Wrenn

[Fazy]

I remember when I was a child looking at all the Hornby locomotives I wanted in the model railway shop. And tucked away in one corner the display case with all the Wrenn locos and stock in it. Always wanted the SR Spam cans. And after looking on eBay I keep seeing them pop up for sale.  Now the question is Should I go for it and buy the odd one just for the fun of it.

I know the detail won't be upto today's standards but I don't care about that. Are they wroth getting as in are they good  runners? Can the be converted to DCC.  How much to pay with out being ripped off.  Or should I leave them as a child memory of what might have been. 

[Fazy]

Sorry should have mentioned the classes I keep looking at are the 8f Princess Duchess and the SR has built and rebuilt Pacific's

[Tony57]

 Hi Fazy

I have a collection of 20 Wrenn engines yes I would buy spam cam to go with my Rebuilt West Country and Duchesses, yes they are good runner if maintained correctly. The Duchess are the same size as the Hornby Duchess of Sutherland. The spam cams, West Country and Merchant Navies are all the same size and are smaller than the current Hornby ones.

Prices around the £100 -£140 mark is the going rate for the more common ones 4 6 2's some of the rarer ones the sky's the limit. 

Not sure about DCC fitting as I am a DC modeller

[LCDR]

 There are as always pros and cons.

Wrenn has recently gone out of business, although the HRCA does have some people listed in their Sparess Directory who can supply a lot of spares still. (You need to be a member to get access to this)  Wrenn locos were built to Meccano Hornby Dublo specification so they are very robust (but not indestructable!) . They will run well if kept well maintained, cleaned and lubricated, and are powerful too. Compared to modern Hornby and Bachmann they are less finely detailed, but at 'normal viewing distance' they look fine.

 

Wrenn had a very cavalier attitude to accuracy of liveries applying many fictitious colour schemes to increase sales. These tend to be popular with collectors, and some of the rarer ones can fetch ridiculous prices.

 

I have quite a few Wrenn locos, and they are a useful part of my collection.

[Tony57]

 The current owners of Wrenn are still trading but are selling off all the remaining stock. No new locomotives or coaches, have been made since early 90's, limited edition trucks have been made using old stocks of wagon chassis and bodies and with new bodies made by Dapol using the original tooling, A few rare locos may have been produced from parts when the owners of Dapol brought all Wrenn stocks and machinery. (Period 5)

The current owners were just starting to make new metal bodies both the air smoothed and rebuilt west country were done and they had done some trials on the metal 8F body. Not sure what is happening at present. A lot of collectors were asking for new motorised chassis to go with the bodies but to no avail.

[LCDR]

 I had heard that Wrenn had shut up shop, so it is good to hear they are still selling spares. It would be sad if this was lost forever.

[poliss]

This is what I read a while ago. "14th JULY 2015 It is with regret that the Directors of G & R Wrenn Ltd. have decided that we will cease trading from the middle of October 2015."

Their website no longer works.

[walkingthedog]

There are several 'Wrenn' type web sites, what was the address of the actual Wrenn site poliss? 

[poliss]

http://www.gandr-wrenn.co.uk/

[walkingthedog]

Thanks poliss. Shame they're gone.  

[LCDR]

 I thought I had read it.

[Tony57]

 Hi

I am one the an email list from Wrenn and I received this message at christmas.

As you know G&R wrenn are no longer trading and any spares or items you may need will still be available via Maurice via the wrenngalore ebay shop or direct. Plus we have 2 websites to check for anything you may need now or in the future.

www.wrenngalore.co.uk     and    www.moorwrenn.co.uk

Stock from the company will be available again and advertised in the new year January/Febuary.

Tony

Wrenn Collectors Club Member 178

 

 

[Tony57]

Hi

It appears Wrenngalore is back up and trading following a management restructure, just ordered a brand new metal spam can body  plus bits and name plate and numbers.

Brought a Lymn Regis which is a rebuilt west country in Southern green, with the new body hope to make it into a air smoothed version. 

[81F]

 My second loco was an LMS 0-6-2. I eventually reused the chassis for a Barry Railways B1 with scratch built body. This Loco is still on the books and just needs finishing. Since then in my quest for nostalgia I have bought two more  (LMS and LNER plus 2 R1s and my favourite a GWR Standard Class 4 2-6-4T the latter looks mint but got it for much less than I have seen it advertised for. I think the seller had wrongly described it so those looking for one would not have found it while others who wanted what the description said it was would have walked away!