Chassis for old Hornby 37

[Kallaroonian]

I have an old Hornby 37 that I repainted - relatively competently - as a teenager and which I'd like to re-energise for sentimental reasons. I fully realise recent Bachmann offerings will be way better but I'd like to get this going, provided it's not an excessively expensive process.

 

I'm wondering whether a  Lima chassis is fundamentally going to fit?

 

Has anyone done anything like this?

 

thanks

[manna]

G'Day Folks

 

I also had a old Cl 37 body, but I used a Lima Deltic chassis, when you could buy them on E-Bay, without losing an arm and a leg, part of the chassis is Deltic, the other half is Hornby. I still need to give it a number.

 

manna

[Clive Mortimore]

I have always liked the basic shape of the Tri-ang 37 and it scrubs up fairly well. So I have quite a few Tri-ang bodies on Lima chassis.  Here are two.

 

[AJCT]

Here's mine: a 2nd-hand Triang-Hornby body on a rather battered 2nd-hand Lima 37 chassis, tarted up and rewheeled to P4 circa 1988.  I used the Lima chassis for the better bogie frames as I disliked the use of the T-H Brush Type 2 ones.  I always felt that both the T-H and Lima bodies weren't deep enough, which was presumably to allow clearance for bogie swing on train-set curves: I suspect the Lima one was "compressed" upwards while the T-H one was merely a bit "sawn-off" at the bottom edge.  So this loco was a bit of an experiment to see what improvements I could make: I added a strip of plasticard to deepen the bodysides (you can just see the join...) and lowered the buffers on the T-H body, having first sawn the Lima ones off the chassis.  The nose grilles are the Craftsman etches (really for a 37/4 but suitably altered) as are the cab front windows, with the cab roofs built up with plasticard to match the window profile and allow creation of the slots for the roof horns.  A bit rough-and-ready by today's standards, but being my first P4 loco there's a certain sentimental attachment.

So to answer the OP: yes, it fits after dealing with the buffers, and you can secure the body to the chassis like I did, by cutting holes below the cab doors and gluing wee lumps of black plasticard to the chassis to match up.

 

HTH !

 

Alasdair

Edited August 10, 2020 by AJCT
Correction

[Richard_A]

5 hours ago, AJCT said:

Here's mine: a 2nd-hand Triang-Hornby body on a rather battered 2nd-hand Lima 37 chassis, tarted up and rewheeled to P4 circa 1988.  I used the Lima chassis for the better bogie frames as I disliked the use of the T-H Brush Type 2 ones.  I always felt that both the T-H and Lima bodies weren't deep enough, which was presumably to allow clearance for bogie swing on train-set curves: I suspect the Lima one was "compressed" upwards while the T-H one was merely a bit "sawn-off" at the bottom edge.  So this loco was a bit of an experiment to see what improvements I could make: I added a strip of plasticard to deepen the bodysides (you can just see the join...) and lowered the buffers on the T-H body, having first sawn the Lima ones off the chassis.  The nose grilles are the Craftsman etches (really for a 37/4 but suitably altered) as are the cab front windows, with the cab roofs built up with plasticard to match the window profile and allow creation of the slots for the roof horns.  A bit rough-and-ready by today's standards, but being my first P4 loco there's a certain sentimental attachment.

So to answer the OP: yes, it fits after dealing with the buffers, and you can secure the body to the chassis like I did, by cutting holes below the cab doors and gluing wee lumps of black plasticard to the chassis to match up.

 

HTH !

 

Alasdair

Thank you for showing this, I have a few triang class 37 bodies to use but could not work out what I thought was wrong with the face/ front windows especially when I offered up the shawplan window etch. I never thought of adding to the cab roof, I'll give this a try now. 

 

Kind regards Richard 

[AJCT]

38 minutes ago, rka said:

Thank you for showing this, I have a few triang class 37 bodies to use but could not work out what I thought was wrong with the face/ front windows especially when I offered up the shawplan window etch. I never thought of adding to the cab roof, I'll give this a try now. 

 

Kind regards Richard 

 

You're welcome... building up the cab roofs as I did means they end up level rather than sloped down towards the front windows as they should be, but it's not very noticeable.  The air horns (Craftsman castings, I think) then sit on the original roof level in the slots cut in the roof buildup... if you follow me.  This pic may help - https://www.railscot.co.uk/img/57/108/

As I said, it was a bit rough-and-ready and trial-and-error but I think it catches the character of the class anyway, and it was all done long before the availability of the Bachmann version.

 

Cheers -

 

Alasdair

[Richard_A]

58 minutes ago, AJCT said:

 

You're welcome... building up the cab roofs as I did means they end up level rather than sloped down towards the front windows as they should be, but it's not very noticeable.  The air horns (Craftsman castings, I think) then sit on the original roof level in the slots cut in the roof buildup... if you follow me.  This pic may help - https://www.railscot.co.uk/img/57/108/

As I said, it was a bit rough-and-ready and trial-and-error but I think it catches the character of the class anyway, and it was all done long before the availability of the Bachmann version.

 

Cheers -

 

Alasdair

Thanks again, its amazing how you know something is wrong but can't see it, but once told it's bloody obvious haha. 

[Kallaroonian]

Thanks for the info and pictures.

 

Two clarifications then.

 

First, we're saying it is potentially a direct fit onto the Lima chassis once you've removed the buffer beam? That sounds almost too easy.

 

Second is it the case that Deltic bogies are the same? I have to show complete ignorance on this.

It's just that I already happen to have an old Lima Deltic which I was converting to my favourite in the same era but never completed........ boxed for years. So in theory I could butcher that and use the bogies on the 37?

 

I am curious how this works. Half Deltic chassis, half T-H? How does all that hold together exactly?

 

cheers

[Clive Mortimore]

2 hours ago, Kallaroonian said:

Thanks for the info and pictures.

 

Two clarifications then.

 

First, we're saying it is potentially a direct fit onto the Lima chassis once you've removed the buffer beam? That sounds almost too easy.

 

Second is it the case that Deltic bogies are the same? I have to show complete ignorance on this.

It's just that I already happen to have an old Lima Deltic which I was converting to my favourite in the same era but never completed........ boxed for years. So in theory I could butcher that and use the bogies on the 37?

 

I am curious how this works. Half Deltic chassis, half T-H? How does all that hold together exactly?

 

cheers

The Deltic bogies are too small as they are really H0.

 

However I have used them on a couple of my earlier conversions and they do improve the look of the Tri-ang model. They only notice being smaller when next to one fitted with the Lima 37 chassis or a Bachmann, or Vi Trains 37. 

[Kallaroonian]

OK I could probably live with that. 

 

How did you end up mounting the Deltic bogies into a T-H chassis though? 

[manna]

On 12/08/2020 at 00:01, Kallaroonian said:

OK I could probably live with that. 

 

How did you end up mounting the Deltic bogies into a T-H chassis though? 

G'Day Folks

 

Sorry for the delay. The 'Motor' half is Deltic chassis, the other half of the chassis, is Hornby/TriAng, R 751, but with the Deltic trailing bogie (for pick ups), the Hornby part includes the fuel tanks, the join is right next to them. She has always been a bit slow, ( I gave it a run yesterday)  silent to start with, but as it gets faster, it looks and feels as if the gears can't go fast enough, I have another power bogie so may change it in the future, how far in the future I cannot say.

 

manna