Golden Fleece 30

That is why I decided to make them Ray. I don'y think any Co-Co had plungers, I have never seen or heard of one anyway, just the Bo-Bo diesel along with the 8F and Castle. I made them as at times the chassis only is used so pick-ups were needed, and, I prefer not to have a wired connection to a tender although I have many that do have this system. Here is the 8F chassis with my pick-ups. Garry

As I mentioned before your chassis is an original 3-rail one. The motor was identical for both 2 and 3-rail apart from the magnet with North to the top or North to the bottom. 2-rail locos had their magnets the opposite way to 3-rail ones. The easiest way to check is does it run the same way as other 3-rail locos, if so the magnet was set for 3-rail running. Having said that a previous owner could have changed the magnet around or even replaced the motor. This motor is identical to the one used in the R1 and then by Wrenn for the 0-6-2 as well as the R1. Garry

Here are the phosphor bronze strips I had made for using on the Castle, 8F and R1 chassis's to allow shoe style pick ups fitted. The holes were set for using a 2-rail chassis that already had tapped holes, for an old 3-rail one I drilled and tapped in the same place. Also an R1 with a plunger at the front. Garry

Ray, The plastic "holder/bearing" is a sliding fit in a couple of grooves and has a one sided clip/lug that goes through the casting top to hold in place. Sometimes the plastic has a burr from the mould so this maybe why. After a while they can become sloppy then other times the lug on top comes off. In theory better than Dublo as some are for pin points and others for normal axles but they can, not often, drop out of alignment. As far as I know there were 3 different ones so you need to check when replacing. Some tenders had pin points on the outer axles with slotted centre ones to allow movement then all fixed but there was also a longer version for deep axlebox wagons. Their Pullman bogies also used plastic clips. To remove just push the lug to the centre then down but only slightly before doing the other side. Garry

If you remove the plungers to clean the parts these are not straight forward to replace as they have a crimped top which needs to be cut off then a washer has to be soldered back on. Replacement plungers have a threaded top which is easier. Fitting new tubes is not easy but you can buy just the plungers, John at Mtrains sells both brass and nickel and I would go for nickel. The Dublo Surgeon, Dennis Williams, sells replacements and used to be cheaper than any others. I did use a plunger without spring on an R1 conversion to 3-rail as the loco is light and any pressue lifting the loco results in less adhesion. Garry

You will find the 2-rail and 3-rail Castle motors are exactly the same with just the magnet upside down between one or the other. The Ringfield that Ray mentions will not fit as it was a completely different chassis block. Your chassis was made before the introduction of 2-rail hence no provision for a wiper pick up. The plungers are usually okay and as Ray mentions a drop of light oil can be dropped down as sometimes the parts can have a little verdigris inside which will prevent full working. On new replacement ones I have noticed a burr on top on some plungers which stops it at times but doubt that will be on yours. The tender supressor can be removed and of after oiling and pushing up and down a few times by hand it is not resolved then make an extra spring by using some phosphor strip pressing down on the tops. I have got a couple of locos where I fitted new plubgers and never used the springs leaving gravity to do the job and never had an issue with those. I have also drilled and tapped the chassis for a spoon type collector when using the chassis on a conversion. There is a photo on one of my you tube videos and on another thread on here somewhere. Another thing Ray mentions is a remag although that wont be the cause of intermittent running it will still help. Garry

Just bought a couple of 400ml cans off Ebay at 14.95 each with free postage. All the Halfords around here have stopped mixing as has my original car restorer who did all my colours so the nearest one was about 30 miles away and that is if they still do it. Sierra beige is more beige than custard livery :-) Garry

It is Sahara Beige David. Yes its the obsolete Ford colour which I used for the Dublo custard on coaches too. I liked it but when it was no longer available tried other shades without any luck as a close shade. Modern makes of the Custard livery maybe more accurate for its intended purpose but I don't think its the Dublo shade Garry

For anyone contemplating a raised section in Dublo then the Marklin 3-rail sections will work fine and look the part if painted in Dublo colours. Here is a curved section although this does need its contact strip inverting to make a 3rd rail to prevent the Click, Click, Click of the shoes on the studs. Also a cheap Tri-ang (Hornby) station waiting room only needs some of the Dublo colours painting on to transform it into a Dublo neverwazza. You can even modify Dublo signals into different designs including using the loading gauge posts as in the gantry. Garry

You mean like this Coronation Colin? It is a Jamieson kit on a Dublo 3-rail chassis. City of Lancaster was the only Streamlined Coronation to make and be given a BR number although the loco was still in wartime black. Garry

Hi David, I am surprised she is nose heavy as mine runs without dipping on nickel rail so magnadhesion would have no effect but what I forgot to say earlier is after removing the magnet between the wheels I replaced the slot with lead. I doubt it was much different due to the size of the hole but thought it may help. Garry

I machined the wheels on mine to go through Peco modern universal points (they are different to older universal ones) , and 3-railed it, and she pulls a dream with 8 or 9 Exleys in tow. One thing that does improve its running is removing the magnet in the chassis block as it does hold back the free running of the trailing wheels. Garry

I never thought about the CP loco as I would never have one as it is not British as such. I can understand the cow catcher extending the overhang though. Garry

I know some tooling is with Maurice Gunter but how much survived I have no idea. Obviously some wagon tooling exists as Dapol still use them although I think modified to fit their own chassis. Only a few years ago I bought some unpainted wagon bodies of which some like the cattle wagon were Dublo origin. Garry

Thanks Ray, I have only looked at a small handful but there are lots of nice 3-rail scenic layouts in there with high level tracks, trees, bridges, cattle docks and all sorts of other things to take away the "toy" look as such which is mentioned. One even has a Tri-ang water tower in the sheds. These are what set track layouts should look like. Garry

They look fine to me. Garry

They were "scale" of their day Ray and really even now can fit in with "scale" railways whether classed as toys or not. There were in the old days some nice 3-rail layouts with scenery which to me straight away takes the "toy train" title away. Even now Andy Millers "I ad that" layout takes away the toy train title as his layout runs just the same as many others with just trains running around and changed in the storage yards, at least he also moves locos around the shed and has a shuttle train. A lot of my 00 stock is Dublo but does not look like a toy train with the track changed to Peco and scenery used. Without getting into any big debate all models including Chinese Hornby etc to me are still "toy/model" trains. A scale model is one that is scaled down from full size which mean it is still steam powered and not run by an electric motor. Others will disagree but that is my opinion. Garry

That looks in nice condition Ray, the chassis alone is worth it so good buy. Garry

Ha ha, nice one David, I don't even know what I have. Jackie says I am the one who keeps the postman working in our village. Even our 95 year old neighbour has to take parcels in for me. Even now we have just come back from holiday and our neighbour called round with 2 and the Post Office has 3 for me. Garry

There is nothing wrong with 2-railing them or modifying them to what suits you. I 3-railed a lot, destroyed the insulation, stripped and repainted very good locos, fitted Kadee couplings, and, on some coaches including the S/D restaurant car fitted Bachmann bogies. It is all about what gives you pleasure not what others think. Garry

You cannot really compare pulling Hornby Dublo 3-rail coaches with their metal build and bogie design against Bachmann and Hornbys plastic with pin point axles etc. I have an original 3-rail Dorchester pulling 18 Exley coaches that have real glass in them bit admit the bogies have been replaced. I have a 3-railed R1 that is seen on YouTube pulling 6 Exleys. This is the weakest loco due to the plastic body used but the chassis's when 3-railed and fitted with whitemetal bodies are fine. My 3-rail Duchess's pull far better than the 2-rail ones did. The plated wheels on nickel track were an issue. Garry

Here are 3 of mine. At the moment I have misplaced the kit and I think possibly a 4th one. The recent one requires a slight modification to the loco/tender coupling as it is too tight to go around Tri-ang curves as yet. Looking at the finishes I may leave this last one as it is so there will be 3 different styles. Garry

The only non Tri-ang items I had from the good old days was the BEC (Esanel) E2 tank and their 42' bogie parcels van both of which have recently been rebuilt using solder as opposed to glue and painted better. I also had a couple of Peco wagons but all the rest of the kits etc seen on here from me have been collected from various sources in the last couple of years as well as a lot more Tri-ang. I never had any Tri-ang signals until 12 months ago but now have a few including a box of new (were unopened) ones that cost me all of under £6 for the lot. Thankfully most of the second hand kits were glued as was the norm then and so easily taken apart to be cleaned and soldered up. Attached is one of the Q1's I bought second hand about a year ago and repainted, possibly rebuilt. Regarding the various kits from the big 3, BEC, GEM, K's I think I have most of the locos produced at least once, sometimes a few more like the Royal Scot and Standard 5, BUT, I have a feeling GEM may have made a TT version of their GWR 66xx 0-6-2 and if so I don't have one of those. One I do not have is GEM's 4-6-0 LNWR but do have the 4-4-0 version. I have managed to get a couple of the Kitmaster Scots unmade to put together one day on a modified Tri-ang chassis. I did have a couple of the 61xx bodies but sold them on as to me they were very poor with gaps where the slide bar pressings went through the body. I don't know if BEC did a J72 but if so that is not in my collection yet. I have some of the GEM A4's but don't like them as the Atlas ones are far better in profile. There are a few kits from different places which were produced in the late 70's and 80's which I don't count as the old days but have still managed a couple (unfinished) like a ROD 2-8-0 and G2 0-8-0 plus I have some of the 3mm society kits to put together sometime. Garry

Certainly a nice collection in the old photos with a mix of everything, which is how it was and should be. In those days it was only the wheels that caused restrictions for me, couplings I could cope with. Garry

I only use Caustic Soda, apart from the standard hazards its only issue is it will not remove acrylic. Thankfully I don't use acrylic, I don't like them, but sometimes an item comes into my possession done with them. Caustic works well on plastic bodies too as long as it is not too hot to warp them. Be very careful with ally though as it can eat through it very quickly and as with anything a thorough good wash is required afterwards. Garry