Dinky Abuse and Other Sad Tales

Dinky Toys

Did you play with your Dinky when you were a kid? I played with mine to the point of abuse as the following pictures attest. Indoors or outdoors. Secretly in the bedroom or openly in the garden, I smacked my Dinkies all the way to adulthood. Eventually, I married and had to curtail my Dinky-bashing habits. As is the fate of so many die-cast lovers, wives dowse the childhood enthusiasms like so many buckets of cold water on a horny dog. The urge has subsided somewhat since those seedy times, thus my Dinky collection joins the sale alongside Dublo. The memories, like the toys, are faded from too much sunlight.














Hang on... You're not a Dinky!


You probably already know that both Dinky and Hornby Dublo are from the same Frank Hornby stable!

What? No boxes!

Don’t give me a hard time about it. I probably sucked the colourful cardboard to death, the same as I probably licked the toxic paint and ate the small sharp components, that nowadays, are called ‘Choking Hazards’. When I was young, the main choking hazard was from smoking. However, babies love to extend their environmental mapping through oral sensory awareness. In other words, they put things in their mouths. Occasionally they swallow things. I am given to understand that parents used to search for the missing truck wheels amongst the nappy contents and fix the toys. Parents weren’t so squeamish in the ‘olden days’, eh?.

Dinky History

The history of Dinky is somewhat on a parallel to Dublo
, but starting a year earlier in 1933. I believe some of the toys were made in the same Liverpool factory, where coffee was spilled in the mazac mixer (you’ll have to read the Alternative Dublo History for more of that story). They were also made extensively in France, but featured the more bizarre chunky styling of Citroen and Peugeot, designed for circumnavigating the Arc de Triumph without sustaining serious injury, instead of the twee Ford and Austin Morris, designed for drivers who would need a stiff G & T should anyone even dare to honk a horn at them! What blighters! What cads!

Dinky Toys became Dinky Toys (if that makes sense) in 1934, after a year of sporting that gorgeously stiff English title - ‘Modelled Miniatures’. Actually, Modelled Miniatures were mostly accessories for the railway stuff, but the idea caught on and the range was extended to include motor cars.

A flatulent, Austrian midget named Adolf Hitler detested all things Dinky and Dublo and allegedly, started a war to prevent their continuing production. Uh Oh! I can feel this article slithering into the snake pit of non-Political Correctness. I caution against reading further, if you lean towards a more delicate political constitution!. …….He especially hated Triumph cars, believing they were designed either to encourage children to mimic the immodest sound of his own involuntary flatus or to represent British ‘triumph’ in World War One (I would like to add a personal note here, that nobody ever triumphs or wins in a war. EVER!). Hitler therefore, determined to prevent anyone from practicing noises with model cars, by ensuring raw materials were diverted to other, more practical, uses like bombs and tanks and heroic medals as well as silly helmets. Instead, he caused the post-war launch of model versions of the military vehicles that had so upset his digestion in the first place. That’s karma for you!. I shall draw a line under this topic whilst I’m still ahead.

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1947 saw the launch of real rubber tyres, which were kinder on babies’ teeth andless likely to grate on Granny’s nerves. They also put an end to the epidemic of tiny indented tracks in polished wooden surfaces. Unfortunately, the tyres came off rather easily and lead to a new wave of three-wheeled toy cars.

1963 brings up a familiar name – Tri-ang. They jumped in and bought the tooling for Dinky. A few years later in 1967, the new plastic dinky Speedwheels were launched and this ensured the decline of the toy car industry as well as bringing an end to the choking hazard of miniature rubber tyres.

Lesney (trademarked as ‘Matchbox’) released their own version called ‘Superfast’ and Corgi brought out ‘Hotwheels’ and every little boy (and the occasional girl) had their favourite. Just as with the train set manufacturing, all the car manufacturers eventually bought each other out until nobody knew who made what. It didn’t matter, because the era of sturdy toys had passed. You can stick your modern plastic cars in the orifice from which you get the most satisfaction these days. Plastic, Bubble packs, Blister packs and polythene bags are no match for cardboard and metal and toxic paint.

For a full history of Dinky you’ll have to go elsewhere. I’m bored now.

If you’re interested, I have already mentioned the regular meeting of ex-toy making executives in a potting shed in Purley. Send a resume and a bottle of Glenfiddich if you wish to join the club.

I forgot to include details about the Dinky toys included here! What a turkey!
I'm sure they all have names and if you are a Dinky enthusiast, then you'll already know what they are. Nopoint me wasting my time telling you.

You may also notice that I was not joking when I said they had been abused. Let's call them a FREE gift to whoever buys the train set.

I am overwhelmed by my own generosity sometimes......

Rail Track Signals - A Thrilling Discovery!

Train Track Signals

I thought that braking systems were exciting, but when I began researching signal arms, I realized I had entered a whole new world and darn near wet my pants with excitement! There is an entire community devoted to railway signals. Numerous websites dedicated to revealing the darkest secrets of the lower quadrant, swapping milepost pictures and even a forum where you can talk about your experiences and feelings concerning signals.

In a way, this makes me really sad that I am selling my train set. I could have been a part of this society many years ago. A life wasted! I have been a little concerned about my heart over the last couple of years and perhaps this new surge of excitement would be enough to blow a gasket!

I was going to use this article to explain the different types of signals and how they are used………… but somewhere on the page I lost the will to live.

I am being unkind here. Very unkind. I am sure the people sharing their experiences on the signals forum are really nice people, far kinder and more harmonious than I could ever be.

…..but I DO have a life.


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So here they are, the signals in this jumbo Dublo train set. They are all manual signals, so you had better be swift on your feet if you are to run a clean outfit and not allow your imaginary train drivers to break any rules.

Box One (of course they are boxed!)

Double Arm - Upper Quadrant Signals




Box Two

Single Arm - Upper Quadrant Signals




Box Three

Single Arm - Upper Quadrant Signals




Unfortunately, the lever is missing from the signal on the right, but otherwise, the items are all in really good order ......and so are the boxes, ok? Also note that the box says 'D1'. Now that is a rarity! Means its early stuff.

....and an oddity to finish with. Made by 'Crescent'? ....maybe? One arm is disconnected and it's a bit chunkier than the average signal post, but it should work if your drivers are paying attention.



….and if you are dead from the waist up, I include here some very basic rules for signal operation:

Home and Distant are two…………phhhhhtttttt!

If you really are interested in learning about signals, try these websites:

http://www.railsigns.co.uk/home.html
http://www.signalbox.org/index.php


Otherwise stick around for some jokes instead


Search for The Matrix on ZML

A Brit, an American, a gorgeous blonde and a terrifying fat lady are sharing a compartment on a train.

As the train passes through a dark tunnel there is a loud SLAP!.

Once out of the tunnel, the blonde, the Brit and the fat lady all look at the American, who is sporting a big red slap mark on his cheek.

** The blonde thinks - "that American son of a bitch wanted to touch me and by mistake, he must have put his hand on the fat lady, who in turn must have slapped his face"

** The fat lady thinks - "that dirty old American must have tried to grope the blond and she whacked him"

** The American thinks - "That damned Brit put his hand on the blonde and she slapped me by mistake"

** The Brit thinks - "I can’t wait for the next tunnel so I can smack that stupid American again!"

There, that was more entertaining wasn’t it?

As for the signals

A stop signal has a red arm with a with band near to one end. When the arm is horizontal (consider when the beer is level in the glass), it means you have to stop (if YOU are driving the train).

If the arm is dangling (that’s the lower quadrant) then you don’t have to stop.

If there is a little notch cut out of one end then it’s a ‘Distant’ signal.

Beep Beep Beep….

Oh shucks! I’ve run out of time today. You’ll have to wait for the next thrilling article to learn more or alternatively nip down to your local newsagents and place an order for ‘Signalman’s Weekly’ or ‘Rail Signal Enthusiast’.

Until next time. zzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZ

Locomotive Turntable

Locomotive Turntable

Let’s have a quiz: Only one piece of information in this article is actually true. Can you work out what it is?

Just look at modern locos, there’s no front end and there is no back end – there’s only a middle. How in the world can you run an attractive railway outfit with unending locomotives? The answer is, of course, you can’t.

In the good ol’ days, that I’m too young to remember …..what will I call the olden days when I grow old? Will they be the bad ol’ days? Or the mediocre ol’ days? ….anyway, in the good ol’ days, locomotives weren’t designed to run high speed in reverse and in any case the driver couldn’t see where he was going. So engines had to be turned around when they reached the end of the line.

Picking up a one hundred and fifty ton chunk of iron and turning it around was no joke and the men, who were known as Turncoats, vanished into the walls every time another loco came into the yard for turning. Some people have the audacity to accuse me of making this up, but this is all Big G’s honest truth.

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Hornby Dublo's Solution



Anyway, the original idea was to make the train driver carry out a three point turn, but this required so much space and caused so many accidents when trains reversed into the station car park denting cars and squashing former passengers, that it was abandoned.

It was Linus Swivel who came up with the idea in 1432 after watching a siege engine in action at Reims. Build a large circular platform. Drive the engine onto the platform and then rotate the platform around a central pivot using a team of oxen. Fantastic! In typical British style though, the invention had to be taken overseas to receive the funding and accolade it deserved. Thankfully, it was good enough to usurp the new American concept of ‘Disposable loco’s’. When the engine reached the end of the line, it was dropped into a big hole for recycling at some later date.





Bored with this nonsense yet? I am. Hornby Dublo came up with a beautiful turntable, but I have to say that I found it much easier to pick the loco off the rails and turn it around by hand. This job was made even easier with the launch of the Hornby Dublo ‘Railer’. I understand that this is not really a decent way to behave over such a serious issue, but when you are alone in your loft (and the hatch is locked), then you can do what you like, can’t you? ……unless your name is Norm.

Norm you are an ace!

My Own Method of Turning The Train - 'The Dublo Railer'



Answer to the quiz: the story about turning trains using three point turns is actually the only true part of the article! Did you get that right? Perhaps the car park wasn’t the best place to carry out such maneuvers, but they used to have ‘Y’ turns or sidings for this function.

Hornby Dublo - 2 Track Engine Shed

I have accrued quite a few buildings for the set over the years, but only one of them counts as a genuine Hornby Dublo...... at least that's what I believe at the moment.

When Hornby launched Dublo in 1938 (sadly, Mr Hornby didn't make the debut party, having gone underground by this time....... was that a sick joke or what?) - the buildings and accessories were made from wood. Hand crafted! This was shortly replaced by diecast, which was considerably easier to mass produce.

1959 saw the introduction of plastic and the engine shed was the first item to receive the oil-based treatment. and it just so happens that this is what I have for you today!




For a well used plastic building celebrating its 50th birthday, it's in pretty good nick. If I make it to 50 with only a couple of lugs missing and a loose window, I shall be mightily pleased.

There was a minor hiccough when 2-rail Dublo was introduced, in that the buildings were designed for the extra height created by the thick 3 rail track. I don't think there were too many complaints and the range of buildings soon included lower platforms for 2-rail coaches. Least-ways, no-one sued for breaking a leg whilst stepping off a train.

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Did you know that every single second of every single day, more than 15,000 disposable nappies (diapers for the uninitiated) are thrown away. That's considerably more than 1.3 billion plastic nappies, each wrapped in its own plastic bag and transported by fleets of trucks to landfill sites around the world, every single day! ....and China and India are being targeted by the manufacturers as we speak.

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Now, I hope you're sitting down right now (...well, they must be if they're reading this, bonehead!) ....Guess what? Yep, it's boxed. Take a look at this and then go and change your underwear:




That's worth locking yourself in the bathroom for isn't it? You don't see many boxed buildings floating around.

I have many other buildings, but they are mostly home-built or Airfix models, that do not like being boxed, moved or in anyway touched. They break easily.

Trix Locomotive 80020 - Hot Snot!

Hot snot? - I am not altogether sure that is an appropriate term for this family blog, let alone a suitable metaphor for the locomotive, but all school boys worth their salt know everything there is to know about snot, so let's not play 'parenting' (you know that game, where you pretend to be shocked at something your child says or does, even though you have become far ruder and more gross than he?).

There is another more appropriate metaphor, that the Canadians have amended to their peculiar sensitivities as 'shoot off a silver shovel', but then they allow the whole family to use the word 'frig' knowing full well that this is just a sanitized version of the more commonly used, but vulgar term, which I decline to use here, cos' I would be banned by some of the parental control mechanisms on the Internet.

Parental control? That's a laugh! Mothers not allowing their little babies to watch the horrors widely shown on the daily news, but then plonking them in front of an animated video with all manner of gore and violence......and subjecting them to all manner of chemical and biological poisoning by feeding them trash and taking them to doctors to receive potentized chemical bombardment and............

Sorry about that...... I forgot to take my medication this morning!

Whilst browsing the net I came across this excellent book, which is a must-have for all model rail enthusiasts. Covering loads of the technical details and some devices of which I hadn't even heard of to make train operations more realistic and entertaining.
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Anyway, what we 'ave for your delectation today my luvlie's is another treat from Trix. I don't know nuffink' about it and can't find nuffink' about it either!



0-6-0 Locomotive #80020. Made in black molded plastic and the fastest thing on 3-rails. Scaletically (I just made that up), 80020 is too fast, but that doesn't stop little boys from having fun. Turn the controller up full and it will derail on any curve and even the slightest irregularity in the fish plates.

The plastic allows it to bounce though, so it is in good condition, despite the treatment I remember giving it 35 years (or more) ago. How long?

If you happen to know anything about the history of the original Deutsche Bundesbahn (DB) engine or even the date of manufacture of the Trix model, I should like to hear from you.

Class 5600/6600 Collett 0-6-2 Tank Engine

How in the blazes did Trix get in on the scene? Oi! Will someone lock that back door – all kinds of riff-raff are sneaking in here!

For some strange reason two Trix locomotives wound up in this collection. The first one shown here is in abominable condition. She’s lost her bogey (euch!) and someone (not me!) has taken a chipping hammer to the paintwork.

Trix, Class 5600 Collett 0-6-2 Tank Locomotive, No. 6664 in British Railways lined green livery

The Class 5600 Tank Locomotive was the design of Charlie Collett, who presumably was a steam fanatic like Mr Gresley and my Dad, who was actually a boiler maker on the steam locomotives. The first of the 5600 series came into service in 1924 and the last one removed from mainline service with British Rail in 1965. You have to assume therefore, that it was a pretty good engine!

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Mainly used for hauling coal from the pit heads of Wales (I am not calling the Welsh ‘pit-heads’ by the way …..although I knew a few who would fit that description quite well!) to the docks and factories and power stations.

Specification:

Water Capacity – 1900 gals
Coal Capacity – 3.75 tons
Boiler Pressure – 200psi
Weight – 62 to 69 tons (depending on who you believe), plus the fireman’s lunch box
Tractive Effort – 25,800lbs
Drivers Inside Leg – 24inches

Charles Collett was the Chief Mechanical Engineer for the Great Western Railways (GWR) and he it was, who thunked up this great little mover and shaker of a tank engine to replace the small and inefficient ‘coal rats’.

Two hundred of them were built between 1924 and 1928 and they ended up in all manner of jobs in many locations around the UK. As far as I know, nine of these engines have been saved from the scrap yard and I think five are in active service including this little baby at Swanage ‘6695’.

If you want a ride on one then I highly recommend the Swanage Railway Museum. Take a long weekend and some old clothes and get thoroughly sooty and sweaty amongst this great collection of steam trains and associated ironwork.

For some strange reason the engines were numbered 5600 to 5699 and 6600 to 6699. One must assume, must one, that the 6600 series were slightly modified from the 5600 series. The later series being about 1 ton heavier.

Here’s another one of those photo’s kindly stolen from Wikipedia, which is a great source of information, but not always trusted to be 100% accurate!

'6664' in the flesh!



As for the Trix model of ‘6664’ it is designed to run on 3 rail and does perfectly well on the Dublo track even though the electrics were wired somewhat differently.




Of course, this trix, 5600 Tank loco does not come with a box. I’m sorry, but the quality of red Trix boxes is nowhere near the Hornby Dublo standard. Half the weight, cheap wood pulp and ….well, that’s why there’s no box. Nothing to do with the verminous creature who took the chipping hammer to the locomotive!

Now then, the other Trix Twin loco is a different scuttle of coal entirely…..

Watering the Engine

Steam engines didn't just burn a huge pile of coal, they also sucked up and vented a massive volume of water. When a Coronation Class loco decided to 'lay down some rubber, man' ...hmmm? she could spew out as much as 45 gallons of vaporized water per mile of track. A little 0-6-0 tank, shunting stock in the yard, on the other hand might run for a whole shift on 50 or 60 gallons.

45 gallons per mile meant that the Ol' Duchess locomotive needed to carry a huge volume of water just to make it to Bill's mothers'! 5000 gallons of water plus 10 tons of coal makes for a pretty big tender and that wouldn't actually get her very far. She needed to take on water several times during a run from Liverpool Street to Edinburgh (does the Edinburgh train leave from Liverpool Street station?).

Bring on the Water Crane. (This is where it get's boring and anorak-ish)

Water cranes were often situated at railway stations so that the loco could refuel whilst stationery. The water crane was essentially a ginormous standpipe capable of dumping up to 10 cubic meters of water per minute into a tank. That would make filling the bath a bit quicker eh?

There. That's it. That's all you ever wanted to know about water cranes. If you really want to see one, I have it on good authority that the new Bullring/Moorhouse Station shopping center in Birmingham has one on display.

Water cranes weren't the only method of watering the engine, the alternative method of scooping it from a chute in the track bed, whilst on the move, was great fun for kids who liked getting wet. It wouldn't suit the environmentalists these days though. Maybe I will write more about that when I am less hungry. It must be time for a scooby snack!

Hornby Dublo's water crane with real moving arm! .....and a beautiful cardboard box in a rich deep blue colour:



I suppose I could explain that the water crane was usually fed from a header tank perched on the highest available rooftop or failing that from a .......you guessed it! ....a water tower! The greater the 'head' (for you Yanks, that's the vertical distance between the water level and the spout. I pick on the Americans, because they don't generally know anything about header tanks. The oomph behind the water tap in the average American household water supply is usually generated by a pressure tank, whereas the British preferred to place water storage tanks in their roof spaces to freeze in in the winter (character building you know) and also (poor grammar to use 'and' in conjunction with 'also') for drowning rats and mice and harboring all kinds of diseases. It also causes that delightfully British lack of shower power. sigh!

Here's Hornby Dublo's attempt at a water tank. It appears to be modeled on the powder pink tank on the Swanage line, although the Hornby designer was a little more crusty and couldn't bring himself to use powder pink for a boys toy I think it falls a little below the usual standard. It could have been modeled on one of the more ornate versions.

It's in good nick, but alas and alack - NO BOX!