Bill´s Railway World

[Emettman]

My first railway was Triang clockwork, and series three black track.
The loco was a maroon "08" style shunter.

Having "gone electric" at some point (the ubiquitous jinty, I think.) as a two-railer I was amazed on encountering Dublo three rail for the first time.
Not for the unprototypical third rail, but because it could do return loops! All your track in one long line with a loop at each end!

Chris.

[William Medland]

Not only is the grey track finished, but the Hornby Dublo 3 Rail is also laid...... next project the Hornby 0 Guage track!

[Emettman]

A new discovery for me, whilst checking out my memories of the series three and super 4 Triang tracks: an accessory I had never before seen or heard of:

R499: water trough, 12" long.
(That's about 2 seconds of travel time, the way I ran my expresses, back then, and they hardly had water scoops under the tenders anyway.
And if I had any pocket money for a train item, it would have been anything else bought before that.)

Did anyone have one or more, or even know of these?

As I'd expect they can't have been best-sellers because eBay had
"TRIANG R499 RARE BOX OF 6 GREY WATER TROUGHS MINT BOXED "
24 Nov, 2013 20:01:11 GMT
Winning bid:£131.00

So, they didn't sell back then, not even that box, so they're hen's teeth now!

Chris

Chris.

[William Medland]

Returning to this thread I have realised it is a photo thread, I will try to get some more images uploaded when time allows.

In my photos at the start of the thread I was laying two Triang tracks side by side, one series 3 and the other standard grey track. However I have
now merged both track types into one lane, adding some Super 4 as well. The second track now being Hornby Dublo 3-Rail.

Now that the track is finished, it is time for the buildings, two stations are planned, one early Triang and the other Hornby Dublo.

(the lower level of the layout will remain 1970s products from Triang-Hornby) A third level is planned for a Hornby (1950s) 0 guage oval.

The concept of my layout: A homage to the firms Hornby and Triang 1950-1981 (*1981 was the best Hornby catalogue "Ticket to Ride" with 9 new locos)

Cheers, Bill.

[William Medland]

Hi Chris,

I dont have a water trough, thanks for putting my nose on it.

I will be looking through my old catalogues again

Cheers, Bill.

[Emettman]

Some of my points do have moving frogs, I wondered why.

There's quite a lot of it about model and real, and with the newer high speed lines it's making a comeback.

This however is not one of the "high speed" frogs.
It really gives the impression there is something missing, somewhere.




The thing nearest to a movable frog I remember was that the series 4 Triang points had the short straight rail, leaving the V, far from well secured,
and this were quite prone to breaking free if "carpet layouts" were at all roughly disassembled.
Getting them stuck back successfully before the days of modern adhesives was not fun.

Ha! I see one missing rail and at least two repairs, here: it wasn't just me being clumsy!
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/triang-00-gau ... 58b3dc507d

Chris

[Bufferstop]

The original grey track had no frog at all. One straight and one curved rail pivoted about their centre to line up with the two V rails minus the pointed bit. The rail surface had to be unbroken to cope with the plunger pickups, one on each rail, of the original plastic wheeled locos.

[William Medland]

I have had a problem with the standard grey track, after over 60 years the plastic has shrunk.
Between two pieces of track when joined, the gap in the plastic can be as much as 6mm.
This may not seem much, but with points it can be critical. (6mm in the length could be 1mm in the width).

gap.JPG (105.63 KiB) Viewed 3418 times

Cheers, Bill.

[Emettman]

Between two pieces of track when joined, the gap in the plastic can be as much as 6mm.
This may not seem much, but with points it can be critical. (6mm in the length could be 1mm in the width).

Is this still causing a problem, and is that with running or with appearance only?
My brain seeing problems always wants to do solutions, even just mulling subconsciously.

(That's why I let it have fun with non-serious problems, lest it get properly worried.)

Chris.

[William Medland]

The rolling stock can still function normal, it is only
the points that have given real problems, derailings.
the standard track pieces are warped, but they can be
dealt with by being solidly screwed down.

Plastics, mainly plastics from the 1950s, will try to
revert to their previous chemical state and will warp
and start to lose fine details.... same with plastic soldiers.

lt is just something we have to live with.

P.S. How many of you have very old Rovex/Triang
locomotives with a deformed hump back?

Cheers,Bill.

[Emettman]

The rolling stock can still function normal, it is only
the points that have given real problems, derailings.
Cheers,Bill.

I have straightened some old plastics using boiling water and then kept applied pressure between flat surfaces until utterly cool, but the results and risk vary with the plastic. This is something I'm much happier to do to my own old stuff if necessary than to blithely recommend to anyone else!

I was thinking more if excessive rail gaps were opening up.
A non-damaging fix might be to make one-time shuttering around the gap of plasticine or similar and then dropping into the mould thus formed an appropriate quantity of low melting point solder or cerrobend.
Removable with hot water, nothing would be permanently cut or marked.
Just thinking...


My earliest coaches and clockwork loco disappeared (probably while I was off at university and my parents moved house) But I don't recall them ever having warped, except for the fish van roof, which did so spectacularly.

Chris.

[William Medland]

I think the composition of plastics changed about 1958?
Anyway, it was about 1958 that Triang got better.
The early locos and wagons were very brittle. In fact all
roofs of early Rovex coaches have "banana roofs".

I have not used the grey plastic points, they are stacked
up in their original boxes. I may use them for a small
Display at a later date. I have used Series 3 points and
they work 100% accident free, as do my two Super 4 points.

My grey plastic mail coach TPO set works brilliantly.

Cheers, Bill.

[Emettman]

So far so sorted. Good stuff!

Chris

[William Medland]

Hi Forum,

I have just realised that I have not visited the forum in a while, however I have been busy with my layout.

It now has three levels, top level is Hornby 0 Guage 1933-1964, with 1 pre-war electric loco and a post-war clockwork one.

The middle level has a Triang standard/series 3 track line next to a Hornby Dublo 3-rail track, models cover the period 1952-1964

The lower level is Triang-Hornby and covers models built between 1965 and 1981.

Narrow Guage (Barnstable Line) is being added soon).







Cheers, Bill.

[glencairn]

Excellent stuff Bill. Will we see some of it on 'the next photo will be ----' thread when necessary? Like to see more.

Glencairn