHT find a few items on E Bay. They did do a class 33 diesel. and some containers… I have most of a loco somewhere and a couple of containers.
For 0 Gauge (7mm / 1ft NOT 1/4" 0 Scale) try the Gauge 0 Guild… they’re on the net.
I think that the Gauge 1 Society also have a site. Beond that try “Model Engineer” MAg.
mast brittish models are 4mm. over here instead of making the trains smaller and go to 3.5mm we tend to go for something called photo4. these are very accurate and fine scale models. there are none available ready to run but there are countless kits and conversion packs.
personally i stick to OO and make do with the difference in scale. it actually evens things out quite well. the 4mm brittish stock looks quite good next to the 3.5mm continental and american stock.
i wish i could find the charger for my camera. i may have to get a new one.
Peter