Rana Temporia

I’m sure that some people have used salt to produce that rusty weathered finish, presumably under the paint? I have also read about people using chalk dust and tried it on an Airfix pug, the results were quite good.

Great post. Unfortunately I don’t have room for a lathe and search out damaged later versions of the Dock Shunter and DMU which had closer to scale wheels in junk boxes at swapmeets or on eBay. The main problem with them is that they have rubbishy plastic cogs that strip on the axle or totally disintegrate. I swap the wheels onto the axle with brass cogs and then sell the old wheels on. There is always someone who wants them. The axles are standard Tri-ang loco ones as are the wheel insulators which makes things easier. I know I live in the UK which probably makes finding them easier but they are coming up less now than they did a few years ago.

What might be of interest is that the Manchester Metrolink is designed to go round curves that are a scale 15” or Hornby first radius. Also, the 9F and some early locos aren’t the only ones with flangeless wheels, some short wheelbase industrial locos also has flangeless central wheels due to the extremely tight curves they worked on in steelworks and the like. Prototype for everything!

For the Manchester end of the line you need the Manchester and Salford Sheet 32 surveyed in 1849 and published in 1851, all the turntables Bee refers to are clearly visible in Liverpool Road Station. Aussie Fred, if you come to the UK again I think you can get the full OS App free for a short while which has all the up to date UK maps on it and works off GPS rather than the phone signal providing your smartphone can access it. I have had no problems using it in the far North of Scotland or down in Cornwall on my phone. I do pay an annual subscription direct to OS as it’s cheaper than going through the App Store, I think it’s about £25 a year and much better than having a box full of outdated tatty OS maps. As we do a lot of mountain walking, being able to pin point where you are if the cloud suddenly drops is great and although I usually still have a compass and map with me I hardly ever use them now. I think there is a free version of the OS App with limited mapping information on it.

If you want to look at old British OS maps for the whole of the UK try googling the National Library of Scotland, I think NLSMaps will find them. Totally free unlike the rest of the UK, which for the other repositories is a bit pointless. There is everything right back to the 18:00s on there. Apparently the Scottish government decided that as the public had already paid for the production of the maps they should be free, how true it is I don’t know but it’s a fantastic resource.

I have seen those N models for sale at swapmeets for as little as 50p a go. Possibly good for 009 conversions?

Threelink, I couldn’t agree more. If I wanted an ornament for the engine shed I’d get one of the Amercom/GBL static models and paint it properly…..but then I’d probably end up motorising it anyway. My late Father's layout still has some Tri-and locos in the engine shed, amongst some of the later locos they don’t look out of place and help give the desired impression. I have posted a reply to Bill but it’s waiting for moderation due to a photo. Some of the Atlas models are on Amazon currently at all of the first 6 in the range for <£50 including postage from somewhere in Europe, possibly Spain. Someone has replied in Spanish that they are advertised as metal when in fact they are plastic and the bits fall off them. It wouldn’t stop me getting another. Also a shame that most if not all of the actual locos rather than the MUs in the range have been done by the major manufacturers, yes it makes them easy to motorise but the bodies are no better than the existing ones. Many of the range are on eBay in the £10 to £11 bracket or even less if you buy in multiple and the sellers are open to offers. These are new, boxed, fairly good HO models, admittedly much less robust than the Triang models that this thread is about but for the prices they are great. I doubt all the sellers in the UK, Europe and the far East are selling them at a loss so where have the prices come from? They can’t all be from discounted clearances unless the production was ridiculously over the demand worldwide. Such a shame the only UK model I am aware of is the class 81. A nice L&Y or Merseyrail EMU would have been good as would an EM1 or EM2.

Bill, I only have one, the main moulding and the finish is superb but the steps and other bits fell off when I got it out of the box. I think I only paid a pound or two for it new, at one point they were on Amazon at 10 different for £60 including delivery. I did also think about getting their HO class 81 as a number of people have posted how to motorise one. I will do the EMU at some point, I have the Tenshodo and replacement pantographs but some of the bits might have to stay off if I can’t locate where they go. These models are designed to be motorised and not only prototypes that the main manufacturers haven’t touched but were available at a silly low price, they probably still are.

Topcat, unfortunately speaking from experience. Also, sometimes it’s not always obvious where the bits go. If I’m disposing of my late father’s stock I photograph them and put them in the box wrapped in tissue paper with a note to the buyer. I know it’s probably not strictly a loco but I bought a very nice looking Atlas Editions SNCF OH EMU for very little money, ordered the correct power bogie for it and looked forward to motorising it, only for a lot of small bits to fall off it when I took it out of the box. It’s back in the box with the bits in the bottom.

Like a lot of people on here I enjoy fixing Triang trains and have been doing so since my pre-teen days out of necessity. If the EM1/37/31 power bogie is set up well it runs perfectly, especially on Super 4 track but acceptably on steel more modern rails. They don’t run that well on nickel silver without the magnadhesion but they were designed to run on steel rail. The later versions with additional pick=ups on the other bogie are better, as are the Hymeks with basically the same bogie. I used to buy job lots of broken trains and I have always been able to get the Triang/Playcraft/Earlty Hornby/Trix etc working unless I purposefully stripped them for spares. I can’t say the same for some of the more modern highly detailed ones that I have been unable to get the parts for, they have all gone off to someone else via an online auction. Unfortunately i have been working my way through my late father’s collection on eBay and to be honest even getting the modern locos out of their boxes to check they work (which some don’t despite I suspect never having been run) terrifies me. They are so fragile and full of bits that drop off with very little persuasion. If I was getting something for a child a Desmond/holden tank type that will run and is fairly robust would be near the top out my list, other than that a later version of the Dock Shunter with mega speed, power, light and nothing to break off the body would be a good choice. I still have my original one but it’s retro- fitted with the later wheels (I also have around a dozen others as well in the various colour and number combinations.) I would still buy Triang trains if I wasn’t making a rather pathetic attempt at downsizing…….but then I might always need some more Triang clockwork locos!

If it won’t run on 1st radius curves it’s no use to me. I live in a small house and by necessity use them.Happily all my Triang, early Hornby and continental locos don’t have an issue. My Jouef 2-10-0 runs round them very happily with all wheels flanged, the Triang Hornby 9F I have also runs round them happily with the prototypical unflagged centre wheels. Wrenn 8F, no problem. The Jouef/Playcraft R1 Curves were 12.75” radius and most of my Triang stock will run on them. I have a Bachmann 10000 that also seems Ok on R1. You won’t know until you try!

Depending on which wagons you have the easiest solution might be to get some cheap OO secondhand Lima wagons and swap the chassis over. The Dublo couplings are at a different height to Hornby and although some people (including me) have changed the wheels and couplings it is a faff. The Lima wagons are the only ones I have found that are the correct size.

Don’t use Tamaya acrylics. Easily the worst model paint/varnish available.

@topcat, we had Nitty Nora and she would isolate the ‘guilty’ on one wall as and when she found them. Shaved heads and treatment usually followed. I can’t remember ever having them but when my kids were young they went through their infant school including the teachers and the infestation seemed to last ages. To use the correct terms, the actual boggies are head lice, the nits are the white egg sacks that they lay and are usually more easily visible. A cameo of NittyNora outside a school would make an interesting feature on a layout! At least I’m young enough not to have been doused in DDT.

Where I come from a boggie is something you might find running around your child’s hair after a birthday party or other occasion when lots of them get into close proximity. Also known as flies or wicks. I don’t think anyone uses the purple paint anymore? For anyone under about 40 this will make no sense whatsoever!

Last year I bought a boxed Grafar OO Prairie as a non runner, got it working and the motor subsequently disintegrated. It’s one of the later ones without plunger pick-ups that shared the chassis and other parts with the pannier so when I saw two later Pannier chassis with good motors for sale cheaply on an auction site I thought I’d have them. So I stripped down and cleaned everything to make one good chassis out of the three only to find that the chassis block had been modified, probably after they withdrew the prairie from their range, and that it wouldn’t fit in the body. I have re-assembled one of the pannier chassis which now works fine but at least I know which version I need to fix my existing loco. It’s the one with the motor similar to the Wrenn R1. Now to look for a later Grafar pannier body without Mazac rot to go with my other one!

Your only real sources of British HO would be the old Lima and Playcraft ranges which are both available fairly cheaply secondhand. Lima did a class 33 as already mentioned plus an LMS 3F. There was a range of scale length MK1 coaches, wagons and a brake van plus some continental re-liveries wagons. Lima used both a massive version of the Hornby coupling which looked ridiculous on an HO model plus the Continental type so compatibility can be difficult. Playcraft produced a model of the class 21/29 diesel and a Scottish region diesel shunter alongside some of the JOuef Continental range. They also produced a range of short Mk1 coaches which seem to be based on the tri-ang shortie versions, some UK wagons and a brake van and lots of re-liveried Continental wagons. Playcraft used a Lanal type coupling similar to the Tri-ang one, then the PECO type and finally the continental type. It sounds like you will only be able to use short wagons, coaches and locos if you need them to pass. The HO trains may make a difference but only if you stick to the shorter ones. They will also look different to the rest of your stock.

Thanks all, I think I will wait ‘til Railtec have them back in stock. I have managed to do the first loco with the Modelmaster ones but there was a lot of waste as the lining kept disintegrating and the finish isn’t great. I used to use SMS but I don’t know if they are still made? I have also used Fox in the past. I may have to weather this one quite heavily, especially around the boiler bands.

I have been working on a number of small and industrial locos for a while and all are now at the stage where they need lining/decals. Has anyone got recommendations for lining transfers? I am using some new model master white/black/white for an NCB loco and intend to use them on my G&KER Blackpool. I have used them with no problems in the past but unfortunately they are breaking up as I’m using them. I’ve not changed my method so the product must have changed or I got one from a bad batch. I also bought some Railtec transfers which seem OK but they had run out of the correct lining, has anyone used their lining products? Any experience good or bad with lining products would be welcome. I do have a lining pen but it won’t do fine enough lines for what I need.

ColinB, having done a number of Asbestos awareness courses I fully agree with you. One case that was covered was when all the children in a family developed mesothelioma but the parent’s didn’t. Their father worked with asbestos and when he came home in his overalls his children sat on his knee and breathed in the dust from his clothes. It didn’t get high enough to affect him. Lots of products contained asbestos until fairly recently as it has quite incredible properties, even though it had been known for a very long time just how dangerous the various types are. I grew up in a damp house where the artex on the ceiling used to fall on me in bed. Artex is made from asbestos. Bakelite and some other early plastics used asbestos, it was used in various tars, cements, heat and electrical insulation products etc. I was involved in one environmental incident where an industrial freezer was fed through a crusher and delivered to a site in open tipper trucks and tipped off while the children in the adjacent school watched and were covered in the dust. One of the teachers asked what the dust was and we were called in to seal off the area. The experts who turned up expected a bit of dust until they saw chunks of the stuff. It was all breathing apparatus and suits after that with the school closed for decontamination while the material and the top foot of soil went away in sealed skips for secure burial. I suspect it would all need to be bagged now.

For your older locos new track may not be suitable as the flanges on the wheels may be too large. Please post a photo of the track you have or give the part numbers which are usually on the bottom of the sleepers, people will them be able to better advise on whether the track is worth repairing/cleaning or is in fact one of the few options for some of your locos. If the track is past recovery you may find that PECO set track is more suitable than the current finer scale Hornby offerings, especially the points. I use it with no problems with my old Tri-ang stock.

Bee, I take it that these locos were oil fired or used ground coal fed into the firebox from the tender like some of the USA built SNCF locos? The firebox is next to the cab so the engineer must have been controlling something delivered the whole length of the loco from the tender behind.

Without seeing the chassis it’s a bit difficult to say but from memory this chassis was originally designed to take an X04 type motor which means there may be some holes available to use without excessive drilling. Is it possible to fill the hole with Chemical metal (I think this is non-conducting) rather than solder which should hold both parts of the chassis together permanently and using an available hole, tap it to 8BA if not already done and use a standard Tri-ang bolt to hold a wire in place at one end and similarly drill/tap at the other ensuring electrical continuity through the chassis. If you are anything like me you’ll have plenty of correct screws and brass eyes to make the wire and fit it. The metal isn’t too difficult to drill, I did one by hand during an online meeting earlier this year. It helped me to concentrate which was a win-win!

Brew Man, I have had a look at those CDC bodies before and they look to be printed to a very high standard. Have you ordered a pre-decorated one? I have said before, this is something Hornby could be doing with 3D printing, there are plenty of free OO files out there to fit Hornby chassis, just finding someone to print them is the next step.

Or didn’t take account of climate change in the original design confused