Ancient and modern; the newer one behind
and an older 1970's one in front, probably from the same source although I've
got evilBay images of several different packaging/brands . . . and yes; the
pale-orange wagon in the middle should be pink - a perfect example of the
opposite-origin to a 'smoke free house'!!
The older one is manufactured from
polystyrene with nylon or polypropylene wheels, and you can see the engine has
undergone some discoloration as well, but the others seem to have fared better.
The coupling is a hook-under-slot design.
Close-up with a pretty bog-standard 'Made
in Hong Kong' mark.
The newer train (still available if you
search-about I think?) is all polypropylene and the roof sections can be lifted-off
the four circus-wagon coaches, not a practical solution to anything cake or
birthday-related, but a method of allowing for two colours and a fancier
design!
Each roof is attached to a pair of circus
animals which, from the left are; tiger, lion, polar bear and blob!
The blob started life (in my head) as a
bearded-lady, or - after further study - a mermaid, but is in fact, I suspect,
meant to be a monkey?
The locomotives with their cow-catchers
already put the trains firmly over the pond as far as operation goes, but in
addition the clerestory-papoose wagons bringing-up the rear are also very
North-American, and follow the role of our 'guards/brake' wagon. Indeed the
external steps down to low platforms are an American design feature too.
You can see how the wheels follow the
earlier design but are not identical and the coupling as changed to a hook an
eye, but I still think they are from the same source as they follow both number
of items and colour of items rules.
Moving away from the larger train brings us
to the old George Musgrave design, also a candle carrier, but a much smaller
scale; paint it khaki and you could use it as a troop train with micro-armour .
. . at a touch!
We have looked at this one before, but more
(Hong Kong copies) have come in so a quick recap. The Festival packaging in the background and an extended train in the middle-ground
- mostly from my brother and my childhood's cakes! The cellophane bag has a
Hong Kong piracy as is the little pink tank-loco to the front-centre.
A point to note here is that the Festival train will only take the very
thin 'austerity' candles of post-war Britain while the HK trains take the
current 'fat-boys'! The two trains making-up the bulk of the post - however -
take both sizes and the larger Christmas candles for those heat-powered mobile
tinkley-brass things (look again at the papoose wagons).
The passenger wagons from the colony are a
tad smaller (and more colourful) but otherwise the same, pointing to some
pantography, but the 'Wild West' locomotive is a re-design with a slimmer but
taller chimney-stack and forward-set lantern, the whole being elongated
slightly with larger gaps between the wheels.
I don't know if the tank-engine is a copy
of a Festival model or something more
original thought-up by the chaps in Hong Kong (it could be a scale-down of the Lone Star Tripple-O train tank-loco?),
but I don't remember - as a kid - seeing anything other than the large 'Wild
West' one, of which we also had a blue one which has long-gone to the great
turntable in the sky!
In a different league altogether, and
carrying no candles! From the shininess of the tracks I assume a modern
casting, but probably from old Nuremberg-flat moulds, and I'm not sure if it's
'Der
Adler' (the Eagle - Germany's 'Rocket') or just a generic early dampflok
(one of those brilliant German words like krankenhause or krankenwagen which tells
you exactly what it means!), and sent to the Blog by Mr. Berke as a follow-up
to the previous micro-train post.
It's just charming! Although I'm not sure
I'd want the job of human bridge-gauge!
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