Dublo > Wrenn > Dapol wagons

[Nearholmer]

I made a rare visit to a real model railway shop the other day (there are no such shops near where I live), and was heartened to see that some of the ex-HD wagons are still for sale, but what I didn't take notice of were the chassis.

 

Can anyone clue me up on whether any of them are still sold on 'original' chassis, and/or what the origin of the chassis they come on now is?

 

Also, can the current production bodies be fitted direct to the "classic period" chassis?

 

Thanks in advance, Kevin

[kernowtim]

Dapol plastic chassis mouldings are used now, presumably they are interchangeable with dublo

[Golden Fleece 30]

Quite a few Dapol bodies will fit directly onto old Dublo chassis. A couple of years ago I bought a few of their unpainted range to fit onto some spare wagon chassis. The SR van body does too even though it was not a Dublo model. The hopper wagon though is not the old Dublo version, Wrenn have that.

 

Garry

[Dunsignalling]

Quite a few Dapol bodies will fit directly onto old Dublo chassis. A couple of years ago I bought a few of their unpainted range to fit onto some spare wagon chassis. The SR van body does too even though it was not a Dublo model. The hopper wagon though is not the old Dublo version, Wrenn have that.

 

Garry

Dapol also don't have the Mica, or if they do, they haven't made any.

 

AFAIK the Dapol hopper wagon has its origins in the old Airfix range.

 

John

[Il Grifone]

I've fitted a few to Dublo underframes*, even the FRUIT D, which I understand is a new moulding. There are a few variations in the Dublo casting and some will require drilling for the later fixings.

 

The current  underframe is a Dapol production. I am unaware if it has provision for proper couplings.

 

* I've built up a stock over the years....  The LWB underframe has D/C brake levers which need attention for a FRUIT D. (Also for the horse box, but that moulding is  no longer available AFAIK , apart from the doors.)

[locomad]

Quite a few Dapol bodies will fit directly onto old Dublo chassis. A couple of years ago I bought a few of their unpainted range to fit onto some spare wagon chassis. The SR van body does too even though it was not a Dublo model. The hopper wagon though is not the old Dublo version, Wrenn have that.

Garry

There seems to be quite a lot of 2nd hand unpainted wrenn wagons about especially at toy fairs, car boots model railway shows etc. Over the years I have noticed a few well known dealers in the north west and north wales area have almost an unlimited supply of them, usually it more under the counter stuff packed tight in those 23" x 14" supermarket fruit boxes. Just last year I picked up some 16t mineral wrenn bodies with faulty

transfers & paints for £1 each, all of which I have placed on old HD chassis this trying to add to my long coal trains.

 

Now I have some experience working in an industrial plastic moulding factory (not model railway) and I know just how much waste is produced, however all plastic waste has a price so it's often chopped up and recycled. The management is very strict that even waste material cannot be taken out, but some ex workers have been smuggling out the odd bin bag of rejected moulding and selling them on eBay etc. There's a rogues gallery of those caught and sacked.

 

Now I doubt Dapol has ever sold rejected plastic bodies or faulty painted ones as it will effect the sales of painted bodies, however wonder if some have somehow got out, after all bodies are very small and of high relative value.

[Golden Fleece 30]

The Dapol unpainted bodies are advertised on their website and only available from them. Obviously purchasers can sell them on if they wish but unlikely to get a lot as Dapol sell them for £2 to 3 each which are good value. It does give you the chance to paint them in whatever livery you choose without ruining a good dearer body.

[Dunsignalling]

The Dapol unpainted bodies are advertised on their website and only available from them. Obviously purchasers can sell them on if they wish but unlikely to get a lot as Dapol sell them for £2 to 3 each which are good value. It does give you the chance to paint them in whatever livery you choose without ruining a good dearer body.

Hatton's also sell the unpainted Dapol wagon bodies, unpainted complete wagons and spare underframes, so if you purchase other things from them, it is simple to add them to an order. I've bought several items that way for conversion projects and the range also includes the renowned ex-Airfix LMS van body.

 

 

John

[locomad]

The Dapol unpainted bodies are advertised on their website and only available from them. Obviously purchasers can sell them on if they wish but unlikely to get a lot as Dapol sell them for £2 to 3 each which are good value. It does give you the chance to paint them in whatever livery you choose without ruining a good dearer body.

Hi I'am aware Dapol sell unpainted wagons I myself have brought them in the past they are good value if you paint them yourself, it could be that many modellers in the past have purchased them never got round to paint them and sold them on.

 

However there's a lot of 2nd hand wrenn or Dapol painted wagon bodies about too, one has to be careful inspecting them for painting or transfer faults missing white line on one side is a common fault with the 16t mineral.

 

I've also seen quite a few brown wrenn 16t mineral on old 2rail Hornby dublo chassis I think this is the rarer version, in original HD boxes, passed off as original Hornby dublo at stupid prices so it buyer beware. One I spotted at a toy fair had a missing white line on one side.

 

If you compare original Hornby dublo to wrenn or Dapol the plastic and the paint work is different often the wrenn/Dapol has a newer look different shades.

 

Still at £1 each for some I still buy them it's chassis I am short of

[Nearholmer]

Many thanks guys.

 

I'm thinking of doing a retro-layout in 00, as a "quickie", while my 0 scale one slowly matures, so was thinking about "backward compatibility" with a c1970 date line ....... the layout I would have built then, if I could have afforded Wrenn at the time, which I very definitely couldn't!

 

Much as I thoroughly dislike the Wrenn fictional liveries, I'm loathe to slap brown paint over them, so buying new bodies from old moulds has great appeal, especially if they are cheap! Of course, if I can source realistically liveried wagons at sensible (not "collector") prices, this fallback plan may never be called upon.

 

Kevin

[Legend]

I'm picking up Wrenn wagons at £8-£10 at moment.  I'm doing a bit of a retro thing myself, as like you I couldn't afford Wrenn back then , but I'm now starting a collection. Like yourself I'm supplementing with the occasional Dapol wagon .

[Il Grifone]

There's still quite a lot of Wrenn available new. Bargains are thin on the ground however.

 

http://stores.ebay.co.uk/WRENNGALORE/_i.html?rt=nc&_sid=176920582&_trksid=p4634.c0.m14.l1581&_pgn=2

 

White lines are quite easy to add to mineral wagons. If you use a strip of waterslide transfer film painted white it can always be easily removed to restore to original condition.

 

Genuine Dublo bauxite mineral wagons are quite rare, but turn up reasonably priced from time to time. Check for damage to the flange at the top of the wagon, especially on the door, before purchase. I modified a Wrenn example (slightly damaged & faded grey version) to make a model of an MCV rebodied PALBRICK. It involved scraping off the top door detail and rounding off the bottom of the sides, followed by a coat of brown paint. (I still have to letter it!). It sits on a pin-point Wrenn underframe as the nearest to the prototype*. I left the tension lock couplings to couple to my (limited & mainly Hornby) collection of TOPS rolling stock. I decided to leave tension locks on these (for now at least) as too much trouble to change. The horrible bendy underframes are another matter.... (Eliminating these does at least correct the ride height!)

 

* I am looking for a damaged K's Palbrick at the right price.

 

There wasn't a lot available in the Tri-ang-Wrenn era pre-1970  IIRC. They started with releases of the 4MT, Castle and 8F, with a price hike of about 50%, though you did get free Tri-ang couplings. I noted Tri-ang prices increased at the same time....  The fake P.O. liveries started in the seventies with the nostalgia-rush following the end of steam on BR and the rash of dodgy pre-nationalisation releases.

 

Scrap Dublo items for the underframes can be obtained quite cheaply (a pound or two). The later open brake gear type, as used by Wrenn, is better, but harder to find. Best of all is the late Wrenn pin-point axle version, but usually these have tension locks, though the mountings for Dublo couplings are still present. Wrenn used to do a conversion kit (initially supplied with the item but later sold separately) comprising couplings, bushes and screws, but these are now like hen's teeth.

[Nearholmer]

You are right, Grifone, the Wrenn range was fairly limited at that stage, but the catalogues were good entertainment ...... Talk about provoking anticipation!

 

I couldn't afford any of it until a bit later, when I was working, at which point I bought myself a diesel shunter, several milk tanks, and a brake van, having seen such a train running round at Waterloo after unloading at Vauxhall. A milk-themed layout was supposed to follow, but it never did, because I was bitten by narrow gauge bugs at much the same time.

 

K

[Golden Fleece 30]

Most, if not all, are sold by Maurice Gunter under the names Wrenn Galore, OR Booklaw, who was one of the new Wrenn owners and since they ceased about 18 months ago could be the sole owner himself.

 

Garry

[Steamport Southport]

Not a wagon, but I've also noticed a lot of "new" R1 bodies knocking about.

 

 

 

Jason

[Nearholmer]

They've been around in various forms since the 1970s; I think Dapol sell them currently. I painted one up (badly) in SECR livery, and put it on a Triang Jinty chassis ....... a loooong time ago.

 

K

[Golden Fleece 30]

Wrenn were selling them originally but there have been a few people who got a lot of different coloured versions over the years and selling them off themselves, usually about £6.00.  The colours were the base plastic colour and not painted some were blue, green, yellow, red, black.  Obviously for Wrenns own livery ideas to save spraying the base colour.

 

Garry

[Il Grifone]

R1 bodies are currently 2 for £12 from Wrenngalore on eBay, but only in strange colours (like silver) and the buffers and chimney cap are not included. I was considering buying a couple to replace broken bodies. Adding black paint is not a great problem and there is no lining to worry about.

[locomad]

R1 bodies are currently 2 for £12 from Wrenngalore on eBay, but only in strange colours (like silver) and the buffers and chimney cap are not included. I was considering buying a couple to replace broken bodies. Adding black paint is not a great problem and there is no lining to worry about.

Strangely enough there's also a lot of 2 rail chassis about too 2nd hand, i purchased one almost new about a year ago at a local model railway show. It seems quite a few people brought them for wills kits in the 60's and never got round to making them.

 

As for the bodies I've come across many at toy fairs etc most seem to be green, often they don't have the number on the smoke box door

[Il Grifone]

The removal of the smokebox number was a later Dublo modification. Someone must have pointed out that the green version was numbered 31340 on the bunker and 31337 on the smokebox. I noticed this at once at the age of twelve!

 

The real 31340 had already been withdrawn when the models were released and 31337 followed not long afterwards.

[Nearholmer]

While we're off down this siding: we're there three-rail R1s, or only two-rail?

 

K

[Dunsignalling]

While we're off down this siding: we're there three-rail R1s, or only two-rail?

 

K

No, the R1 was produced as 2-rail only, though I have seen a couple that have been converted.

 

John

[Golden Fleece 30]

The R1 was Dublo's only loco not designed as both 2 and 3-rail so no direct fittings available. There are literally 100's running around on 3-rail though but done in different ways. I have 3 or 4 methods on mine. Dennis Williams, the Dublo Surgeon, actually does conversions milling the chassis and fitting the Co-Co/Deltic pick ups. He will deinsulate the wheels with metal bushes if you want.

 

Garry

[Il Grifone]

My R1 (green 31335 with 'cycling lions') was converted using pick-ups made from paper clips* with strips of phosphor-bronze as springs. They work OK, but do squeak a bit. I pass it off as flange squeal.

 

* The type with a domed head and two tails for punched paper.

 

There were no official 3 rail models. There are coupling variations to excite collectors. I prefer the metal ones, but they can cause short circuits.