Triang Mineral Wagon

[Darius43]

Refurb of a 1960s era Triang wagon - one with a cast metal chassis and plastic wheels on metal rod axles that fitted through holes in the cast axle boxes.

 

The wheels and axles were removed and replaced by new metal wheels in brass bearings.

 

The old tension lock couplings were sawn off and replaced with new NEM types.

 

Chassis primed and repainted and shiny grey plastic body toned down.

 

 

 

 

 

Soon to be back on a layout after almost 50 years.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

Edited August 22, 2021 by Darius43

[Halvarras]

That looks.........substantial! I'd imagine it rides better than the all-plastic version with a sliver of steel in it.

 

Which reminds me that I once bought one of the latter in the most unexpected location - about 30 miles west of Penzance! In July 1969 we were camping in the Isles of Scilly for a week (not a big stretch for us, we lived near Truro) and while browsing in a small shop I was astonished to find a few pieces of Tri-ang Hornby on a shelf. The shopkeeper said they'd been delivered there in error - the mineral wagon came home as I didn't already have one. It eventually got moved on with the rest when I upgraded to Airfix and Mainline products but I've often thought I should have retained that one as a souvenir!

[BernardTPM]

Ironically that old metal (wooden pattern) underframe has buffers at the correct height which helps with the overall proportions compared to the later plastic (steel pattern) underframe. At 16' long it's closer to the correct 16' 6" than the Hornby Dublo (later Wrenn) or 1970s Mainline verions that were both 17' 6" long.

Edited August 22, 2021 by BernardTPM

[Darius43]

Two more Triang Hornby wagons given the treatment - new metal wheels and NEM couplings.

 

 

 

 

 

These are the ones with the plastic chassis, which are much easier to re-wheel.

 

The weathering (a mixture of track colour with some warning yellow) was airbrushed on to the plastic parts.  When semi-dry, a flat brush with a little thinners was used to “distress” the sides.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

[Smudge617]

Darius, how did you get the original wheels out the axels, I've got several similar wagons and would really like to swop them out for metal ones, but after breaking one axle ( I didn't realise that the chassis was metal) I decided it was perhaps a bad idea.

[Dava]

You can push the axles out through the hole in the box using a metal rod or screwdriver small enough. Also works on TT gauge stock.

 

Dava

[Darius43]

1 minute ago, Dava said:

You can push the axles out through the hole in the box using a metal rod or screwdriver small enough. Also works on TT gauge stock.

 

Dava

What he said.

 

Cheers

 

Darius

[Dava]

The new wheels & axles have to go in the same way, stating the obvious, unless you file or grind out the bases of the boxes, fit bearing cups & reconstruct the boxes. 
 

Dava

[Darius43]

I used this type of brass bearing inserted into the holes in the Triang metal axle boxes.  The new wheels were centred and sandwiched between the bearings and cyano glue run into the axle box holes from the outside to fix the bearings  in place.

 

 

Cheers

 

Darius

[Smudge617]

Thanks Guys. I've managed to get a couple of axles done, now I know how to get the old ones out, but I've used top hat bearings, had to bend the chassis slightly to get the new axle in, risky I know, but 3 axles so far, apart from the axle I broke initially, it's not gone too badly just very slowly and carefully. lol.

[LNERGE]

16 hours ago, Darius43 said:

I used this type of brass bearing inserted into the holes in the Triang metal axle boxes.  The new wheels were centred and sandwiched between the bearings and cyano glue run into the axle box holes from the outside to fix the bearings  in place.

 

 

Cheers

 

Darius

I've been thinking about doing a rake of Triang operating ore wagons with better wheels and couplings. It should be a way of bringing a bit of animation to the layout but the wagons can't run as they are. Are these bearings available somewhere?

[Darius43]

Hi LNERGE,

 

I found these bearings on eBay.

 

Cheers

 

Darius