Milbro / Bassett Lowke outside 3rd rail track

[Carey Williams]

Hello Mates

Anyone out there an expert or at least self proclaimed expert in the world of outside 3rd rail on the other side of the pond ?

Ebay is just great, with a click of a mouse something that was cluttering a closet in England can magically make it's way to yours .

Outside 3rd rail seems to have played a roll in the English O scale world ... assumed the same window of time as in America + - ....

Listed as Bassett Lowke track ......but upon arrival there are two different tie arrangements .... and a few pieces are stamped Milbro 10R .... the curves (17 in total) all seem to be the same radi ...and would make a 10' circle ...... unfortunately ..20 pieces are needed to make a COMPLETE circle .

So any loose sections of Milbro / Bassett Lowke outside 3rd rail track out there ? Some straights would be very nice also .....

Since this is nice light sectional track (once a completed circle can be obtained) ..thought would be to beg and plead with the Chicago or Indy show to set up a demonstration loop to have moving door stops , beyond my 6' section .

I've done a bit of searching on the WWW for info about Milbro and BL with their outside 3rd rail ... some parts listing from the late 30s' ..but no photos to be able to tell if BL used the other tie pattern track. Note two different rail chairs ...and of course a unique rail profile ... two different types of sleepers ? ...

Thank you
Cheers Carey

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[sarge]

No expert, self proclaimed or otherwise, but do have a bit of a background since the 60's, so perhaps can shed some light.

That is what is known as "coarse standard" trackage. If you look, you'll notice holes and a chair "ghost" for inside third, which was very commonly used by practitioners of B/L and Hornby in coarse standard. There was also quite the following of two-rail coarse, which might explain the removed inside third of your trackage, though still in coarse standard. LMC and higher end B/L were in this format, for example. B/L also gave you a choice of clockwork or electric in their locos.

Outside third was used usually by SR modellers for electric locos, as the prototype SR mainlines west out of London were electrified by an outside third rail on a some higher chair than the ones for the running rails. Outside third in model form was most often used to replicate the prototype rather than as an alternative to inside third or two-rail as in America.

So, what you have of B/L is "LowkO" ready made track. It came usually with tin rail and formed tin chairs. It could also be had in kit form with brass rail. To confuse things further, you could get components, cast chairs in linen bags, brass fishplates, sleepers, a smaller "I" beam centre rail with a special taller chair, and the longitudinal battens to tie the sleepers together, all in the "Small Scale Model Permanent Way" range to either upgrade LowkO or make your own.

That said, yours appears to be LowkO, some nicely upgraded cast chairs, with the third rail inside removed, and an outside third added by the owner to replicate SR practice.

Here are some photos of various components I have kicking about here, well travelled as the sleepers are still packaged in an early 70's copy of a paper from Port Elizabeth in the RSA.

bl05.jpg

bl04.jpg

bl03.jpg

bl02.jpg

bl01.jpg

[sarge]

Further, you might find this useful. From the September 1928 B/L catalogue:

bl06.jpg

bl07.jpg

bl08.jpg

Use and interpret as you see fit.

BTW, Milbro was Mills Brothers from, I believe, Sheffield. Their trackage and components are made to like standards (yes compatibility was important even in the 20s in UK O) so you should find those bits should work together with minimum effort. Milbro was a long lived commercial enterprise, one of several beyond the most well known (B/L, Hornby, LMC)

[Carey Williams]

Hello Sarge
Thank you very much for your posting of the catalog pages and insight in our rail brothers from the other side of the pond .

The center rail "shadow " is present on a few pieces ... but not on most.

Fun the learn all the different things that were tried along the way.
CheersCarey