Ask a stupid question, get a brilliant answer...

[Chops]

In another thread, I was asking about commercially available Early British Steam and electric, and received two excellent replies, including this
image. What in the world is that spectacular contraption in the upper right corner? I tried to Google it, and came up with Canadian National Railways
roster- nope. In fact, what is the whole top shelf made of? Does anyone make this stuff? Would anyone buy it if it was commercially available?

[Mountain Goat]

The first two are Great Northern Railway locomotives. They are not RTR. I am unsure if they were available as kit built, but my guess is that they were scratchbuilt.
The next loco near it looks something like "Lion"? (I am "Sketchy" with some locos like this).
Second row... a Southern Railway USA dock tank (USA made loco imported into the UK during WW2?), Southern Railway R1, Stevensons Rocket.
Third row.... GWR "City of Truro", LNWR (London And North Western Railway) 2-2-2.
Fourth row... GWR broad gauge single (Not sure exact class but I seem to remember these used to be 2-2-2's but were altered to be 4-2-2's to steady them at speed. They had long passed the 60mph barrier and I read of some touching close to 80? Due to the greater speeds and the stresses on the rails at such high speeds, they had to alter the broad gauge from 7ft to 7ft and a quarter of an inch. Later standard gauge also had to be altered from 4ft 8 inches to 4ft 8 and a half inches. I am not too sure when these changes were made but I am guessing the 1860's or somewhere in the decade before or after).
Next to this is a very early GWR loco. The next one I am puzzled about. The last. It looks GWR by the style of the nameplate. Very early GWR locos I am "Sketchy" on. The shape of the cylinders and the way the design of the wheel splashers are tends to remind me of some Scottish locos as well... It is interesting!
Final row is a various mix of things...
Those little signs. They are not prices are they? If they are they are way too much even for an expertly made scratchbuild! Take of a zero and it is pushing it!

[platelayer]

Lion aka Titfield Thunderbolt.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF56_x2K4f4

Titfield, now and then.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWlbZnBPtOM

[RogerB]

Lovely to see all that footage. Brings a lump of nostalgia to the throat. R-

[bulleidboy]

I remember seeing that film when it was released - I'm getting old

Lovely collection of loco's Chops - not my era.

[Nick Holliday]

The first two are Great Northern Railway locomotives. They are not RTR. I am unsure if they were available as kit built, but my guess is that they were scratchbuilt.
The next loco near it looks something like "Lion"? (I am "Sketchy" with some locos like this).
Second row... a Southern Railway USA dock tank (USA made loco imported into the UK during WW2?), Southern Railway R1, Stevensons Rocket.
Third row.... GWR "City of Truro", LNWR (London And North Western Railway) 2-2-2.
Fourth row... GWR broad gauge single (Not sure exact class but I seem to remember these used to be 2-2-2's but were altered to be 4-2-2's to steady them at speed. They had long passed the 60mph barrier and I read of some touching close to 80? Due to the greater speeds and the stresses on the rails at such high speeds, they had to alter the broad gauge from 7ft to 7ft and a quarter of an inch. Later standard gauge also had to be altered from 4ft 8 inches to 4ft 8 and a half inches. I am not too sure when these changes were made but I am guessing the 1860's or somewhere in the decade before or after).
Next to this is a very early GWR loco. The next one I am puzzled about. The last. It looks GWR by the style of the nameplate. Very early GWR locos I am "Sketchy" on. The shape of the cylinders and the way the design of the wheel splashers are tends to remind me of some Scottish locos as well... It is interesting!
Final row is a various mix of things...
Those little signs. They are not prices are they? If they are they are way too much even for an expertly made scratchbuild! Take of a zero and it is pushing it!

The first loco is a GNR Stirling 8ft single. Kitmaster made a plastic kit of it, which this might be, and there have been other metal kits since, not to mention the recent RTR version. The next is the NER Aerolite. I'm not aware of any kit yet, so could be scratch built, although the Triang couplings spoil it. The third is Lion, perhaps from the K's kit, as probably the next, almost off stage, a Metropolitan 4-4-0 tank.
Second row starts with the Southern USA tank, perhaps the RTR version, or kit built. The next is an LBSCR E2 tank, possibly an improved Hornby model, or the old Wills kit on a Triang chassis. The train on the right is the Triang Hornby Stephenson Rocket set, from the sixties, and not the latest incarnation.
City of Truro could be the Airfix kit, or even the GBL moulding (some of the locos on the top of the picture look as if they migh be from this series) whilst the LNWR loco is the unique 8'6" Cornwall, for which there was a white metal kit, and the accompanying coaches are from K's, nicely painted but sloppily made.
The first broad gauge loco is either an Iron Duke or their later renewal, around 1871, as Rovers. They were built as 4-2-2, (theoretically an 2-2-2-2 as the front carrying wheels were not in a bogie) and not altered. It was the later standard gauge 2-2-2 locos that received the bogie. K's produced a white metal kit for it in their Milestoens range. The next one is probably North Star, sans tender, maybe scratch built. The 0-6-0 is rather crude in comparison, and has the looks of the standard gauge locos temporarily rendered as broad gauge locos, and converted back in 1892, at the end of the broad gauge. The last loco, in black, is another LNWR loco, the 2–2-2 Lady of the Lake or Problem class, another K's Milestone kit.
The extra quarter of an inch was added to the broad gauge very early, and was not really as a result of any high speeds being attained, but more to reduce the amount of friction on the flanges. Although the Liverpool and Manchester Railway was opened as 4' 8" in the 1830's, the extra half inch was added shortly afterwards.
There is quite a mix of stuff on the lowest shelf, notably a Wisbech and Upwell Tramway loco and carriage, which look as if they might be brass, built from D & S kits, probably. There are a number of narrow gauge locos in the background, and far right is an attempt at an L&YR steam railmotor, in LMS livery.
If the labels are in fact prices, they might be in Yen, for which the current exchange rate is around 140 to the pound.

[Chops]

Very helpful replies. I had the Triang Rocket, and wore it out in short order, spent the next thirty years trying to restore the motor to no avail. I couldn’t wait to get the new Rocket, and it is a gem among gems. Hornby did a superlative job. I am being careful not to use it up like I did with the old Triang.

Question, and certainly the market people have discussed this, is there a buying public for these grand old early, early steamers, like The Lion, or for that matter, The Planet?