Triang Big Big in Ireland

[Alexander Court]

Oh dear, what have I done?

I've come into possession of a Triang Big Big 'Blue Flier' Hymek with no working battery compartment, decomposed wires, knackered axles and a cracked trailing chassis.

I'm thinking I could restore it, get some track, and the run it outside for the kids.

How hard can it be?


Alex.

[Ironduke]

That sounds like a great project! What gauge is it?

[Bigmet]

These are O gauge. Finding cheap O spares, track and stock is a challenge. Running O outdoors is a whole lot of fun.

[Bufferstop]

Sounds a great project, but finding parts is going to be the big big challenge!

[Alexander Court]

That sounds like a great project! What gauge is it?

It's an O gauge system which Triang made in the mid 60s, using battery power and running on red plastic track.

These are O gauge. Finding cheap O spares, track and stock is a challenge. Running O outdoors is a whole lot of fun.

When the weather is good yea it ought to be fun outside, I'll have to hurry up to make the end of the summer, although it's already pouring rain here, and all next week with rainfall and flood warnings Friday to Saturday.

Sounds a great project, but finding parts is going to be the big big challenge!

I managed to buy a complete rear bogie for a reasonable price and a circle of track too, from Elaine's Trains, so hopefully I can swap out the cracked bogie, and then take out the OK axle from that to replace the less good one on the power bogie.

When I get the time I'll upload some pictures of my progress.

Thanks,
Alex.

[Alexander Court]

Time for an update!

Here she is, the 'Blue Flier'!

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And this is the spare bogie and track I bought from Elaine'sTrains.

The idea was to replace the whole bogie but it appears that at some point in it's life it has had a broken bogie mount and this has been remedied with a bolt through where the screw used to me, this also cracked the bogie frame.

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I realised I then had no screw to attach the new bogie, so instead I swapped out the new axles for the bad ones on each bogie and then added some hot glue over the crack in the bogie to make sure that it doesn't come apart.

I rewired the loco, as all the wires to the battery compartment and switches were rotten, although I left the ones to the motor as they were fine, I used wires cut from the wall plug of one of those silver Hornby controllers, the awful ones from like 2010/2011 onwards. So technically it still has Triang/Hornby wiring, but this stuff should be a bit more versatile.

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I also wired them for 6v running, I probably could have left it as 3v and 3v pairs of batteries, but I wanted to try it out on a higher power. I think when I manage to get ahold of a rechargeable battery pack I will go for about 4.5v but not sure. Trouble is finding the right sort of battery and the charger to go with it. And then also finding the right kind of attachment to wire the battery to the wires that go to the controls.

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Eventually I want to get it wired up for R/C running but the whole R/C language is a little beyond me, I'd need a controller that allows me to set the speed and leave it it running at that speed without having to hold on to the controller so I can let the loco keep running after setting the speed, but also be able to speed up or slow to a stop when I want it to.

Anyways, with that work done I took her outside and gave her her first trial run, her maiden voyage around the driveway. You can see it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISijuVFKlKk

Now, just need to find some rolling stock and some straight track, need a lot of straight track and that seems to be hard to get. There is someone who 3D prints/sells their own custom designed Triang Big Big track on shapeways I think but its very expensive.
Thanks for your interest and your time,
Alex.

[Bufferstop]

Nice to see you are getting some help, inspection by C.A.T. scanning! You probably got two pieces of straight track with every circle of curved, so they are going to be relatively scarce. 3D printing sounds a great idea but you need a commercial printer rather than the typical enthusiast model with its six inch square bed.

[Mountain]

I recall having a radio controlled yacht which I built up as a kit. The hand controllers could be upgraded with additional parts so the control lever no longer sprang back to the centre position but it then stayed where you put it. With a yacht it then made controlling it more relaxing. Uhmmm. If relaxing is the word to use. I thought "Racing yaught" was just a name. It really did race through the waters at top speed, and would even be going fast enough against the wind. My thoughts were to buy it to have relaxing days. (I wanted to try something different to model trains. It was funny. I was working on the railway and one guard heard from the driver I was with that I had bought a yacht. He asked where I sailed it when we were passing the very spot. There were nice large ponds on the one side but on the other side there was the sea. "Here in this area" I said. He asked where I got the money from to buy a yacht. I said that I bought it in a kit of parts as it was cheaper. He asked what size it was. I said it was 160 high and 90 long. His face. He thought I had bought a real one and he thought my figures were in feet, and rumours went around the railway that i owned a yaucht.
It was funny because the same thing happened when I had bought a box of three Hornby pylon kits, where I told someone on the railway that I had bought three pylons in parts. They had asked where I would use them so I said "at home". I had others who heard what the first person had told them approach me to ask me why I had bought three pylons. Due to shift patterns it can take over a year for these rumours to spread and come back before people ask.