At a running session in Northants yesterday it became apparent that our Christmas surprise announcement was leaking into the ether.

Accordingly I 'outed' our surprise. In view of this I feel bound to formally announce that the item is a magnificent and improved reproduction of Carette's Water Tower. This was probably the finest lithographed line side building ever put out by any of the great makers and it was issued a century ago.

Barry Potter who was at the meet had no recollection of auctioning one in gauge 0 or indeed seeing one.

I know some members had made the assumption of what this item was so tomorrow Mike will post on ATOC our latest advertisement in the HRCA Journal . As not all of the ATOC members are connected with the HRCA I felt this was the best course.

In the ad I stress that there will be only one run of this item designated AC/2.

Whether you are a potential purchaser or not your comments would be appreciated after you have viewed to morrows posting and hopefully many new sightings of the originals will come to light. Does anyone know in which BL or other catalogue this was listed?.I think there is a picture of one in an early Bassett Lowke handbook.

IMG_3403 by scammellman, on Flickr

This is a picture of the Water Tower in question, to be found on page 144 of the Bassett Lowke story by Ronald Fuller.

Rickmansworth station still has the real thing standing there today just as a matter of interest.

Keith

Thanks for your detective work.

As I published Roland Fuller's book I knew I had seen this picture somewhere!

The one illustrated is of course the Gauge 1 version which had a waterproofed tank so water filling was possible by pulling the chain. They thought better of it for gauge O. A funnel with a narrow neck was the preferred water filling method. Hornby had a similar water release valve. Not sure where the water was meant to go in their range of locos.The Carette version in gauge 1 had a removable back panel. The original gauge 0 version was open at the back. Not sure why.The ACE version has a fully tabbed on back panel.

Thanks again for refreshing my memory. I still wonder why this item does not seem to appear in any catalogues I have seen. But then maybe I have not seen them all.

I found this pic on a TCS website.
There are several glimpses of a 'repro' Carette water tower.
Appears very similar to the picture in the Bassett Lowke book that KMR52 posted, although this time in O Gauge.
Looks great and don't those 'old boys' look as if they are having a great
time with a clockwork layout set out on the carpet !!!

Can't wait to see the ACE version Allen.

Regards,

Barry
http://www.traincollectors.org.uk/quincy.htm

If any one wants to see one of the "O" Gauge originals, by Carette, there is a picture on page 86, in "A Century of Model Trains", written and published, as most will know, by Allen.
I assume that this is the actual piece that the "Ace" version is based on, I am sure that Allen will verify this, or not.
For my own part, I think that this is a great choice for Christmas, so well done Allen for choosing to make this.

This is from a good friend in the USA.

Dear Allen

I do not have a membership to the ATOC forum (I thought I did but cannot seem to locate a password for it)
At any rate this is in answer to your question on the water tanks in the BL catalogs. Please feel free to post any or all of this email.

I found the tank in some of the BL catalogs I have, it is in my earliest catalog dated Nov. 1912.
It is pictured (the gauge 1 variant) and described as a “Water Tank”
“SA” tank size 1¾” x 5” x 4”, price 7/6
“SB” tank size 3” x 8” x 6”, overall height 13”, price 12/6

It appears again in Nov 1913 in the same ad with the addition of the overall height for the SA size of 7¼”, prices remained the same.
In Nov. 1915 everything remains the same with the exception of the “SB” price being reduced to 10/6 ( they must not have been selling well)

My 1918 catalog is woefully missing the pages that would have contained the tank had it still been available.
The next catalog I have is 1921 and it is definitely gone by then (however leftover gauge 1 Carette coaches are still for sale)
I would expect the tank is also in the 1911 catalog, but unfortunately I am not lucky enough to possess that catalog.

Best regards,
Roland C Digilio Jr

Now I am of course aware of the picture in my second New Cavendish book ( the first being a reproduction of 'Frank Hornby the boy who made a million dollars with a Toy') but clearly
I have missed the catalogue entries above and I am very grateful to Roland for his contribution.

Roland you must join up you will be a great addition to the general body of knowledge of our subject. ACE is just an extension of a glorious past because without my interest in what went before ACE could not have just happened as it would not have had a solid foundation to build upon.

PS. To answer Howard's question Brian Wright was fortunate to be able to photograph Mike Little's near mint example. The ACE version has a longer chain that did not require a giant in O scale to pull it. It also has a proper walkway on the front rather than a one dimensional printed one. In addition we have added working lamps at diagonal corners with 24 Volt bulbs. We have fitted a swing arm ( as in the gauge 1 version), the original gauge 0 version having a non moveable pipe coming straight off the tank. We slightly altered the proportions so that the tower will sit between parallel Hornby tracks fed by two foot radius points. Bassett Lowke/Carette did not of course have to consider the needs of Hornby a hundred years ago!.

Some additional advertisements and the rest is all 'homage' to its great predecessor.

The link to the Web site to view the pictures of the Water Tower

http://www.acetrainslondon.com/NEWS/recadvertisment.html


regards
Mike

Having seen the water tower in the ACE web site advertisement, if it's half as good looking as that, it will be a classic from day one.

Thanks to Allen, Brian and ACE for having the will and the skill to create such an accessory.

Thank you.

So... having seem some wonderful layouts in the gallery, now will be made more wonderful with a real tinplate water tower. Can't wait.

...and not forgetting the Met B0-B0 in the same ad.

Mark

Thanks for your positive reaction to the Water Tower.i have some printed sheet. It will look precisely as the cad scan in the advertisement.

AC/2 was originally proposed some time ago and was illustrated on the website with a green E/3 'Celebration' alongside.

However the brief to Brian became confused ( there were a lot of other things going on) and the artwork resembled the water tower at Abingdon near where Brian lived. I said that it must be based on the Carette gauge 0 version with improvements that are now evident.Thanks are due to Mike Little who allowed Brian to photograph his very rare near mint example as long as that was done 'in situ' on his Tinplate Layout.

However at the centre of things was Steve Guest who redesigned and made a card model of AC/2 making sure it could stand between Hornby loops or dead end sidings fed by 2ft radius points and looked right. So I must pay due acknowledgment to Steve and of course Len who is never short of valuable input. The lights in particular were his suggestion which I immediately sanctioned.

Water Tower pictures are now on the Web site
have a look
http://www.acetrainslondon.com/display%20pages/ac2watertower.html
regards
Mike

Are these amazing water towers available yet? And if so, where can a Yankee purchase one?



Thanks,
John.

Download an order form from the website and we would hope to deliver one before Christmas.

Please mail the order form and we will advise you of the shipping costs.

In the meantime your interest is noted without obligation.

Regards

Allen Levy
ACE Trains

Thank you Allan, will do. I'm looking forward to this one.



John.

OK, order form filled out and prited, will get it in the post ASAP.


Thanks,
John.

We will be providing two figures who will occupy both left hand cabs of the Met loco ( looking forward).

We are having a mould made at this time. Can anyone confirm the colour of the drivers uniforms. I thought they were black but I cannot remember the reference.Perhaps they were dark blue. Met and LT will be the same.