Resurrecting a 1960s Tri-ang Blue Pullman

[oorail]

Hello,

A couple of months ago I picked up a 1960s Tri-ang Blue Pullman for about £12.49 on the American version of a popular on-line auction site. It was in pretty bad shape, wheels (not axles) broken in half, a thumb sized hole in the roof of the coach, non-running motor, peeling paint, several plastic cracks and portions were covered in what looked like several decades old glue. After a bit of effort, its now running in the later reversed grey / blue BR livery with updated running numbers, some photos below of before and after, and here is a link to a series of videos showing the work (if you just want to see it run, skip to the last video in the playlist) :)

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And then after:

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Enjoy!!

[The Doc]

I got myself a beaten up Tri-ang Blue Pullman last year (50th birthday present to myself)  and was really pleased by how well it ran.  The motor bogie was clearly well designed but an improvement I am considering is fitting metal wheels and homemade pick-ups to the non-powered bogie of the driving car.  I reckon 8 wheel pick up should be just the job.  Watching your video I'm surprised you cannot run it on more modern track.  Although the motor bogie flanges are very coarse, mine will negotiate the older Hornby and Peco code 100 points without a problem (the older streamline series that had larger gaps between rails and check rails are ideal but difficult to find secondhand).  I have seen replacement finer scale wheels on a well known auction site, but buying them would put your budget over the £20.15 mark of the challenge you tackled.