Dublo "Canadian Pacific"

[Wolseley]

Around mid 2016, a Dublo "Canadian Pacific" came up for sale on eBay.  It was rather sad looking, obviously original, a non-runner and minus a tender.  I put in a couple of bids on it and then watched the price climb beyond what I was willing to pay.  The locomotive would have needed quite a bit of touching up, possibly a new chassis (depending on what was wrong with it) but, of course, the missing tender meant that a replica would have to be created from a Duchess tender.  While this would be simple with the right set of transfers, it did mean that the resultant model would not be original in its entirety and there would be an obvious contrast between a locomotive in poor condition and a good, albeit unoriginal tender, and would have been rather expensive for what it was.  I did want one now though, so I bought a conversion kit (transfers, cowcatcher and headlamp) on eBay and waited for a cheap, playworn Duchess to turn up.  I ended up getting hold of a scruffy Duchess of Montrose and you can see the result below.  At first I was going to give it a number other than 1215, as any locomotive that I have completely refinished or converted (as in my GWR N2) I prefer to have a number different from the Dublo original, as I don't want them to find their way onto the market in 30 or so years time and be mistaken for valuable originals.  This CPR pacific however would not fool anyone who knows anything about Dublo, as it is based on a Montrose rather than an Atholl and, when you turn it upside down, the underside of the body is green.  I also filed off the nameplates, as I think it looks better.

 

I invariably run it with a rake of Pullman coaches, as I think they set it off nicely.

 

[Il Grifone]

That looks really good!

 

My replica has only got as far as being painted black, but I have still to obtain the add-ons. (Limited Grifone funds  have found more pressing uses!*) I have seen it suggested that an A4 tender would be better as it is at least fitted with bogies like most/all North American tenders, but it doesn't couple to a Duchess properly without modification. On the other hand, I do have a spare tender chassis fitted with two early Tri-ang Princess bogies**... or a spare H0 Union Pacific Vanderbilt tender of generous proportions....

 

*   Other railway related items and bills....

 

** These are very short and a good replacement for missing tinplate items.

 

I look on buying repro items instead of the real thing as 1. fraud and 2. caveat emptor.  Professional purveyors of these things tend to put their own mark on them. A different number always allows the genuine article to be added to the collection later on. 

[Dave B]

Growing up in Montreal in the 50's I had a CPR freight set with the bogie wagons and black caboose. I bought two cherry and red carriages because, although people seem to run the midlands all red carriages, the Canadian Pacific that ran past our house had red and white carriages very similar to the Cherry and red. When we returned to Britain, I hacked off the cow catcher in an attempt to convert the engine back to a Duchess. I painted it scarlet but never got around to fixing buffers. It disappeared when I left home. I also removed the observation box from the caboose. 

 

I am determined to get a replacement but I am most definitely not going to pay the very silly prices they seem to be attracting. I have chatted to several HD enthusiasts at the shows and everybody goes a bit quiet when I mention making one. I think some people got burned by fakes. To me it doesn't matter as long as it looks right.

 

I haven't been able to source a cow catcher but I will have no problem in making an acceptable one from scratch. Transfers shouldn't be a problem either with printable transfer sheets. I will be retaining the 6 wheel tender because even though people seem to want it to be one of the big Vanderbilt bogie tenders which I remember. It is the model I had as a lad that I am after.

 

Whilst people complain about the tender being wrong, the real thing that is missing is a bell! North American locomotives have to have a bell going whilst they are in the station. There was a CPR loco on UK e-bay about a month ago and it had a 8 wheel A4 tender but it didn't look right to me. I don't know if it was a fake or not and how much it fetched though.

[Il Grifone]

AFAIK all the genuine Dublo CPR locos had six wheel tenders. The A4 tender coupling is at a different height from the Duchess one. Wrenn modified the rear truck of the A4 to couple with their plastic tender. Since this is a Tri-ang product it doesn't count! (Triang/Hornby really, but that 's still Tri-ang.)

 

There was a conversion kit on ebay, but it appears to not be available at the moment.

 

Vinyl stick-on lettering is available however.

 

Mine will run with a set of Trix heavyweight coaches. I still need to source an obervation car.

[Dublodad]

Derek Smith of the HRCA has replica "cowcatchers"