Dublo 3 Rail Layout

Discussion in 'Members Personal Layouts' started by Wolseley, Nov 20, 2018.

  1. Wolseley

    Wolseley Full Member

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    Afraid not, but thanks anyway. I have uses for Hornby Dublo bogies, but not Tri-ang or Tri-ang/Hornby ones.
     
  2. Vinylelpea

    Vinylelpea Full Member

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    Nice restoration. :hammer: well done.
     
  3. Wolseley

    Wolseley Full Member

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    A spur of the moment decision to fit pin-point bearings and wheelsets to the bogies has put things on hold for the moment, as I wait for the bearings to arrive. It is relatively straightforward fitting pin-point bearings to Hornby Dublo bogies (after you file some brass off the back of the bearings to get sufficient clearance), in fact, the hardest part is removing the bogies, which needs to be done even if you are fitting the bearings to an existing Dublo coach, unlike the donor job here, as they can't be done in situ. You do have to use wheelsets with 24.5mm axles though, as 26mm ones are just too long. Peter's Spares make suitable metal wheelsets as replacements for old Lima ones. Fortunately suppliers other than Peter's Spares stock them, and I get mine from Hattons, whose postal costs are a fraction of the extortionate amount charged by Peter's Spares.

    In the meantime, I am revisiting my fleet of streamlined Coronations, which have been languishing in bits and pieces in a box. They are the old Tri-ang Hornby ones, which I had planned to convert to three rail using Dublo tender pick-ups. I did find, however, that without the benefit of Magnadhesion, they were so gutless that the locomotives had trouble even hauling a tender behind them, let alone any coaches. After a bit of rethinking, I ended up fitting the bodies to Hornby Dublo A4 chassis, which are a neat fit, having valve gear but no cylinder casings and, as the motor is slightly further forward in the chassis compared to the Dublo Duchess, I am able to retain the existing cab detail. The A4 bogie and trailing trucks are replaced with bogies from Dublo Duchesses and trailing trucks from the Tri-ang Coronations. The Dublo chassis is heavier than the Tri-ang one so, even without the benefit of a metal body, they can haul a train of up to four coaches and, as my layout is 8'x4', that is good enough for me. I have five Tri-ang chassis without motors (all needing the X04 type) so the original Tri-ang Coronation chassis will donate their motors to those.....
     
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  4. Wolseley

    Wolseley Full Member

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    A bird's eye view, which unfortunately highlights my unfinished level crossing.....

    P1010212.jpg
     
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  5. Jim Freight

    Jim Freight Full Member

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    Hi, late seeing this post, but it sounds like a weak magnet problem, a re-mag or NEOs could bring them back to life.

    Tri-ang X04 magnets can fail just like the Hornby Dublo ones,

    Jim :)
     
  6. Wolseley

    Wolseley Full Member

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    I don't think it was the magnets, as there were four locos which were all equally deficient in hauling powers. The number of streamliners has now grown to six and, equipped with a Dublo chassis, although they are not quite as powerful as an original Dublo locomotive (due to the replacement of the metal body with a plastic one), they can now haul a train behind them. I find that the ones with the original Dublo mazak wheels can haul one coach more than ones with the later plated wheels.

    Interestingly, I found that the later "Hornby" streamlined Coronation bodies are slightly longer than the original Tri-ang ones. No doubt the dimensions of the early ones were compromised to make them fit a pre-existing chassis.
     
  7. Jim Freight

    Jim Freight Full Member

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    Did the Tri-ang locos rely on the steel rail with magnets in the chassis?

    Well the plated wheels would have been better for electrical pickup and are certainly easier on maintenance for DCC running, but I suspect that they were introduced just to look better.

    The softer surface of the mazak should provide more grip just like softer tyres on cars, mind you like softer tyres they would wear faster. Curiously though I have not come across badly grooved treads on mazak wheels but certainly a few of my plated wheel Dublo (and Wrenn) have had worn through plating.

    There certainly was a significant amount of compromise of body lengths by both Tri-ang and Hornby Dublo needed, just look at how tight the curves were in the early days, and the early O gauge tinplate, oh dear .....

    Jim :)
     
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  8. Wolseley

    Wolseley Full Member

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    Yes, at least in the early ones, which is what I was using. The magnet is between the leading pair of driving wheels.

    Funnily enough, I was changing the couplings on a Wrenn yellow Fyffe's Banana Van a few hours ago and noticed bits of plating missing from the wheels......

    Jim
     
  9. Wolseley

    Wolseley Full Member

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    And this is the amalgam of parts that make up my streamlined Coronations. For the chassis I have used the Hornby Dublo A4 chassis rather than the Duchess, as the positioning of the motor in the A4 is such that a Tri-ang Coronation body can fit over it with all the cab detail being retained, which would not be possible with a Duchess chassis, as the magnet and pole pieces in the Duchess sit further back in the chassis. A further benefit of using the A4 is that there are no cylinder casings that would need to be filed back, and the valve gear fits in with room to spare.

    The rear truck from the Tri-ang Coronation is fitted to the chassis (with a bit of filing required to get it to sit straight) and a front bogie from a Dublo Duchess is fitted (part of the chassis ahed of the cut-out for the front bogie wheel has to be filed away to clear the Duchess bogie's front wheel, as it has a longer wheelbase than the A4 one).

    A piece of styrene sheet is fashioned to fit into the rear of the chassis as a mounting to fit under the cab. The mounting point on the body under the cab has about 2mm cut off it to get the height right and, for the front body mounting point (and this is a bit crude, I know, but it works) a piece of wood is glued around where the hole in the chassis for the bolt on the A4 body goes. The rear mount is fixed using the screw from the Tri-ang body and a small wood screw is used at the front end.

    The tenders are the original Tri-ang ones, fitted with Dublo couplings (made easy because they actually have mounting points for Dublo couplings, as the Tri-ang tender underframes are from old Hornby Dublo castings)

    The following photographs illustrate how I put all this together:

    P1010218.jpg

    P1010217.jpg

    P1010213.jpg
     
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  10. Jim Freight

    Jim Freight Full Member

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    I like these hybrids, I've got a an old Tri-ang Prairie which was fitted with the valve gear from the Dublo 2-6-4T, Jim :)
     
  11. Echidna

    Echidna Full Member

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    Last edited: May 20, 2022
  12. Wolseley

    Wolseley Full Member

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    The chimney and dome on the Dublo 0-6-2T don't look very convincing at all, but I'm not sure what would be a suitable alternative, nor do I know what is available on the market. There seems to be a lot less in the way of parts like these compared to what was available a few decades ago. If I think of anything I'll revisit your question.

    I'm slowly getting there with my streamlined Coronations. The first photograph shows the Dublo A4 bogie at the top, with the Duchess one in the middle. Quite a difference in wheelbase and you can see why I need to replace the bogie when fitting the streamlined Coronation body to the Dublo A4 chassis. The bottom one shows the amount I had to extend the metal link from the chassis to the bogie (drawbar?) when fitting the chassis to a later "Hornby" body, due to the extra length of the body, and the second photo shows the recipient of that on. Obviously some more painting is still to be done on the tender chassis. As I already have a "City of Edinburgh", a de-streamlined one in BR green (a repainted and three-railed "City of London") this locomotive will be re-numbered, and will become King George VI.

    P1010219.jpg

    P1010220.jpg
     
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  13. Wolseley

    Wolseley Full Member

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    A few recent photos:

    P1010221.jpg

    P1010222.jpg

    P1010224.jpg
     
  14. Wolseley

    Wolseley Full Member

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    No major news, mainly just slow progress. Here are a few photographs I took today. As you may notice, I still have to letter the City of Bradford's tender and I have to paint Princess Alice's wheels blue.

    1.jpg

    2.jpg

    3.jpg

    4.jpg
     
  15. Echidna

    Echidna Full Member

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  16. Wolseley

    Wolseley Full Member

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    1. Your comment about the N2 chimney is a good one and I'm sure someone will take it up. Personally though, I want my Dublo 0-6-2 tanks to look like Dublo 0-6-2 tanks (interestingly they never claimed that they were a model of an N2) but I did feel the need to change the chimney on my (sort of) Highland 0-6-4T, as it just didn't look right. If I ever get around to doing a Dublo tank as a G&SWR 0-6-2T, I will probably change the chimney on that one too (I have one more of them in my spares box) but my other tanks will remain as Dublo made them.

    2. I know that, for a scale model, they are not the best from an appearance point of view, but generally I do use Dublo wheels for the bogie and trailing wheels. I prefer metal to plastic wheels though, and I have replaced quite a few plastic wheels with metal ones.

    3. The only tool I use for cleaning the rail surface is an ordinary Peco track rubber.

    4. The tender body I used was a Bachmann ROD one I sourced as a spare part. I mounted it on a Dublo A4 tender chassis, which meant I had to shorten the tender body by about 5mm to make it fit neatly. I glued a block of wood inside the body and screwed the chassis to it, a method I have used with other models - crude but effective.

    5. Yes, they were very good for their day and would stand up quite well against today's models too were it not for the visible mounting screw on the top of the hood, but this is the sort of thing you have to be willing to accept if you run mostly vintage equipment. This photograph is also a good illustration of how nothing shows off flaws in a model like a close-up photograph. I will have to fix that ladder so that it runs straight up and down. I hadn't even noticed that until after I posted my message.......

    Regards.

    Jim
     
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  17. Wolseley

    Wolseley Full Member

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    And for the benefit of anyone who does not know, the City of Bradford was one of the locomotives that took part in the 1948 Locomotive Exchange Trials. It was in post-war LMS livery, but with its BR number and, when running on Southern metals, was coupled to an ROD tender (which had LMS on the sides) as the Southern did not have any water troughs.
     
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  18. Wolseley

    Wolseley Full Member

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    There hasn't been too much done to the layout of late, but I did give it a good dusting and clean-up, so I thought it was time to post a few more photos. As you can see, it's a slightly unrealistic mix of Pre-Grouping, Grouping, 1950s/60s British Railways, and Australian.

    First we have Dorchester and the Duchess of Montrose (one of the gloss finished ones) passing the corner with the palm trees and jacarandas:

    P1010278.jpg

    Next, in the station forecourt, Queen Victoria surveys a scene with an FC Holden taxi, a 48/215 Holden Police car and a Daimler bus on the route from Wynyard (one of Sydney's underground stations) to Chatswood (on Sydney's North Shore). The other vehicles are an early Ford Falcon, an early Chrysler Valiant and, in the distance, an almost indistinguishable FJ Holden panel van collecting mail from the TPO. In the bay platform, Thomas the Overweight Tank Engine (a slightly modified Dublo 0-6-2T) simmers away, having temporarily swapped Annie and Clarabel for two somewhat generic Highland Railway coaches in full HR livery (modified Tri-ang clerestories, riding on Dublo bogies). It must be getting dark - someone has switched the lights on:

    P1010279.jpg

    And last we have a photo with no train at all - here is the signalman's Holden Monaro at rest outside the signal box:

    P1010277.jpg
     
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  19. Wolseley

    Wolseley Full Member

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    Now that I have finished three railing a pair of Lima NSWGR C38 Pacifics, my next project is finishing a pair of GEM Cardeans, using three railed Tri-ang B12 chassis. One I had already converted and was running, but not as well as I liked, plus the lining on the splashers and cabside left a lot to be desired, so a repaint is in order as well. The other one was a non-runner and was painted in a peculiar shade of blue that was unlike anything ever used by the Caledonian. The locomotive body and tender had been well assembled though.

    I have got both chassis running reasonably well, although a bit of work is still needed to get their running qualities to the level I want.

    As I have no need for two identical locomotives, I am finishing one in Caledonian blue and the other in early LMS red. I can see that the most time consuming exercise here for both of them is going to be the lining......
     
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  20. Wolseley

    Wolseley Full Member

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    Just to show that things are still happening, here are three projects nearing completion, with the main work still to be done being mainly painting and detailing. Two GEM Cardeans, one in LMS livery and one in Caledonian, and a Highland Railway "Big Ben" converted from a Gem NBR Glen kit:

    P1010328.jpg

    P1010330.jpg

    The LMS Cardean is hauling a train of "Scale Length" Trix Twin coaches.
     

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