Rana Temporia

I agree a like button would be useful! Thanks for posting. Nothing wrong with running UK trains on an American layout or vice versa. The UK exported locos all over the world including to America and we had a number of American locos here, especially after the Second World War. More recently we had the GM diesels. More to my own tastes Tri-ang Transcontinental, choose virtually any part of the world and they will fit in. The French had the American Liberator class 2-8-2s as produced by a number of manufacturers including Lima and Jouef so part of the Hornby family now.

One of my colleagues came back from a meeting at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers in London and told me that Mr. Stephenson’s desk is on display there.

Great to see, we don’t see many Dutch trains on here. I have a few, all caused by my getting one of the blue Playcraft NS1300 locos almost mint in its original box so of course I had to have the Jouef yellow and grey version to go with it. Then I saw a Lima yellow and grey NS1100 at a swapmeet at quite a low price so that had to come home with me followed a couple of months later by the Lima blue version which didn’t work on test so was a very low price. When I got it home the bogie chassis on the non-powered bogie had been put in back to front so was shorting. 2 mins and away it went! The stall owner had no idea what the loco was and was surprised when I told him it was a model of a Dutch prototype. Until I got one I thought the Playcraft/Jouef loco was simply a French CC1700 in a different livery but it is a different body moulding incorporating the differences. I suspect the Spanish version of this loco is also a different moulding but I have never seen one to compare. Jouef never released the blue version under their own brand and the yellow and grey one has some detail changes. Lima definitely did a blue NS1300 but I have never seen a yellow and grey one from them. Years ago someone produced a brass EM2 in Dutch livery in HO scale but I have never seen one and it’d be way beyond my budget anyway!

The single car parcels DMUs definitely pulled parcels coaches and in the 1990s i was travelling to work in Wigan every day on the train and some re-purposed long wheelbase DMUs had been converted into parcels trains. Sorry I can’t remember the class number but they were dark blue with red and white stripes. They often had a bogie parcels coach attached to them.

Whatever the title these early locos are fascinating. In the Wigan area.(and possibly further afield) rather than a bell crank there were a lot of early steam locos with the drive to a crank axle, rather like a lot of diesel shunters. This would be in the centre of an 0-4-0 chassis. While it’d look odd nowadays we need to remember that this was fairly new technology and people didn’t have the computer analysis or engineering experience we have now so would be trying different designs which worked on paper. Hornby were the first model manufacturer that I am aware of to attempt British Caprotti Valve gear on their Duke of Gloucester. I have also seen that someone is proposing to make a model of the Haydock Foundry Bellerophon which has outside Stephenson Link Motion (and which I was told my Grandfather used to ride on after starting in the mines at 14) Both these locos are a departure from the more common and easy to represent Walschaerts valve gear so the locos will look different. There are lots of other options that will be difficult to produce in model form but they al worked and did what their designers wanted them to. There is usually more than one solution to a problem such as making valves work in correct timing and some may be better than others but not in all situations. Keep them coming Bee!

Bee, it is on Thingiverse and the item is ‘Victorian Rocket Open Carriage Wagon OO’.

Bee, I noticed someone had 3D print files of a similar coach on the internet and I think it was a free download. As you are 3D CAD proficient it should be easy to move the axle boxes on the model to match the shorter wheelbase. I think the item was on Thingiverse. I can’t access my computer at the moment and for some reason I can’t copy links on my iPad but if I can find it later I will add the link. Col

I have found exactly that with the couple of DCC locos I have acquired, they are a bit sluggish to get going but then generally run OK. Where would I get blanking plates from and how would I know which way round to put them in?

I know I replaced the brushes and springs in one of my Mainline ‘Peaks’ with some non-mainline ones but can’t remember what make they were. I think they are smaller than the Hornby and Lima ones so possibly Jouef? The peaks had appalling pick up capabilities, both mine had added pick ups on the motor bogie made from stripboard and guitar string and I used the rear floating wheels off both bogies to replace the tyred wheels. It made a massive difference to the running of the locos. I would imagine that more modern versions had better pick-up options!

If someone did knock up a test chassis with the shorter wheelbase I would be interested in the stability of it and also how it affected the couplings on tighter curves.

I have just broken up a Mainline Royal Scot set that the polystyrene tray was starting to crumble away to nothing after being stored for over 30 years and found the info sheet for the loco. Hopefully it's useful to someone so I'm posting a scan here.

81F, I found that a very early 101 that I bought for the chassis to put under a 3D printed body had a much bigger motor than the standard one. They may have been using up stocks before settling for the more common one? The difference in size meant that I had to cut part of the 3D printed body away. I have two more of these 3D printed locos and the more common motors fitted in them with no problems.

I bought some mega strength superglue at an exhibition once and the seller told me to keep it in the fridge. Unfortunately with about half still left the cap became stuck and it wasn’t possible to get it apart even with two sets of pliers so I ended up cutting the top off and poured it into a loco boiler with some rolled up lead to add some weight. The lead has never moved since! I wouldn’t advise the use of lead but it is good stuff, just like proper solder.

I just bought this online thinking it was OO as I am sure Mettoy or Brimtoy made a OO clockwork Britannia and Spam can. On opening the box I was a little surprised to find a huge clockwork train! It still has all the buffers and transfers and I think is Mettoy. The mechanism wants to work but due to the warped body I think the pistons are sticking and I can’t work out how to get the mechanism out to check it over. I have added some sewing machine oil to the parts I can access and it has freed things up a bit but I don’t want to get anything near the old plastic which I think it cellulose acetate. I have no use for it so unfortunately it’ll have to go.

If you are after replacement boxes for stock you will probably have to check out eBay and the like, people do sell them. For older boxes the Tri-ang society has made replacements which I think are still available. I have found a friendly printer to make some (Deliberately NOT identical) Playcraft replica boxes for my personal use, mainly for neverwazza “Playcrafted” early Jouef locos. I don’t know how copyright would play out for some more modern replica boxes especially as Hornby still exist. Maybe it’s the next step for the likes of Peter’s Spares and others producing new parts? People have produced transfers for Hornby locos which I would have thought had some copyright on them? I did buy some hard loco boxes from a model shop in Preston which are very good. There are also some available on eBay of varying quality and value for money.

I didn’t find that video yet but did find one where someone has produced a ‘Cadbury’ style Avonside 3D printed body to fit the Smoky Joe type chassis. Accepted it’s a poor representation of the real chassis that these locos had but it’s another loco, and as I have said before, something Hornby could be doing themselves.

Potterton, I thought that was the case. I have quite a lot of top-tanks and of mine only the electric versions have buffers. As Pat Hammond describes in his section on these locos, the earlier ones have rods and decals. Some have no cylinder moulding and there are different types of funnel. I have one that is 4WD but I suspect it doesn’t have the original chassis, it came in a box of junk. The early black, blue, yellow and green ones have the rear wheel drive only with the piston rod, the later ones have no rods at all and no decals. Hornby were trying to compete with the likes of Playcraft and anything that could be done to cut costs was done so. I was surprised that the coach has an interior, I would have expected that would be left out for cost and to reduce weight for a clockwork loco to pull. The top tank moulding was modified to produce the Wild West loco. I have a few of the oddly coloured wagons that were available in clockwork sets only. Great fun!. Unfortunately although I have all the electric locos and stock from my childhood I don’t have any of my original clockwork locos which were either worn out or got given away. The only exception was my Jouef/Placraft class 21 diesel which was swapped for a couple of Mainline wagons along with the coaches and car transporter that was in the same set. I have managed to get another one along with two different French OH electric locos and a diesel. The Tri-ang/Hornby clockwork mechanism is a direct copy of the Jouef one which was itself a copy of a pre-war one.

Usual problems with these locos; the pickup is missing. These are easily available off eBay or from the likes of Peter’s Spares. You can make your own from an electric guitar B string grinningthe tyres fall off the wheel centres. Push them back on repeatedly, or replace the wheels. Yours probably has the silver-seal chromed wheels which can tarnish. In later models the cog on the axle is plastic. This disintegrates completely or just around the splines on the axle. Symptoms are the motor runs but the loco goes nowhere or else the loco appears to run normally unless it’s pulling some wagons or going uphill where it stops with the motor running. Replace the cog with a proper brass one, it might be cheaper to buy a replacement chassis without motor and just swap the motor over. Lots on eBay.The later versions have various can motors/cradles that can be difficult to find and some are better than others. Replace with an X04 as long as the chassis will take one. The funnel and the steps break off. 3D printed replacements are available on eBay, I’ve not tried them but they look OK. The loco suddenly takes off at a speed that would rival Stanier’s best. There is no cure for this other than to make sure everything is clean. DCC or a PWM controller might help. The chassis shorts. Someone has taken the wheels off and not put them on the correct way round. Check that the plastic insulators are on the same side as the pickup. May also mean that the wheels need re-quartering. The loco has been dropped and one or both of the insulated wheels touch the chassis as part of each revolution causing a short. 2 above can also cause this. Straighten the wheels. Replacement names for Nellie, Connie and Polly are available off eBay but I have never come across any specific lining for restoring these locos. Polly lining is yellow, Nellie lining is white and Connie lining is red. There were some complete panels available on sticky paper a while ago on eBay for all 3 locos.

Al, quite agree on the current motors but with the N20s and gearbox the motor is rotating at a much higher speed so will have additional inertia which should carry the loco over points and small bits of dirt. This one next to an X04 has a 100 to 1 gearbox and is a 12v version. These motors are an industry standard for car wing mirrors and the like and are consequently very cheap but reliable. The shaft is 3mm with a flat. Another advantage of the slow gearing is that they are extremely powerful.

Tony, just been thinking and a 3D printed cradle to fit an N20 low speed motor and gearbox into a Hornby chassis with a worm to fit the standard shaft would be good. Proper slow shunting speeds! Would also be useful for the cheap 0-4-0 locos.

I have just been reading about the Corris Railway’s upcoming exhibition on the 26/27 of August. Of particular interest to me is that there will be a Hornby Dublo layout and…….a Tri-ang Big-Big layout. I had a lot of Big-Big trains as a child and would love to see that but unfortunately I can’t even travel down for the day as I am on emergency duty that weekend. tired_face

Definitely just the screw at the back then pull the back of the chassis down. There are two lugs under the smoke box as already described. Some bodies are a tighter fit than others.

If you are referring to the “Desmond/Smoky Joe”, GWR 101, Industrial loco and the ex-Thomas moulding then probably not. They are all designed to be cheap starter locos and making them super detail would defeat the object. There used to be a scale chassis available from a kit manufacturer for the Desmond type with proper rods and pistons but it needed assembly. The real GWR 101 had a much more complex chassis and there was only ever one loco so unlikely anyone will ever produce something for that. As Going Spare says Hornby do produce some more refined 0-4-0 models in a higher price bracket. The original Desmond type had separate handrails on the tank and one helpful 3D printer has made replacements available (along with the funnels) as they often get broken.

Another one I did some work on over the weekend. It’s a ‘Nellie’ conversion to a neverwazza to go with my Garstang and Knott-End Railway ‘Blackpool’ so has had the exhauster pipe added that all their locos had, new safety valves etc. Putting proper handrails on has really made a difference to the look at the front end! Only after priming did I realise that the funnel is different to the ‘Nellie’ next to it. The conversion is from a later green ‘27’ that got damaged in the post. The G&KER locos were maroon with white/black/white lining so this will be finished off as and when I get time.

I had been after one of these coaches for some time. Managed to get one along with the clockwork loco for very little indeed! Unusually the loco still has the BR totems and even the key. Both run perfectly but I am not sure the loco should have the buffers? I thought they all just had plastic protrusions.