Golden Fleece 30

Hi Mike, Most if not all the later 8F and Castle bases had their plunger holes filled in although depending on stock availability some older ones may have been used. The chassis for the Scot and Spam Can were new designs by Wrenn but using the vertical upright motor as per Dublo designs. The centre axles for these two were in slots to allow a little vertical movement as all wheels were flanged and I think the front wheels were in slots too but with no vertical movement, the rear ones were in holes due to the gear mounted. This needed a keeper plate with lugs on to hold the centre wheels in place. These two locos used 2 piece couplings rods also. Not too bad to convert to 3-rail but not straight forward like a Dublo loco. Here are the two Wrenn chassis's Garry

A start has been made on the 3 A4's I received recently. The paintwork was not too good so it has been rubbed down and the joint filled. I decided against a full strip on these for a few reasons so will be brush painted instead of sprayed. All have spoked wheels and when finished the blue one will be sold, hopefully I will get some LNER blue at the Pontefract show this weekend to get on with it, the Teak coaches have already gone. I was not going to keep the green ones but may well do depending on how they turn out. Garry

I don't know if Hamblings or Anbrico made the variations you are describing but Exley certainly did. I don't have any LNER ones but most of the others. If you look through the posts on the Exley thread you will see some and maybe able to work out what ours are. Exley's LNER coaches were usually Stanier designs (as were a few of their GWR ones) painted in LNER colours, I have never seen a proper Thompson but that is not to say none were made. Garry

The Castle was another easy one to fit, the W/C was a little harder and these do attract higher prices hence me having etches of many of them made to glue Fox headboards on. Garry

Ray, What about the Hook Continental, East Anglian etc? These were LNER named trains that also ran in BR days which would have had teak coaches then their repainted BR versions. There was also possibly the Scarborough Flyer but that may have been BR only, I just thought I had seen the headboard in the LNER style with white background somewhere? There were a few named LNER trains but not usually A4 hauled and others were Pullmans or SilverJubilee not teak etc. Just found some LNER photos of the Scarborough Flier, note the different spelling. Also a photo of a BR 4F hauling it which was unusual. Garry

I have noticed that Jodel have a "Fairburn" tank at £385 yet it looks to be nothing like a Fairburn but the the Standard 4 Dublo model with the angled front frames removed and new straight handrails along with a Fairburn number. I don't think this Dublo loco is one that can easily be viewed as a different class there are too many noticeable differences. For the Fairburn mainly being the tank sides should be flat, have a slope on the top for approx half way, the front up sweep should be vertical, the footplate lower over the cylinders, the area under the smokebox should actually be recessed under it. It is like painting the Dublo (Wrenn) in LMS, SR, WR and Caledonian liveries which were never done obviously as it was a BR design. A while ago some tried an overlay to pass it of as a Stanier but again it looked nothing like, at least the Wills kit had a resemblance for the Stanier but made to fit a Dublo chassis. I am all for Neverwazzas but at least they should have some resemblance to an original. My coaches might have lacked the correct ends or bogies but had the correct window design and formation etc but just made to fit Dublo parts. My BR green streamlined Coronation was at least accurate in as much as the real one did receive a BR number albeit in black not green. Garry

Hi Ray, My last post went on as yours did and thefore reading the site is out of date explains a lot. I know John quite well, it was he who told me he had bought out Classic collections. He also owns, or part owns, new Wrenn too. I knew of the Garratt years before production as I did some drawings for parts to be etched. I did buy one of the first lot, ordered before production started but as I mentioned ended up selling it. Jodel offer a saddle tank which is from the very old Tri-ang one with the tank and boiler cut off and lowered to use as a mould and fitted onto the R1 chassis. Garry

Further to my last post the maroon one is sold out along with the first two sets but 3 other variations have a price quoted and I notice the price for the 3rd one is up £50 on the other two at £545 for the 5 pole version. What surprises me now is that initally these were unique limited editions, there was only going to be one of each number made in BR and LMS livery in both 2 and 3 rail. With others now sold and orders taken for more I guess the limited editions are not now limited? Garry

I imagine they mean the body tooling? The tanks are resin taken from the Kitmaster as a mould and the boiler is whitemetal again taken from the Kitmaster mould. The chassis's are newly milled brass blocks using two1/2" motors, 2-6-4 wheels, pony trucks and motion. It is a very powerful beast. I thought they had some Neverwazza maroon ones left but I guess you wanted a true black one. With down sizing though I sold mine last year. Garry

Hi David, The photo I put on earlier with the roller chassis shows the motor that needed the wheels taking off to remove the motor. I bought one of these recently as the gearbox might fit in a TT chassis but unfortunately the gear wheel is bigger than any driving wheels. Garry

Here are a few Dublo locos in real life. The crane is one of my own photos taken on the NYMR which is very similar to the Dublo one. Duchess of Montrose is seen here in both its Dublo versions of gloss and matt. Interestingly City of Liverpool has a red background nameplete. Bristol Castle looks to have had a tender swop, or, Dublo got it wrong? Denbigh Castle's chimney seems to be different to Bristol and Ludlows too being wider and shorter, I know there were variations in sizes but don't know if things like this were swapped, maybe the name got put on a different loco? There are a few footbridges around like the Dublo one but I have not seen any stations as such. The engine shed was reportedly taken from the one at Carnforth. Garry

The numbers were the easiest way to work out if the body was a 2 or 3-rail one that was as original or had been swapped. Here is a green Tri-ang Princess Victoria on a chassis without valve gear. I know chassis's could be swapped and this is a late issue open spoked wheel one but the body is from green plastic and the numbers look to be heat printed on as an original body. Looking underneath the chassis seems to be the one without the centre crankpin for the return crank that had the flats machined on just the plain topped one. The other one again could be swapped but no idea if it has. Also the first issue Princess with roller pick-ups. Garry

That was a second issue Princess as the first had rollers for pick ups which was subsequently changed for plungers. Garry

I have some old Marklin 3 rail track that fits nicely to Dublo but no idea on the newer ones. With the stud contact I inverted it to make a continous rail as Dublo pick up shoes make to much noise on studs. If I remember I tried Peco without success as too narrow for Dublo rail. Garry

Here are the different tender tops. Not only could they curl upwards but also sideways. Obviously only one of these is a warped one but you can see how there is no strength at the edges whether it was acetate or not although I doubt it would have made any difference. Garry

Hi Mike, As mentioned you cannot do anything with a warped tender top. Warped ones were made from the cellulose acetate that early Tri-ang bodies were and it affects about 75% of items, why not 100% I dont know. During Silver Kings day it was changed, and, the design was. The original was quite thin along the edge but the later ones had a strengthening strip moulded along the edges. I will add a photo of these when on my PC later. The tops are held on by two plastic lugs melted over inside the body. Replacents in the UK have been good and bad. Some are of a rubber type material and when painted takes weeks or months to dry, I think I may have thrown mine waiting. Another type is narrower as the shrikage was not taken into account but did paint okay. Also at one time there were whitemetal ones which were better and added a little weight to the tender. It is a long time since I had any so no idea what maybe available at the moment and never tried the Aus ones. The valve gear was missing on the valanced Gresley and its bracket was slightly different in design to a BR A4, but, putting valances on the outside as many do you may be able to leave the full valve gear on. Dennis Williams used to sell replica ones of the old style. Garry

Their early Princess was a case of different colour meant a different identity. Black was Victoria, green was Elizabeth and maroon was Royal. I don't know if the black at one time was Elizabeth until the colour additions came out. Garry

A collection was delivered today with some interesting examples in it. A couple of green A4's and one blue one, this needs a repaint into the correct shade. The 2P has been fitted with the K's tender power unit. A couple of the M/N cab-Brit body conversions although one has a standard Britannia tender. A well painted GW Castle, some Mk1's in Teak livery and 4 Blue and Grey coaches. I would not buy these specifically as I am not into these colours but they may find their way onto the layout. The DMU's are in various states but most locos need cleaning and most likely a repaint. A few interesting Jinty liveries too. There are quite a few with open spoked wheels too which is a bonus. Garry

Not just Tri-ang Brian, Hornby Dublo also did this with the BR Duchess of Montrose and A4 Silver King. The good thing was my first electric train set was second hand and had Silver King but no tender so I imagine my father was grateful to be able to get just a tender and not buy a complete loco and tender combination. Tri-ang possibly thought, and rightly so in my opinion, if something fell off the table maybe only the loco or tender would be damaged and needed to get replaced. Garry

I have quite a few without Exley labels but fairly confident when I see them. I have over 150 Exleys as they are my favourite style of coach but nearly all fitted with Bachmann bogies. I do keep the Exley bogies fitted with the metal tyres but others are changed. Some people try to pass Anbrico off as Exley but there is no comparison and quite easily spotted in reasonable photos. I always wanted the blood and custards and they were never seen or available until about 3 years ago when I got 8, since then there have been quite a few for sale and a few weeks ago I managed a parcels coach in that livery which was a surprise. I guess my best Exley find (although mainly WR coaches which is my least favourite) was about 5 years ago when only about 15 miles from where I lived was about 25 brand new still wrapped in tissue and unopened later style ones. These were the metal base and plastic window versions. Some are still unused on my layout. Garry

Tony, Here is the Exley 6 wheeled chassis used on mine. I have 4 Parcels vans and 3 WR coaches and all have the system as here. As I mentioned my GW ones have a roof with a lip as in the Clerestory end view although this is a bogie coach. As far as I know it was only the standard "Stanier" stock that received the Blood and Custard livery but here is an SR shell produced in the same colour scheme so it is probable the in the latter years before the fire they used a different shell and had a different underframe. I have an old Exley catalogue but doubt we will ever know ALL the different variations they made either on purpose or by accident. Until I bought some I had never known of the full LMS lined out ones with proper door handles as made to special order. Garry

The bodies look to be Exley but the underframes are certainly not the standard Exley I know of and have. The Exleys I have are built with the Cleminson (spelling ?) system as real life with the centre wheels slid across by spring wire when the outer sets turn slightly. The roof shape looks to be the LMS version as my GWR ones have a flatter shape with a pronounced lip over the edge but Exley did do a few variations of colours to bodyshell shape. The wheels look to be Exley with a small metal axle in a plastic wheel. The underfame does have an Exley look to its design so could be a late production version but not one I have seen before. Garry

I have just heard the sad news that Tony Cooper passed away on Xmas day after taking ill on Xmas eve. Tragically his wife Marilyn passed away a few months ago too. I imagine their son Darren will continue but at the moment I think he is having some time off. I have known Tony for a good few years and been to his house a few times looking at new projects etc. Dublo world has lost a good and knowledgeable chap, RIP Tony. Garry

These were made by Colin Massingham (RIP) who I knew quite well who was quite a jovial character. A lot were done at his house or shed in the garden and I went to his house a couple of times. When I was making some models for BR in the 80's I provided Colin with some drawings for him to produce cast ends or other parts. Yes, they were quite basic but at the time gave a lot of different options, and sometimes parts did not always fit altbough what he did for me was fine. Hi Ell Crappo kits were 0 gauge and he used to put on the box lid "There is no guarantee this kit resembles the prototype" or words to that effect. I never had any kits as such only specials he made for me but heard both positive and negative comments about them. They cannot have been too bad as he was still making kits until his untimely death. I have no idea about 3mm, American or narrow gauge products of his. I certainly miss him as a friend. Garry

Hi David, You could always try writing to the railway/society where the N2 is based and ask them for the dimension. Garry