Project or scrap bin???

Some 18 months ago, I picked up cheaply an elderly Triang 2 car EMU that had seen better days. I cleaned it up, converted the front indicator board light from a bulb to LED and tickled up the motor, converting it to DCC, but to be honest, it still ran like a dog, and the serrated wheels and overscale wheel flanges gave nothing but trouble over points, so eventually I un-DCC'd it and it was relegated to my under-layout 'unlikely to be run again' siding. I've recently been wondering about having another go at it, possibly by fitting a new motor bogie, maybe a Tenshodo or 'Black Beetle' perhaps, but rather than just throw some money at it, I was wondering if going to some trouble and expense was actually worth it, since the cars have no interiors so I'd have to build some or maybe butcher old carriage interiors to fit. Has anyone else attempted an update of this Triang 'oldie', if so, what have you used to update it and was it worth it, or should I just junk it and move on?
Keith.

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This is the motor bogie from the EMU, wheel centres are 36mm, the bogie pivots centrally on a screw with the pivot point 43mm above rail height. I've not started looking at suitable (if any) motor bogies yet, so if anyone's had a bash at fitting one to this EMU, you might just save me the trouble of researching it, maybe even make my mind up to junk it if it's really a waste of time and money. Any suggestions out there please???
Keith.

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I was really considering replacing the complete motor bogie as the motor itself has seen better days, and I'd already come across the replacement wheelsets you mentioned. I have a couple of sets of Lima metal wheeled bogies which I could use to replace the plastic wheeled Triang ones on the trailing car, and in fact have already modified the car to suit them so that's one of the easier bits sorted. Started looking for (Very) cheap coaches that I could salvage interiors from, otherwise I'll have to make some up from whatever I have to hand, and looked at a few cheapish Lima/Hornby motor bogies, but then we're back to the pancake motors saga again, so thought better of it! Having come thus far with this project (at nil cost so far thanks to the junk/spares box), I might as well go for a new motor bogie and give the cars a good weathering to hopefully cover any shortcomings in the detail department, after all, these cars would have been built probably 1930's or thereabouts, so in the early/mid 60's era I model, they'd have been close to their 'sell-by' date (and to be honest, I know very little about SR EMU's anyway!) so if they end up looking somewhat battered, it likely wouldn't have been too far from the truth at that time.
Keith.

 

Rather than shell out £40+ for a Tenshodo or similar, I've just taken a punt on a new Hornby Class 90 motor bogie complete with can motor from Peters Spares at just under £19 including P+P, and hopefully I can make something of it when it arrives. Not much available regarding non-corridor coach interiors, so looks like I'll be making something up myself to fit. We'll see how it goes from here.
Keith.

 

Hi Paul & Ian.
The non-corridor partitions/seats look useful, but they should be pretty simple to construct anyway, so I'll try and keep cost to a minimum for the present and build my own. I have seen these EMU sets making £30+ on Ebay, which seems quite surprising to me considering that to run them on modern track, even with DC, they're prone to derailing on Hornby points due to the overscale serrated wheels, not to mention that the motors are often on their last legs, noisy and rough running. I'm planning on a complete overhaul of my set, coach and cab lighting, interiors with passengers and some extra detailing and of course, full bogie replacement, but all on as small a budget as possible. This is not because I'm a 'tight*rse, I just think that if it still doesn't look the part, then it's not cost me a lot to do it, a sort of 'exercise in frugality' if you like. I'm hoping my 3 DJM Class 71's turn up shortly, so I need to reserve funds for the Hatton"s one plus a minimum of 2 21 pin decoders and at least 1 sound fitted, and Paul's mention of the 419MLV reminds me that my Bachmann one is in bits presently as I'm in the process of retro-fitting cab lights, crew etc. Maybe it's time I set up a "Keith's workbench" feature, as I always seem to have a number of projects on the go at any one time.

Keith.

 

Reckon you've pushed me enough to create my own 'workshop' feature Paul, "Keith's Kabin" it shall be, coming soon to a forum near you!

Anyway, some further progress on the EMU, I built an interior for the trailing car, using some thin corrugated card for the base and partitions, balsa for the seat bases and card for the seat backs. Once painted up and fitted, ready for a few passengers, it looks quite passable, especially since little real detail will be seen through the windows, even when the cars are lit. I began constructing the interior for the motor car, but as the replacement motor bogie hasn't landed yet and I have no real idea of it's dimensions, let alone if I can actually make it fit, I can't go any further with it yet. My intention is to use dual Red/White LED's for the indicator boards at each end, hopefully cab light each end, although space for this is (very) limited, and interior lighting, although I will need to keep this fairly dim, as I'd guess cars of that age had minimal incandescent lighting (no fluorescent lighting back then!). For the unpowered bogie of the motor car, I had a rummage in my bits box, and came up with a set of 'top hat' bearings, so removed the Triang plastic wheelsets, superglued in the bearings, and fitted an odd set of pinpoint metal wheels I had lying around, so that's one end sorted, just waiting for the motor bogie from Peter's Spares, hopefully in the post today, to continue further.
Keith.

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Motor bogie from Peter's Spares arrived, wheel centres are 42mm as opposed to 36mm on the Triang original, but not so far out as to make it stand out too much. I managed to graft the 'yoke' from the top of the old Triang bogie onto the top of the Hornby Class 90 bogie, it just needed a couple of thicknesses of plastic card each side, secured with a small self tapping screw each side. This enabled me to use the same hole for the pivot/securing screw as on the original, clearances were only a few mm's but will still pivot ok. In order to allow this, it was necessary to shorten the 'cab' moulding from the motor end, gluing into position so that the 'floor' of the cab was just below the front windows. I soldered the appropriately coloured wires onto motor and pickup terminals, fitted the bogie into place with a spot of Loctite thread sealant on the screw to prevent any loosening, and led the wires out the rear of the motor support moulding as in the pic below.

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The 3 wires visible at the rear of the 'cab' moulding are the ends of the red/white LED leads, drilled through the moulding, and the LED itself fixed to a small piece of Plasticard glued into place. A second piece of card was glued over the top of the LED to prevent stray light upwards. It's my intention to wire the 2 cars permanently together with the lighting leads between cars. I could use a 4 pin miniplug, as I have with other projects, but as I'm attempting to keep costs minimal, at least until I'm satisfied that the end result is worth a place on the layout, I can always fit a plug at a later date. Lighting-wise in the cars, I'm using some of the aluminium backed LED strips that Paul put me onto a while back, glued into place along the tops of the partitions. This is handy since it gives me somewhere to run necessary wiring along the back, and as I don't want all of the LED's lit as this would make the cars too bright, I've just black painted out the one's I don't need, PVC black taping over them partly as 'belt-and-braces' to black them out, but also as a means of securing the wiring along the back. The unwanted LED's will of course still be lit, but won't be visible.

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This is the Class 90 bogie fitted in place under the motor car. It's a little longer than the original, but since I'm attempting to minimise costs, it was still possible to 'shoehorn' it into place without much major surgery. (The glued split in the top of the bogie support moulding isn't my doing, the EMU's obviously had a hard life before my ownership!). I'll need to do a bit of work on the bogie frame to make it look a little more like an EMU bogie and a lot less like a diesel one, but hopefully with some camouflage and a fair bit of weathering, it should pass muster......I'm not a 'rivet counter' anyway!

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The wheels on the Hornby bogie are 14mm ones, whereas the ones on the other bogies are only 12mm, so to avoid a 'nose-in-the-air' stance, I've ordered a pack of Hornby 14mm coach wheels, which should level things up a bit! Unintended expense, but Hey, no good spoiling it for the sake of a few quid at this stage. Coach roofs have now had the unwanted Triang screw hole filled, sanded and grey sprayed, intention is (after testing) to glue them in place.
Keith.