0 Gauge in Paper & a Build Thread

[Plumdragon]

Hello Friends Inspired by a tale of a boxful of old tinplate trains someone discovered, I decided to pick up a few loose ends and get creating something new with my own paper trains. I love making these, because they're good and chunky, and relatively straightforward to design. These models are to the traditional 1/4" scale, to match U.S. sizes, and are designed to run on old Lionel or Hornby track, the really chunky stuff
Everything is card and paper, apart from wood skewer axles.
I will be posting a build thread for the little N.E.R loco; it's a thread I created for my defunct FB Page, and I will post it in 'short bursts' as if I'm actually building the model, although of course it was done a couple of years ago now (and is full of dust!)
So, here we have my N.E.R Rly 0-4-0 tank loco, a 3rd Class carriage to hang on the back, a "Birdcage" Brake Van to trail the goods train I intend to make, and the side view is a composite of the parts for the job in hand, the utterly bizarre N.E Elephant Truck. Someone pass me a 1/4" scale paper elephant, please....
Hope you find something of interest here!
Plumdragon

[Don Boose]

Wonderful!

I look forward to the loco build thread.

Don

[Plumdragon]

Thanks, Don :-) There is a little work involved, as the font I used on the FB thread is utterly unreadable on this Forum! So I'm re-writing everything :-) The first pics will be along soon....
Alll Aboard!
Plumdragon

[SCEtoAUX]

Those are some nice looking rolling stock. Nice gauge size too.

[Plumdragon]

Thank you SCEtoAUX :-) I have designed paper models for '00' and 'N', but there's something very gratifying about this scale, and I think for me as a designer, it's largely that the linework is easier to create for this size, especially as I work with Photoshop 7 and don't benefit from vectoring lines and all the other modern appurtenances (I'm still very Old School!) But it's just such a nice size anyway!
My aim is to evoke something of the glory days of lithographed tinplate, with my own little twists; if you study the handrails on the "Birdcage" you'll see I added shadows to the bodysides, and things like shading in the deep window recesses and highlights on planking.
These models are made to run on track with a minimum radius of 27" (hence, no bogie coaches or 6-coupled loco's - yet!) and you may also notice the lack of brake fittings on all of these - the models need quite a bit of sideplay in the wheels to get round those kind of corners and negotiate my wonky track!
But the best bit is, it's not too difficult to fit an old Tri-ang clockwork motor and get yourself a working loco :-)
Plumdragon (hoping I haven't bored you all too much !)

[Plumdragon]

Making a start, this is the first installment of the building of the N.E.R tank loco. Apologies for repeating myself again with my working methods (as seen in other posts!) but I hope that any railfans/modelers will find something helpful here
Plumdragon

[Plumdragon]

Perhaps I should mention the Guage/Quatering Setter I made up for this model. Of course, anyone who has built a model loco in something other than paper is usually blessed with a set of wheels that have these things built in; not so here! By using this gadget, along with alignment marks on the rolled paper axle, the results were quite good - at least, the wheels went round, nothing got too bent, and when motorised the loco happily chugged around until the spring unwound....
Plumdragon

[Burning Beard]

These are great, I look forward to your progress, reporting, and possible kits.

Beard

[peter taft]

Very nice, and very interesting indeed !

[Plumdragon]

Thank you, Peter & Burning Beard :-) There is a possibility that I may offer something down the line (no pun intended!) but the main addition needed for anything I would offer is, of course, some sort of instruction sheet - and they do take a lot of work! For the while though, I shall just be doing the models, but I'll bear in mind offering anything if there's enough interest :-)
Plumdragon