Chalkhill

[Phred]

Dad-1wrote:
Look for something else and you'll find them.
However searching for the buckets will be fruitless !!

Never a truer word spoken (written)!

[Dad-1]

Travel has been slow for a few days.

Although not 100% necessary I fancied having my 2 x Triang 10 ton cranes fully mobile.
They will be parked up in sidings most of their life, rather like the real thing, but I wanted
to remove the old wide rusty metal Triang couplers. So why not fit Kadees ??

One of these cranes has been repainted grey, the original red plastic jib was not attractive.
The second one I got on ebay for under £10 inc postage has a yellow plastic jib that while
colour wise is acceptable I'd prefer to make look less plastic but first the other mods.

Wheels need changing, I sprang out the original axles, held in by small peened dots. often
slightly damaged but later easily held in with a small plastic wedge. The axles are the same
diameter as Dapol wagon sets so I pressed wheels off the Dapol axles and eased onto the original
square ended Triang parts. So now with modern metal wheels.

The rusty couplers are held on by one screw and a couple of side supports that are sometimes riveted.
Removal was easy, except that I wanted to remove those side supports and they are a pain to saw off.
The support that held the screw is the right height for Kadees, so to fix I drilled a small hole 'Just' inside
the Kadee dovetail slot. A plastic tube (exact fit) was inserted into the screw hole and some plastic rod that
was an interference fit to that tube and matched the Kadee hole was pushed into the tube. A small
ring of the tube was placed over the Kadee then glued down with superglue. DO NOT USE LIQUID SUPERGLUE
as that creeps along Kadee plastic and will wreck your coupler. TAKE great care with alignment as once
glued you cant adjust !!!

The Yellow crane.







O.K the buffers are slightly too high, and no decent hook. If you want both could be replaced with white
metal parts, but I'm not going to look for perfection !!

Worth the trouble ? I think so, now I have to mildly weather and add a few more decals then an interesting
siding queen that can be shunted around !!

Geoff T.

[Richard08]

Definitely worth the effort on the couplings front, much less obtrusive. I always liked the Triang cranes, maybe not exactly prototypical but have a good essence of crane

[Dad-1]

Hi Richard08,

Nearer the real thing than many give credit for.
Here are my 2, the grey one now marked RM26/10 is based on the photo in Paul Bartlett's folio of photographs.
They certainly have a niche. I believe there used to be 2 lifting capacities 6.1/2 & 10 ton.



Geoff T

[Bufferstop]

I don't know if it's the same one but the difference between lifting capacities on one crane was down to whether or not it came with outriggers.

[Phred]

Dad-1 wrote:
A plastic tube (exact fit) was inserted into the screw hole and some plastic rod that
was an interference fit to that tube and matched the Kadee hole was pushed into the tube. A small
ring of the tube was placed over the Kadee then glued down with superglue.

A nicely worked out solution to the fitting problem and the Kadees look great.

Dad-1 wrote:
now I have to mildly weather

A mild weathering? Pah! Lots of muck please!

[Bigmet]

I don't know if it's the same one but the difference between lifting capacities on one crane was down to whether or not it came with outriggers.

There's a host of potential factors, for which a full read through of the specification is required. For a start the fixed cuboid slab at the rear of this crane model probably represents what was a moveable counterweight in reality.

[Dad-1]

Hi All, thanks for the comments.

I believe all these cranes had outriggers. The Triang chassis has 4 protrusions, 2 each side that
I believe represent the anchor points. In addition there are 4 slots, 2 each side where I think
the outrigger side jacks were stowed.
I'd even have a go at making something to fit in the stowage locations if I only knew what they
looked like. My trouble is I can't be bothered to do that much research, or buy books on the subject
of cranes, that may, or may not show anything. Another sign of my rather lax attitude, sorry.

When I find my black decal striping I may have a go at adding wasp stripes to the counterbalance.

Geoff T.

[Dad-1]

Hi Everybody,

Although I've been doing odds & ends there is little to show.
The one item I'll probably not do more with is the Wrenn GWR LWB Fruit Van.
It was on the give away/scrap pile in BR Maroon and had been fitted with 3 link couplers.
These Wrenn vans are not up to some of the more modern products, not even Dapol, let
alone the Parkside Kits version.
I decided that I would try & turn into an acceptable siding queen. Painted orange, a faded
version of some colour !! I have a GWR wagon book with one Departmental van in a similar
hue - that's why I chose it.
Now sporting a fictitious departmental number starting DS and sporting the 'Tool Van' marking,
The DS indicates Southern Region, they had few such wagons, the only ones I've seen were
originally Southern CCT vans, that were considered not ideal. In my world they got hold of
the GWR van, one that has been popular with BR, many sporting the DB codes, but very
much not in orange !!



I could have put in a roof 'light' and windows, but
I'm not reproducing history, I'm having fun !!

Geoff T.

[luckymucklebackit]

Hi All, thanks for the comments.

I believe all these cranes had outriggers. The Triang chassis has 4 protrusions, 2 each side that
I believe represent the anchor points. In addition there are 4 slots, 2 each side where I think
the outrigger side jacks were stowed.
I'd even have a go at making something to fit in the stowage locations if I only knew what they
looked like. My trouble is I can't be bothered to do that much research, or buy books on the subject
of cranes, that may, or may not show anything. Another sign of my rather lax attitude, sorry.

When I find my black decal striping I may have a go at adding wasp stripes to the counterbalance.

Geoff T.

Hi Geoff, it's worth a hunt for the stabilisers. I bought a Hornby Dublo Crane from an antique centre and it was missing two of the four stabilisers. I was able to source a set of 3d printed replacements from ebay, almost impossible to distinguish from the originals.


Jim

[Phred]

Nice job on the tool van. The 3 link couplers really look the part.

[Richard08]

Love the tool van, nicely done and looks the part

[Dad-1]

Thanks for the comments Guys,

This dreaded layout needs to be presentable by our club exhibition on 29th of this month.
Today glued in the diesel tank with it's flow control. Being checked by staff.



So many little jobs left, touching up scenery and fixing the yard office.
Time is running out !!

Geoff T.

[Dad-1]

It's been a while since I put a full layout photo on.



Deadline racing up.

Geoff T.

[Dad-1]

A wee bit after tea,

My Nissan hut not as dilapidated as that Jaz has, this one has been well maintained.
It does have a repair patch (Black painted masking tape). Now protected by a rail
fence soldered together SMP code 75 rail.





Another corner just about finished to my satisfaction.

Geoff T.