I have added some pictures of the Trix 0-6-0T and also some new links to sites which sell HD.
I have also checked out all of the links again. HD 2 rsil has been updated and is now correct again but Total Rebuilds seems to have gone off air, which doesn’t mean to say that they have gone out of business. Google hasn’t yet found a new site for them but I will keep on checking. Interesting while checking the real railway links that the Southern had three times as many hits as LNER or GWR – why is the Southern so popular. Green HD SR carriages are over £50 whilst maroon ones are around £20. Probably more due to the number made than the popularity of Southern or SR. Still my new Trix train is BR Southern.

There has been no new engines since last year and although there has been a couple of new sidings nothing new to put in them. Well ebay has come to the rescue with another little tank engine. This time its a Trix E2 0-6-0T converted to 3 rail running. The seller was unsure whether it was a Trix but checking through the TTR website confirms that it is with catalogue number 1108, which was a 2 rail loco. The date of introduction is not given but it came out at about the same time as the GWR 0-6-2T which I also have. It has a plastic body although it is not very detailed and is missing its running numbers. The number on the smoke box shows it to be 32103. The real let down of this model are the wheels which are solid with the spokes superimposed on the solid wheels. They look terrible when stationary but OK once they are moving around the track.

The prototype was built by the LBSC (London Brighton and South Coast Railway) in 1913 and was one of a small number built 10 in all to replace the E1. The first 5 were built like the model although the second 5 had extended water tanks and a cut out to give access to the motion. There is a picture of 32109 (the later type) working at Southampton Docks. The early ones were also used for push pull services between London Bridge and Crystal Palace. The engine was in the middle with 3 coaches being pushed and 3 being pulled. This was too much for these little engines and they were soon moved to more usual duties moving empty carriages around at Victoria station. The conversion has been done very well and it is a very good runner even over my two dodgy points which seem to catch out some of the converted locos. So another Southern tank engine to add to the Hornby M7 and the Hornby Dublo R1 class both converted to 3 rail running.

Whilst I was working on the links I remembered the videos of Hornby Dublo on Youtube. This is a link to the 18 videos which I found under Hornby-Dublo. There might be others
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=hornby-dublo&search=Search

I will put this in the links page as well

Thanks to Bill Bolton for pointing out some non working links. These have been deleted, its a shame that good sites which include HD 3 rail are lost. A couple of new links have been added.

I did say in my New Year message that it was possible that I would see if I could add a bit more track. Well I looked and the area behind the controllers was a possibility so I have added one additional wagon siding and two engine sidings. I have moved the Lima LMS 0-6-0 to the up line engine sidings and have therefore released 3 new engine sidings for potential purchases this year. As expected I did not win the Warship, mentioned in my last posting, but another one has come up so I will keep my limit but try again.
I attended a local toy fair on Sunday but there wasn’t much there. I bought the peices of track I required for the new siding and a couple of wagons but that was all. I was tempted by a LMS 0-6-2T which was a good price but needed a new chassis so I left that. Not much else so the wallet stayed in the pocket. However there is another in February and there is always ebay to tempt me.

Happy New Year to all and I hope that you all enjoy your 3 rail running. What will 2007 bring to my layout. I don’t think that I will be adding more track although I am running out of storage for new engines. Might be that I will have to consider some minor additions. I haven’t checked but I don’t think that I actually bought a HD loco last year. Some rolling stock but no new engines. There really aren’t any HD locos that I am prepared to afford given a degree of innate meanness and the difficulty of spending big money on engines which look exactly the same as ones I already have. I will continue to concentrate on 3 rail conversions preferably of the small tank engines to increase the variety of branch line running. I have got my sights on a Lima Warship conversion (an early green diesel) but I don’t think that my estimate of its value will win the auction. I would like a 3 rail conversion of a Hornby Schools class but have never seen one either on ebay or at a toy fair so I have to assume that it is not an easy conversion. I did buy one for conversion but Mike stated that it wouldn’t run but this was a later Chinese manufacture and I do wonder whether the earlier Margate produced one might be suitable for conversion. So I am sure that there will be new additions to the layout but right now I don’t really know what.
Watch this space and look for new photos as and when new acquisitions come on board.

Earlier on in the year I had to change the posting of comments to “need to be approved by administrator” as a result of a bombardment of porn spam. Since making this change I have still been bombarded but at least they no longer appear on the site as they are held pending approval. The downside of this is that I have received no legitimate comments on any of my recent postings. If you want to post please have a go, I will read thenm and approve them as soon as possible. I do like to receive any comments that you have especially your views on my non hornby dublo additions to my layout.

The poor running Triang Standard 3MT tank did get a little better as the pickups begun to be run in. Then disaster struck – the driving wheel which happens to be the middle one came off its axle along with all the drive shafts and general begubbery. Pushing it back on and reconnecting all the levers etc lasted about half a circuit before it all came adrift again. I tried to stick it with super glue which stuck it OK but the con rods seemed not to be in exactly the right place. I think that we can safely conclude that this engine has been a bit of a disaster, whether it is worth repairing is dubious as it was never much of a runner in the base case. I will ponder what to do with it but at the moment it is off the layout and lurking in its box.
It has however been replaced with a Hornby Black 5 converted to 3 rail and bought off the internet for a very reasonable price. Old Hornby’s aren’t worth much anyway and one converted to 3 rail was very cheap. This is a Hornby tender drive engine. I really don’t like tender drive but it does enable a simple 3 rail conversion. However this one was very dusty and needed cleaning and oiling before it would run smoothly. With small amounts of Singer sewing machine oil applied in the judicious places it began to go very nicely. Except that the tender would derail on at least two curves on the layout – another poor runner! The derailments are probably cause by the fact that the tender has 6 rubber tyres which tend to reduce the amount of flange in contact with the rails. However an experiment with running tender first proved very successful with no derailments of any sort and the ability to pull a full train of HD wagons. Now we are winning. So we have a Black 5 running tender first able to pull a standard load of HD coaches or wagons. Sorted.

I also bought at the same time as the M7 a Triang 3MT also converted to 3 rail. This conversion was a very difficult one for Mike as there was insufficient room under the chassis to mount either a Marklin skid or a HD one. He has got round the problem by making from scratch two plunger pick ups. These are smaller that the plunger pick ups used by HD on the Castle and others so there is less width and also they are not that springy. I am not at all sure that this is going to meet the criteria of being an acceptable runner. It might need some more weight, or something – it will be an interesting project for the long winter evenings.
This is a Triang engine but it might have been repainted as the original ones were lined out as shown here.by clicking on the 2-6-2T and going to the second page. It certainly doesn’t look like a repaint perhaps the lining was removed, perhaps I have a rare one (most unlikely) perhaps more research will show that Triang made an unlined one as well, it has the same number.
This one definitely requires more work.

In the year that Hornby introduce their new superdetailed M7 I have just added a Triang Hornby M7 to the layout. Converted by Mike King using a Marklin skid, this has proved to be an excellent runner. It came with Triang couplings at both ends but I have converted the front coupling to the Peco HD coupling. So bunker first it can pull a HD train and chimney first a Triang one, that is if I had a train of Triang wagons which I don’t – at least at the moment.
This acquisition adds nicely to my branch line theme as these engines were used comprehensively throughout the SR and BR (SR) networks. In their later years they were often used for empty stock movements at Waterloo station. It looks good with a green suburban coach and a parcels wagon.
It would of course be very nice to 3 rail the modern Hornby M7 but unfortunately Hornby now use “so called” fine scale wheels, well at least the flanges are much smaller and this makes them impossible to run on the old 3 rail track. They would de-rail easily on the bends and through the points. The reality is that I have never tried to run a modern Hornby engine on my track so I can’t really prove that the modern stuff won’t run. I think that it might be worth 3 railing a modern Hornby just to prove once and for all that they won’t run on the old track. Something to think about for the future.