2019-08-31

The G van solution

Yesterday I was disappointed to find out that Oxford Diecast's supposedly OO scale Citroen H van was in fact HO and far too small to fit in my collection, and suggested OO modellers should avoid buying this model. I'm pleased to now report that I've found a potential solution for those who have already bought one and may be regretting it that possibly allows its use on an OO layout after all, as long as you're not hung up on historical accuracy.



Just like an H van that shrunk in the wash
(public domain image from Wikipedia)


Some further browsing of Citroenet brought to my attention the previously-unknown G van, a proposed little brother to the H from 1948 based on 2CV running gear and fitted with an enlarged 475cc version of the flat-twin engine. The most remarkable thing about this van is its styling: as can be seen in this fascinating photo, the G looks exactly like a scaled-down H with the very same pig-like snout and corrugated sides, just smaller all round!

About the same size as a 2CV


The G van never went into production and only one prototype survives in the Citroen museum, but with the application of some modellers' licence the Oxford model could, instead of an undersized H van, pass as an OO scale representation of a might-have-been G van catering unit. The model's wheelbase is virtually the same as that of Oxford's 2CV, the car on which the G van was based, so claiming it is in fact a G rather than an H is one way to get away with using it on an OO layout and that's what I intend to do.
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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous14 September 2019 at 00:43

    In my opinion, HO vehicles do not really look out of place on OO model railway layouts. Before the likes of Oxford and Classix it was necessary to use continental HO vehicles from Herpa, Wiking, Busch etc. In fact Bachmann often supplied HO Herpa cars and vans with their OO flat wagons until the late 1990s/early 2000s.

    These HO vehicles actually looked as good as or better than the modern diecast offerings, I would say. The new Herpa and Wiking HO products are superb, which I why I continue to use them despite the scale discrepancy. Of course the trick is not to put OO and HO vehicles together so that the difference in scale is difficult to spot.

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  2. Unknown19 July 2020 at 17:51

    Really interesting story on the Volvo f86. I have been a fan as my father was one of the the first hauliers to purchase an f-86 6 wheeler tipper from John hebbs of wootton in North East Lincolnshire. He bought the vehicle new in December 1967 and I believe that Volvo imported 167 lorries in this their first year of trading in the UK. My father subsequently bought two more f-86 tractor units and a 6 wheel f88 tractor unit to add to his growing fleet. Unfortunately he died from cancer of the spine in 1971 due to a fall from his lorry 18 months previously. I was born in 1966 but have memories of being with my father in his f-86 6 wheeler. He was called rod knapton.

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