Tank Engine Tuesday? No that’s not engines for tanks. I once saw a Matilda tank engine for sale on EBay and thought for a moment, it’s a start. A Matilda Tank on the Front Lawn would certainly be a conversation piece …
Anyway a DMZ demilitarised look at my occasional Sidetracked blog, where my gaming life sometimes overlaps with railways and model railways.
Ben, this lovely beast of a Tank Engine is still lurking in the family toy cupboards, along with this vintage handmade station with its tin and card adverts
“Bill and Ben are based on the Bagnall 0-4-0STs “Alfred” and “Judy” of Par [Docks] in Cornwall, who are both preserved and in working order at the excellent Bodmin and Wenford Railway in Cornwall.”
“According to the foreword of Thomas and the Twins,Alfred and Judy are both Bill and Ben’s twins. Alfred was once repainted yellow for a Days Out with Thomas event, to resemble Bill.”
One of the attractive sections of H.G. Wells’ Floor Games (1911) is the ‘lectric, or clockwork engines, the photographs of the cities and islands by his wife Amy Catherine (“Jane”) Wells and the charming drawings by illustrator J.R. (John Ramage) Sinclair.
Floor Games 1911
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The most attractive parts of railway modelling has always been the scenics and especially the figures, often a useful (but sometimes expensiv e source) of civilians for my DMZ Demilitarised Games – snowballers, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts / Guides …
Much as I like British railways and vanished quirky branch lines, I also like American railroads, Mixed Train Daily and Short Lines (Hello citizens of Bowdon!)
Blowing up Desert Trains:My own train from a tin in action last year
Martin Rapier’s The Games We Play blog armoured train.
Martin Rapier on his The Games We Play blog has done a fabulous conversion job on the good old train in a tin gift set, converting it into a sinister armoured train, useful for many scenarios
This is what you get in your Train in a TIN; this is after my Paint It Black phase, with the sticky labels removed.
It still all snugly packs away in the tin.
Colourful train before I painted it black …
What the Train in a TIN once looked like … my caboose should be red like this. mine was light blue before black paint
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Apples to Pears look like a fun company for unusual postable gifts in a tin. I was lucky enough to find my Train in a TIN in a charity shop (thrift or op shop) for about £4 , an unwanted gift but in full working order, even the AA battery still charged.
“We know you love gifts that move and catch attention which is why our original Train Set in a Tin continues to be a firm favourite.
This autumn sees the launch of a new design called “The Great Railway Express”. Presented in the new “big” Gift in a Tin size, the product is packed with a classic green train, carriages, plus extra track and accessories …” Available end of August 2017, Apples to Pears trade website 2017
Train in a TIN usually sells for about £10 to £12 and is not to be confused with other “Gifts in A Tin” companies like the variations on the “Tank in a TIN and not enough toy soldiers” set http://www.theoriginalgift.co.uk/ogc/tank-in-a-tin and other suppliers, the battery powered tank being “a tiny replica of the American M41 Walker Bulldog light tank, in operation from 1953 to the present day”.
And now Train in a BOX …
Slightly cheaper without the TIN at around £7, the Click-a- Track Miniature Train Set from dotcomgiftshop / Rex international has more track and a switching point. They have a ‘dotcomgiftshop’ seller site on Ebay and their own website at https://www.dotcomgiftshop.com/traditional-miniature-battery-operated-train-set
I bought this one from hobby craft and modelling mail order store Fred Aldous.
Atmospheric and attractive ‘train in a box’ packaging. Train artwork By B. Rowney.
I like the vintage or retro look of the packaging, the railwayana look of the station board titles and vintage looking font. This is continued in the small details such as the railway tickets.
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“Relive the Great Era of Passenger and Goods Rail Conveyance” – tickets to travel to the zoo – and all for well under a tenner!
The box unpacked – first view of the colourful contents. .
More British themed wagons in this set from British Town and Country Railways (BT&CR) to a milk caboose for Wardle and Browns Dairy Farm Co. A handy sign elsewhere on a building or hoarding if repainting this caboose.
A suggested track layout on the box back – and no free AA battery included.
The way click a track works there are only limited flexible options for the layout.
A different layout from the box back.
The manual track point switch is robust and simple.
The suggested track layout on the box
Two of the larger ‘train in a box’ sets would give you point circles at either end, three a point midway along etc.
What happens if you combine tracks from the tin and the box sets?
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Comparing track packs between Train in a TIN and Train in a BOX
Deconstructing Trains
The battery train and rolling stock have an engaging waddle and easy coupling. Fresh batteries make the engine rather too enthusiastic and coltish at times.
I unscrewed and added a small stone to inside the caboose (painted black, not red) to add some weight at the back. The coal tender in the Train in a Box set has already a chunky addition of bolt or washer inside to add weight and stability.
Whilst unscrewing the rest of the rolling stock out of curiousity to see where a liitle weight could be added, I noticed some interesting tinkering possibilities.
Deconstructing trains … to make different wagons or put some weight inside.
Taking the engines apart suggests that you could adapt the engine to something more British or European. With its body off, the engine looks very functional and narrow gauge.
A different sort of simple WW1 light military railway type locomotive could be made with a scratch-built battery cover.
Train in a TIN comes with simple building instructions and some handy operating tips.
Helpful tips from applestopears – not suitable for unders 3s.
More deconstructed trains
The narrow gauge look to the deconstructed wagons reminded me of another cheap plastic toy, an old Greendale Rocket loco, spotted as the cover toy on the front of a Children’s BBC Postman Pat comic. It is a child’s wheeled push-along toy train that fortuitously fits the track (albeit with wheels astride or outside the track).
Those versatile PPP Peco tunnel ends and a cheap plastic magazine cover toy train that looks a little like the Greendale Rocket steam train that it is supposed to be out of Postman Pat (Magazine c.2009)
The whole delightful Greendale Rocket vintage episode – a mini Titfield Thunderbolt for the tinies – can be found on Postman Pat Official channel on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or1g6RBJc38
Playing with a mix of trucks and cheap plastics, here goes nothing:
A narrow gauge feel to this set up.
Blacked up tender feels even more narrow gauge with 30mm-ish pound store figures.
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No buffers at the back, just a sticker. This lovely little loco needs some suitable paint and one of the Train in a Tin spare couplings added.
Light railway cargo on my deconstructed train in a TIN carriage bodies.
Coffee stirrer and matchstick carpentry could be used to make rough waggon sides and floors to fit these waggon bodies.
Two ‘train in a TIN’ and ‘train in a box’ sets compared
Track layouts played around with.
Rolling stock deconstructed leading to
a complete sidetracked tangent to Postman Pat and Pound Store Plastics.
What next?
I am busy working on an unusual new history inspired, railway linked Man of TIN / Sidetracked gaming scenario c. 1840s over the next week or two. All requiring a bit of research, some scrounging around for suitable figures, some quick painting and a simple new terrain on the 192 Hexes of Joy game board.
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Sidetracked 