There has been a lot of interesting 3 rail conversions on ebay this summer. I bid for some but lost most of them as I considered them to be overpriced. I decide what I think that the engine is worth, bid that amount and never raise it. There will always be another one a long in the future which might be the right price.
This is one I did win. It is a Triang Hornby M7 in Southern Green with a Southern coach which is an old blood and custard wiith Southern overlays along the sides. It works out very nicely and the engine is a good runner.
Then came another Graham Farish tank engine but this time with an original mechanism. This was bought because the one I got last year burnt out its motor and my little man says that it will be very difficult and expensive to fix. So this one came along as its replacement. The body is in much better condition, looking almost like its only been run infrequently. A very nice runner.
The third purchase was an Autotrain based on an Airfix 0-4-2T and a Hornby Autotrain Carriage. This is a very interesting conversion as the carriage has the three rail pickups and there is a wire that connects into the engine either on the front or the rear buffer beam. This enables it to push or pull the carriage in either direction. It works very well indeed.
Well the old software finally crashed and stopped everything working except the News.
The website has now been transferred to WordPress software. All of the original posts have been transferred over and can be found in the Archives. All of the basic links have also been added under the links button at the top of the page. I will be adding some descriptions for each link and checking that it is still working.
Pictures are available from the button at the top of the page. This needs some work as it links to a Picasa web page and I will have to upload the pictures. This may take some time but there will be examples of all my rolling stock in due course.
It is very easy to add pictures to a new or old post and I have added a relevant picture to the last few posts which makes them more interesting in my opinion, Clicking on the thumbnail brings up the full size picture.
I am informed that comments can be posted without the guarantee of spam and I would welcome any comments that you have.
This new software really is very good, simple to use, easy to edit with a myriad of options which I am sure I will never use but are there if I can learn how to make the best use of them.
One of the advantages of being a member of the Hornby Railway Collectors Association is their annual Spares and Replacement parts Directory. This gives you information on people who can provide spares, repairs replacements and reproduction items. It does have some minor drawbacks. One is that many of the suppliers do not have websites or email addresses and another is that it is not always clear as to what exactly you are looking for and whether they have it. Now I have found someone who does have a website, takes pictures of the spares that he is selling so it is easy to identify the exact part you want and you can order online. I have added a link to them. I have not yet used them but I am sure that I will be giving them a try in the near future. www.mtrains.co.uk
Welcome to the New Year with two engines to welcome it in. They were both actually received in 2009 but this is their debut on the website.
The first is very interesting; a Graham Farish 00 gauge ex GWR 0-6-0ST with a hand built chassis. This has a surprising amount of detail for a die cast moulding and was introduced around the end of the Hornby Dublo era and continued on for some time as a GraFar model. The custom built 3 rail chassis and the heavy body makes for an excellent and quiet runner. It was in the same lot as the BR Standard 5 and they are both very good additions to the loco fleet.
The second one is a hand built chassis attached to a Trix body of an ex GWR 0-6-2T. It is missing the top of the chimney but apart from that is in very good condition. A good runner but with limited pulling capability. I already have an original Trix version converted to run on HD 3 rail. The learned books always say that this was an HO model but it certainly doesn’t give that impression when lined up with the other OO gauge models. Pictures have been posted.
An acquisition of some weeks ago from ebay was a I thought a Hornby N2 in LNER converted to 3 rail running. What another N2 after all those dublo ones. Well my reason was that it was modeled with vapour recovery pipes going into the tanks as fitted to most of these engines running out of kings Cross.
However when it arrived it was missing the pony wheels making it a 0-6-0T – not as the maker intended. An email to the seller bought no response. Further emails both direct and via ebay also bought no response. As the engine was bought at a low price it was a matter of living with it and finding a spare set of wheels. A contact at the local Model Railway Club went off to search his spares box with the result that he said it was an Airfix model and no he did not have a suitable spare set of wheels.
Research then began. It was designed by Airfix but the company went bust before they put it on the market and thus it was sold by Mainline trains but seemingly only for about 2 years in 1982/3. Mainline were sold and then the molds were bought by Dapol although I am not sure whether they ever sold this model. Anyway they sold the molds to Hornby who did produce the model although it is currently discontinued. So it might have been a Hornby after all.
All of this didn’t get me the missing wheels but in the course of the Googling I found Model Trains 4u who had spares for the Mailine version. An order on their website bought me the whole pony truck including wheels for under £4 so now it is up and running.
The noise it makes is horrendous and makes the Dublo version sound like a Rolls Royce by comparison. Not the quiet smooth running loco I expected.
So I did go to the train fair but there was nothing there to attract me. I have to say that there was more there than usual with some very nice super-detailed wagons and coaches but the prices were on the high side which surprised me given the current financial situation. It was pretty clear though that a lot of people were looking and picking them up no one was buying. A rather tatty LMS 0-6-2T was at a good price but although I pondered no purchase was made. Good to look though.
Ebay was once again my undoing as a rather nice BR Standard was purchased at a very attractive price. Although the paintwork needs some TLC it is a very good runner. Its background is a bit of a mystery, the seller described it – IT HAS GOT A KIT BUILT METAL CHASSIS, THERE IS NO IDENTIFICATION OF THE MAKE OF THE METAL CAST BODY AND TENDER, IT HAS BEEN NUMBERED 73031, Certainly the motion is very complicated and well built and the pick ups are of the sprung copper type so probably the kit built seems right. I have not taken the body off to see what motor it has. I will do some research as it does seem m to be a cast body not a brass one. Off to Google some kit manufacturers. Very nice addition to the loco fleet.
The links have been checked and some have been updated. Southern Railways Group, LNER, RM Web to name a few. I have removed links that do not work.
I have also added a link to the most amazing website that has every copy of the Meccano Magazine in pdf format starting way back in 1916 and going through to 1981 – an absolute feast of nostalgia – enjoy To get there immediately
I have added one new link for Smart Restorations, for those who want a repaint or something.
Just to report that the Triang dock shunter is now working very well. All it seemed to need was a train behind it to stop it derailing on the points. All that happens now is that it jumps up in the air and decouples on some of the points. A little blu-tak on the coupling solves that problem and it now goes all arounf the circuit with a single coach or a couple of wagons. Nice little one.
Still doing the occasional running but lots of other jobs to do in the Summer, exciting things like gardening, painting etc.
I actually bought this some time ago. It is a Triang Industrial engine from one of their starter sets. It reminds me of the dock shunters at Southampton docks. Basically it is a terrible runner as with its Triand wheels short wheel base and Marklin skate it wont negotiate points or X crossings. It is alright on a straight piece of track. I have tried bunging in some additional weights in the cab which helps but I need to do a proper job of adding weight to it so that it doesn’t bounce off the track when negotiating points.
Probably this is best as a non runner pretending to be shunting the yard.
Apart from that not much to report as Summer is here and playing with the trains is much reduced as there are so many other jobs to do. Still they are all there waiting if I get a moment to give them a run
I thought that I had at last got rid of the spammers by making everyone become a member before they could post a comment.
No such luck as today there were three spam messages which somehow got through. I have gone through my list of members to see if anyone posted but nothing found in that section so it remains
How do they do that?
Well, I found out. They did it by posting comments to the photo gallery pictures which allows viewers to post comments. At least they did, I have closed that loophole now. As this spamming must be done by computers they are obviously very clever at finding any way they can to get into a website.
This is one I did win. It is a Triang Hornby M7 in Southern Green with a Southern coach which is an old blood and custard wiith Southern overlays along the sides. It works out very nicely and the engine is a good runner.
The third purchase was an Autotrain based on an Airfix 0-4-2T and a Hornby Autotrain Carriage. This is a very interesting conversion as the carriage has the three rail pickups and there is a wire that connects into the engine either on the front or the rear buffer beam. This enables it to push or pull the carriage in either direction. It works very well indeed.
