Tri-ang Hornby Class 37
Entry posted by Barry Ten
3,965 views
Purists, look away now...
The Triang-Hornby Class 37 was a favorite model of mine as a kid, stemming from a Christmas present around 1973 or thereabouts, and whenever I had a layout (we moved house a fair bit, so that wasn't always the case) the "Co-Co" diesel was always one I enjoyed running, usually at high speed, with an unlikely assortment of wagons and coaches hitched behind. It was in BR blue, numbered D6830, and I still remember the excitement of taking it in and out of its red box that Christmas. I wasn't the slightest bit interested in whether it did or didn't look like an English Electric Type 3: all I knew was that it was a Co-Co, not a Hymek or Dock Shunter. If there were other types of diesel, I didn't know about them. The model had a power bogie at one end with only two driven axles, the middle ones being represented by dummy wheels which didn't even touch the rails, whereas the other bogie had six wheels but they were plastic. The only pickup was from the two driven axles, meaning that the model had to be driven at speed to get over dead frog points.
Later, tragically, the model suffered a crash to the floor and the power bogie fractured into several pieces. However my dad must have written to Hornby or sent off the Co-Co because a replacement power bogie was eventually forthcoming.
Somewhere in the late 70s/early 80s I took the decision to repaint the model in BR green, presumably because being in blue, it didn't fit in with my burgeoning BR-steam era interests. The green paint was brush painted on, and then the letters, numbers and crests were hand-painted, as this was all I knew how to do at the time. At some later point I retouched the green around the hand painted bits and added HMRS lettering, a little crookedly but better than what was there before.
Around 15-20 years ago, accepting the power bogie for what it was, I added metal wheels and all-wheel pickup to the rear, undriven bogie, but the result was still a bit hit and miss. In any case (as I couldn't help but notice) the bogies were the wrong type, had the steps in the wrong place, and I imagine it would be hard to convert the original power bogie to DCC. Beyond that, it wouldn't pull the skin off a rice pudding and my attempts at adding weight didn't make much difference.
The model languished; I didn't want to get rid of it but I couldn't see an obvious way of getting it running again. I didn't fancy butchering a Bachmann or ViTrains chassis just for this, assuming either could be made be to fit.
Enter Hornby's Railroad range, and the advent of a cheap and cheerful Class 37 chassis under the old Lima body. One of these was picked up at a very reasonable price, including TTS sound, and while it was a little juddery at slow speed, it was a heck of an improvement on the Tri-ang mechanism. Taking the view that it was the body of the Triang diesel that mattered to me, and which I'd invested time painting, I set about marrying the one to the other.
The Railroad chassis was a reasonably straightforward fit to the 45-year old moulding, needing only the integral buffer beams sawn off at either end to give a snug fit. Inside the body, behind each door, are raised plastic mouldings which can be cut back a couple of millimetres higher to enable the body to sit reasonably low on the bogies. I also added a bit of extra weight as the Railroad chassis is really light as it stands.
I wasn't planning to do too much to the body, but at a recent model show I snapped up a Puffers Class 37 detailing kit from a box of bits for only a few pounds, and this provided various castings, as well as etched window surroundings and new buffers. I thought that improving the windows might be a reasonably worthwhile job, especially if it could be done with only local retouching of the original paint. The existing windows were cut away completely and a large "letterbox" opened in the front, over which the etch was bonded. After fitting the etches, they were blended in with filler, sanded, and then over-painted to match the existing livery. At this point I also reduced the depth of the doors on the top of the bonnet, which seemed to stand a little too proud, this time by filing and then reinstating the top hinges with plastic strip. When I started touching up the paint, I initially used BR brunswick green but this was a poor match to the duller shade I'd used originally, so I tried DMU green instead and that was a virtually perfect match, as well as covering more easily. Once the paint was dry, the windows were re-glazed using clear plastic for the larger apertures and glue-and-glaze for the smaller ones. This took one night per end, as I didn't want to rush it.
Buffers were then replaced, a screw-link coupling added and some of the buffer beam detail added using the castings. The other end of the loco will have a reduced amount of buffer detailing, but will be equipped with a Spratt & Winkle coupling hook. I don't plan to add one at the front as the loco won't ever be used for shunting or running around, just trundling through with a goods train. There are still a few things to be done - I will attend to the crooked numbers, among other things - but in all essential respects the Co-Co is now back in business, and I couldn't be happier. Of course if you want a Class 37 there are easier (and undoubtedly more accurate) ways of getting one, but I've grown up with this model, and it's still mine.
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