Dummy Locos

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Has anyone else noticed a rash of "Dummy Locos" offered on EBay. They vary from a Triang Jinty to two car DMUs. The common factor is, they all have had there X03/4 motor or early type motor bogie removed but look otherwise complete. They appear to come from multiple sellers but even when you've just bought their "last one" they reappear in a few days. I know the X03/4 is an in demand spare but this seems to be going on on an industrial scale.

[Mountain]

Those Triang motor bogies once had a good reputation when used in garden railways so I would not be surprized if one or two people want them. It could just be some enterprizing people deciding that selling their models in this way gives them a few extra pennies?
If people want to buy unmotorized models and others want the motor bogies then everybody is happy.

[Richard08]

I used to sell s/h Land Rover spares, and it's a sad truth that parts make more than complete vehicles - I 'killed' many perfectly good cars to make more cash. I didn't like it, but gotta pay the bills. The Hornby tin plate boys and girls have the same thing going on, perhaps more business oriented types are getting involved rather than train nuts?

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It seems to be restricted to Triang X03 X04 motors and the original motor bogie. You occasionally see other bodies for sale but never locos complete but for the motor. The X03/4 was a good motor for it's day but even Hornby used off the shelf substitutes in later years. My own favourite is the N20 series gear motor, depending on the reduction you choose you can even afford to step up between the motor and axle.

[Bigmet]

I used to sell s/h Land Rover spares, and it's a sad truth that parts make more than complete vehicles - I 'killed' many perfectly good cars to make more cash. I didn't like it, but gotta pay the bills. The Hornby tin plate boys and girls have the same thing going on, perhaps more business oriented types are getting involved rather than train nuts?

It's all a matter of attitude in my opinion. I am definitely certifiable as a model railway nutcase, but I see 'manufactures' in general as kits that just happen to have been assembled. (It possibly helps that my early career involved multiple stints in technology R&D with segues into manufacturing engineering, and for a brief yet memorable period, once parachuted into a production shop management role.)

As such I am happy to do such things as take the mechanism from model A, body from model B, tender from model C, and having variously massaged them into new forms and screwed them together, thus obtain a model of 'D' which is never likely to appear in RTR form; and it's a damn sight easier than building a kit, though usually not quite as accurate: whatever, my priority is a working model for timetable operation on the layout, way ahead of running the loco, carriage and wagon works.

The resulting 'left-overs' from this process are sold, and between careful purchasing of s/h and discounted stock to first obtain A, B and C, and not costing one's hobby time, which is fun after all, it usually transpires that model D was obtained at a net profit... This of course the generous gift of the various brands selling RTR OO not operating a reliable spares supply process, thus there is usually 'someone' out there looking for a replacement for what has been broken, damaged, lost, poss. eaten by the dog, etc..

[kevin sharpe]

I have 4 dummy locos now a airfix 31 motor gone triang blue 37 on Lima bogies Lima 47 seized motor and striped gears ,a mainline warship which had broken its gear train none of these cost more than £15.00 but double heading is now very easy so if you have a loco that is on its last legs then why not

[Bigmet]

...if you have a loco that is on its last legs then why not

Don't forget to make the bodies easily swappable so you can have choices of different liveries on the powered chassis. Possibly some of the running gear detail will be incorrect, like wrong handles on access panels or bogie lightening holes missing, or present, but you don't see that when it is running past. Greater crimes are possible, different numbers either side is a good one, double your fleet.

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Locos with double identities are now a firmly established prototype the two class 50s in GBRf colours that work out of Kidderminster both carry the identities of two former class members each both name and number. Youngsters seeing them in the station race over the footbridges to see what it says on the other side.

[Mountain]

Locos with double identities are now a firmly established prototype the two class 50s in GBRf colours that work out of Kidderminster both carry the identities of two former class members each both name and number. Youngsters seeing them in the station race over the footbridges to see what it says on the other side.

I worked them (Actually the Mk2's behind them) as a guard. I remember one was called Hood on one side. They were in the attractive B.R. blue large logo when I worked them.

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The GbRf blue livery has to be the best currently applied to the former BR classes with DRS Compass livery a close second. They fit the body shape and don't cut across major body panels. I'd not seen a lot of the class 50s when two of them double-headed a Pathfinder train into New Street, there wasn't the slightest hint visible or audible of their age, just a pair of magnificent locos doing what they were built to do.

[Mountain]

My experience behind the class 50's is that they are very powerful but just like a diesel engine, if one ups the power output one emmits more exhaust, so the first thing one notices is that though they sound similar to a class 37 or something like that, the exhaust fumes that come off these locos are amplified!
A word of warning if approaching a class 50 from the platform. Never ever touch the side grills. People have lost teir fingers as those grills automatically open and shut when needed as they are on a thermostat device. They can suddenly slam shut without warning so never touch the large side grills.
The rest of my impressions of a class 50 is that they basically look like a deeper and sligtly wider bodied "Beefed up" version of a class 47, and when the driver acdelerates, they have some "Pull" to them. One can feel their power.
Working them one has to be alert and careful and the dangerous task of coupling and uncoupling them along with working groundframes and crossings etc (As a conductors duties involve the lot). The ETH is probably the most dangerous part as one had to go by faith that when one asks the driver to turn it off, that it is turned off, as if it is one it is "Bye bye conductor". The rest of the uncoupling is standard stuff, remembering to do a brake test at the end of the coupling side of things and remembering, when one has given the right of way to unscrew the handbrake in the brake coach!

[captrees]

Has anyone else noticed a rash of "Dummy Locos" offered on EBay.

No. Not down under, anyway. I needed some old loco bodies to assemble my scrapyard, and couldn't find anything at all in my low price range. (cheapskate, mean/skinflint grade.) In the end, her indoors suggested she'd buy me something if I could find anything, for a wedding anniversary present. So I bought, at unnecessary expense, 2 Dapol ex Aifix kits. Now at least Dapol say that there are flaws with the antique tooling, which there are, in spades. Mostly all flat sections are warped. At this point in time it is pouring with rain, and I am partially assembling most of an "Evening Star" which will have its flawed body sprayed in the colour rust.

So now I'll have to buy her an anniversary present. (Its tommorow.) If it stops raining I'm going to buy her an umbrella.