Hey guys, As my layout seems to be on a semi-permanent hiatus (waiting on workmen to be honest!) I am trying my best to keep myself busy and interested within the hobby doing little bits and pieces. Mostly this has been limited to hard-wiring old locos for DCC and the like, but recently I picked up a job lot of knackered coaches that I thought I could give a (cheap!) bit of TLC to and see where I end up. This is the state of them to start with... As you can see, the paintwork has had an odd reaction to something at some point so that is my first port of call. I took a dremel type tool with a sending tip to the "custard" or cream window surrounds. Don't get me wrong, this is quite an extreme measure but considering these coaches were pretty destroyed already and cost me the sum total of about £6 I figured it could be worth it. I then went out to our local Wilkinson's shop and picked up a couple of tester pots of wall paint. The magnolia turned out to be too light, but the pale primrose seemed to be a reasonable colour. A couple of thinned coats and this is the result. In my opinion it already looks a lot better! It's not a perfect colour match or anything like that, and I need to do at least one more coat of thinned primrose before I then sort out the black lining (planning on using a sharpie to be honest, nice and simple!) and re-wheel them. The only thing I'm not too sure about is being able to change the couplings on them. They are the *old* style Triang couplings, and I'm not sure it's even possible to swap them out without changing the entire bogie. I don't really want to do that because I have spare wheelsets, bearings and couplings and as so far this has cost me about £7 for 3 coaches I really want to keep costs to a minimum. Otherwise I'd just buy new coaches! Has anyone had any experience changing these couplings at all?! Here is a picture of the couplings just to clarify what I mean, and a side by side before and after! Not too bad really... Anyway, that's enough of my rambling. Apologies and congratulations to anyone who bothered to get this far! Cheers, Dom http://www.click
Hi Dom, I like to see older models being "up cycled", Gormo has done quite a few older models and given them a new lease of life. They are part of our modelling heritage and deserve to be seen and used! Good for you . Cheer's, Pete.
Hi Dom, I don't know if this is just me but your pictures are not showing, have you got your media setting turned to private? Would love to see what you are doing it sounds great. York Paul
I've replaced tension lock couplings on all my stock with Kadee's, not a cheap option I admit if you're trying for a low budget setup, but with a bit of thought, it should be possible to replace yours with a cheaper alternative. Keith.
Not that I am aware of Paul, is anyone else not able to see the pictures? I'll freely admit I usually just lurk on here to get inspiration so I don't post very often, I might have got something wrong...
When I first looked at Doms post I couldn't see any photos but as I scrolled to the bottom of the page they appeared. Cheer's, Pete.
I cant see the images either. Did you post them into the media gallery ? toto PS nice to hear from you Dom.
Hi Dom Like Tom and Paul, I can't see them either The link below may help you for uploading pictures to the gallery UPLOAD PICS Paul
Pictures were there yesterday, 'cos I was going to say I had some similar but replaced the bogies with Bachmann Mk1s and I believe Gary did a similar conversion. http://www.hattons.co.uk/18665/Bach...h_bogies_Identical_to_36_005/StockDetail.aspx Paintwork looked good Dom Did the pictures get deleted from the gallery? Ed
I think i was just a moron to be honest Ed! Yeah I have looked at that possibility, but considering a pair of bogies cost more that all 3 coaches cost in total I'm hesitant to do that! Also these are the "sealed unit" Triang coaches, so I can't see how I would actually attach them... Cheers, Dom
Managed to get the roofs off mine Dom, some were just glued and some had a bolt holding the roof on from underneath. New bogies went on with a short M5 (I think) bolt, locking nut, and a spacing washer. Do you really need to change the couplings though, will they not connect to more modern tension locks? Ed
Yeah these ones have glued rooves, I don't really want to test the theory too much incase they just disintegrate to be honest! Also as I said, I'd be spending just over £22 just on the bogies. That's near 4 times as much as I spent on the carriages in the first place! I've just tested them with my 08 hornby shunter and they do seem to couple OK, but I only have a straight piece of test/programming track at the moment, so who knows what will happen when they hit a curve or a point! Cheers, Dom
Yes they are here now Dom thanks for that, your refurbed coaches are looking very good, there is something magical about those old Triang coaches and its great to see them with a new life too. York Paul
If you haven't already Dom, take the hook part off the 08 coupling, it's notorious for derailing with any rolling stock on curves with the hook on. (Guess how I know ) If you do replace the wheels they would have to be exactly the same size, any bigger and the tops of the wheels will rub the bottom of the coach floor. I'd be inclined to leave them as they are, as long as couple up ok and run round any future curves then you have a nice cheap rake of Mk1s Ed
OK, cheers for the tip. I've only just bought the 08 to be honest, I haven't even serviced it yet! Yeah I know about the wheels, I've done some old clerestory coaches a while ago and it made such a difference. Worst comes to the worst I can always put the old wheels back in again! Cheers, Dom
Cheers Toto, not sure I'd go that far but I'm happy playing around. I wanted to airbrush them to get some more experience with that but I couldn't work out how to remove the glazing what with the rooves being glued on. I didn't want to just destroy them completely! I know I could have used maskol but the top parts of the windows are about the size of a ball point pen nib so that ruled that one out! Anyway, onwards and upwards! Cheers, Dom
Great stuff. I will hopefully be having my own brush with airbrushing when I try painting some corrugated sheets for my wagon works building. should be fun. messy but fun. cheers toto