Dublo Layout

[Il Grifone]

Some time ago I promised/threatened to post some photos of my Dublo layout, now sadly dismantled following our move to a smaller house. Here are the first two in its early stages.

[hayfield]

David

 

Its nice to see these older locos and stock, thanks

[Il Grifone]

Is that a Farish Q hiding in the centre of photo 1 ?

 

Yes it is. She has since been rewheeled with Farish prairie wheels. This cured the jerky running due to a quartering problem - the cranks weren't at 90 degrees! and the excess height in part. Unfortunately there is now a derailment problem due to the centre drivers being oversize. Back to the drawing board! She cost me 15/- back in the early seventies from Chuff's and I got a complete new boxed set 35/- from a shop in Chiswick. I missed two Gaiety N2s at 15/- in the same shop, due to the pressure of work - They were in the window in the morning on the way to work, but had gone when I got back in the evening. I found a 3 rail one a couple of years later, but had to pay £2. She won't pull the skin off a rice pudding, so has spent most of the last 40 years in her box.

 

I'll post some more photos. The layout grew from the two boards (flush panel doors SWMBO insisted were replaced) to three and a narrow panel to complete a double track oval plus branch (the main line here). For now here are three later ones of the loco depot.

[Il Grifone]

And another gem hiding in the photographs, a Trix Scotsman?

 

Indeed so. There is also the tender of a Trix Princess. The Scotsman has unusually very little sign of casting break up. The rear truck is missing (I have acquired a replacement but it's 'repaired' and lacks the axleguards). She runs, but draws too much current for a Dublo power supply and, of course, is incompatible with Dublo pointwork. The Princess is not so lucky. She was obtained as a loco body and tender (I hoped to find a chassis, but no luck) The tender is OK, but the loco body has warped inwards...

 

Here are some shots of the 'London' station.(Please ignore the setting of the signal! )

[Re6/6]

Ah David...a nice trip down memory lane. It makes me want get all my old stuff out (hasn't seen the light of day for 40 years!) and have a 'James May style play'!

 

Those two N2s in GWR and Southern are quite scarce maybe.

[Il Grifone]

Ah David...a nice trip down memory lane. It makes me want get all my old stuff out (hasn't seen the light of day for 40 years!) and have a 'James May style play'!

 

Those two N2s in GWR and Southern are quite scarce maybe.

 

The N2s are both rare. The GWR one is an early post-war issue with a horseshoe motor and the gold label. The SR is later with an AlNiCo magnet. She goes like a bat out of hell, but is rarely run due to her value. I acquired her in about 1970 for £2 with an SR open and SR brake van. A bargain even then. At the time, Beatties wanted £5 for a black LNER 9596. I always regret not buying her, but funds did not permit. The LMS version seems commonest, followed by the green LNER, though I haven't got a really decent green one. Mine is a rather tired horseshoe version.

 

I keep meaning to join the TTRCA, though I was told just the rear truck for the pacifics costs £8.50. The chassis for the Princess is the same as the Scotsman (originating from the the Trix Express 01), but due to the body warp no longer fits. I did think of a Tri-ang Princess (which seems copied from the Trix one - the dimensions are very similar), but that won't fit either.

 

Two more photos. The 'London' reversing loop (hidden under the vans) and the 'West Country' station. The road vehicles are mainly Dinky and Matchbox, but some later ones have crept in.

P.S. Sorry for the poor quality of the photos, but i never got round to taking some better ones, just as I never finished the layout.

[34theletterbetweenB&D]

It is a nice trip down memory lane. Just look at those fine sliding door vans, the commonest layout from the big four company's van construction, but not available in RTR OO for nigh on fifty years, happily imminently to be corrected. Didn't H-D offer a high steel as well?

[Il Grifone]

On 05/01/2011 at 13:56, 34theletterbetweenB&D said:

It is a nice trip down memory lane. Just look at those fine sliding door vans, the commonest layout from the big four company's van construction, but not available in RTR OO for nigh on fifty years, happily imminently to be corrected. Didn't H-D offer a high steel as well?

 

HD opens were 5 planks in GWR,SR,LMS,LNER,BR(E)* 7 planks (RCH end door) LMS, LNER, BR(M)* & 16t Mineral in tinplate/mazak. In plastic, they did the mineral (also in bauxite) (MIN & MINFIT) a 5 plank* and a steel open (MEDFIT).

* These were available with a plastic coal load. Most of the tinplate/mazak wagons are visible in the photos. I didn't run the better tinplate and plastic wagons to avoid damage. The SD6 vehicles in particular are very delicate.

[roythebus]

Great stuff there, only available in dreams when we were young due to pocket money being 6d a week! with all that stock, is there actually any track left to run trains on??

[Il Grifone]

Great stuff there, only available in dreams when we were young due to pocket money being 6d a week! with all that stock, is there actually any track left to run trains on??

 

Roughly 28ft of double track and a similar length of branch line, latterly the home of a Tri-ang DMU converted to 3 rail with a Märklin skate. There is rather a surplus of stock though. All alas no more. - all packed in boxes or at least most of it. I'm reduced to an oval of Trix fibre at the moment - you can run anything on this, as long as it will negoiate 15" radius curves. (Currently a TTR compound is running around following a service - she was rather sluggish to say the least - at least there's no problems with tired magnets here.)

 

As to youthful layout building, 3/3d for 11½" of track was the main stumbling block I found. Not to mention 10/6d for a point or a stratospheric 21/- for an electric one. These were bargain prices compared to Trix Twin however.

 

EDIT: I've just realised that part of this - the italics - had vanished into cyberspace.

[Colin_McLeod]

I know this is an old thread, but I am only now seeing it for the first time. Excellent HD collection you have there.

Have you any plans for rebuilding it in your new home?

 

Colin

[Il Grifone]

Unfortunately I just don't have the space. As a test track, I've managed to squeeze an oval of Trix large radius fibre, which is around 15" radius (approx R1) and being all insulated i can run both 2 and 3 rail, though the tight radius limits the stock somewhat. Being on an Ikea desk top, there isn't much room for expansion. Any pointwork would have to be the Trix universal type of which I have a small supply, but 13½" radius (R0?) rather limits the possibilities. Tri-ang and of course Trix have no problems, but Dublo is out of its comfort zone, as is most other stock. Really 17¼" (R2) is the minimum.

I'm back to restoration (I've just brought some Dublo points back to life from 50p each in a junk box - made 3 from 4) and working through the large collection of kits in the 'to do later' boxes (much later in some cases).

I have a project to build one of the layouts intended for the Trix ready wired board, though I can't run to the Elevator Conveyor which is intended to sit in the middle. A little modification to the design will allow the outer circuit to be large radius and I can the keep the inner circuit for stock than can run on tramway curves. The boards were* only 5' x 3' 6" so I might be able to do something. I'll post the/any results.

* 'were' as I doubt very many have survived the ravages of time. Their high price will have ensured there weren't many to start with.

[Colin_McLeod]

Interesting. I never reaslised there were curves tighter than 15" radius.

Good luck with the projects.

Colin

[Il Grifone]

Both Tri-ang and Trix indulged in 13½" radius curves. Trix at least had the excuse that their 'models'* were H0 - at least the original German Trix Express ones were supposed to be. Tri-ang just copied the Rovex toy train curves they acquired. The Tri-ang/Rovex Princess looks more H0 than 00 anyway and appears to my eye to have been copied from the pre-war Trix Princess. (The Tri-ang chassis is not a bad fit in the Trix body. The correct chassis for the latter comes from the H0 Trix Express 01 pacific)

 

*Model is rather a loose term for something that looks very like a scaled down Hornby 0 gauge clockwork 0-4-0.

 

One Continental manufacturer (Roco IIRC, but I may be wrong on this) inflicted curves of about 10" radius on us (Granted this scales up to about 12" in 00) and the original culprit, Bing, also indulged in tight corners.

[GreenDiesel]

I know this is an old thread, but I am only now seeing it for the first time. Excellent HD collection you have there.

Have you any plans for rebuilding it in your new home?

Colin

 

Yes, I just saw this thread and pics for the first time -- a great-looking layout! Hope you can set it up again.

 

Rob

[GreenDiesel]

Both Tri-ang and Trix indulged in 13½" radius curves. Trix at least had the excuse that their 'models'* were H0 - at least the original German Trix Express ones were supposed to be. Tri-ang just copied the Rovex toy train curves they acquired. The Tri-ang/Rovex Princess looks more H0 than 00 anyway and appears to my eye to have been copied from the pre-war Trix Princess. (The Tri-ang chassis is not a bad fit in the Trix body. The correct chassis for the latter comes from the H0 Trix Express 01 pacific)

 

*Model is rather a loose term for something that looks very like a scaled down Hornby 0 gauge clockwork 0-4-0.

 

One Continental manufacturer (Roco IIRC, but I may be wrong on this) inflicted curves of about 10" radius on us (Granted this scales up to about 12" in 00) and the original culprit, Bing, also indulged in tight corners.

 

A couple years ago, I bought a small box of some of those 10-12" radius curves. I was just starting on one of my small layouts then & thought I could use them -- I still have them in their box.

 

Rob

[jwealleans]

Great to see this stuff again. My first recollections of my dad's railway were Dublo 3 rail - we converted it all to PECO 2 rail in the mid seventies and sold all the track to 'Modeller's Halt' in Redcar - anyone else remember the shop?

 

Some of the Ormesby group set up a Dublo demonstration at our show last April and I spent large parts of the weekend whizzing a rake of tankers round and round. Great fun.

[Il Grifone]

Following on to the radius discussion, it's interesting (at least to me!) how the geometry of the various tracks fits together.

The first (ignoring the Bing Table Railway about which I know very little) was the Trix system (originally German of course) based on a 30 degree 13½" curve (probably something metric actually). The points have a 3/4 curve (22½ degree), which gives the large radius at just over 15". and the straight at 7¼" (The projection of the centre line of the curve onto the tangent). Similarly Dublo with 15", whereas Tri-ang used the full 30 degrees on their points which gave their large radius at 17¼" (The same as Dublo and the current 2nd radius.

This is probably unintelligible (and also boring?) so I'll re-edit it later.

EDIT I'm referring to Trix fibre track here, the bakelite uses 30 degree points and doesn't have a 'large' radius. Likewise the Tri-ang is Standard and Series 3. Rovex is a law unto itself and Super 4 is again different. We can thank this range for our current 1st 2nd 3rd etc radii. The points are 22 1/2 degree 17 1/4" radius which sets the smaller radius at just under the Dublo 15" (14 3/8" IIRC).

The Trix radius is actually 341mm (Don't ask me why the Germans chose this strange figure).

 

EDIT Just found this again on Google - looking for something else of course - and realised I made a boo-boo - Radius 1 is 14 5/8" (371mm).

[M.I.B]

David,

 

Nice to see the Dublo shots.

 

I have just opened up all of my father's Dublo and built a large test track in their dining room. Brought back very happy memories of my introduction to OO in the early 70s when this was my trainset.

 

Sadly Sir Nigel is barely running - I think a remag is required. Anyone in Essex capable of such things?

[JeremyC]

David,

 

Nice to see the Dublo shots.

 

I have just opened up all of my father's Dublo and built a large test track in their dining room. Brought back very happy memories of my introduction to OO in the early 70s when this was my trainset.

 

Sadly Sir Nigel is barely running - I think a remag is required. Anyone in Essex capable of such things?

 

Not in Essex, but I used http://www.scalespeed.co.uk/ a few years ago and was satisfied with the results.

 

Photos bring back a few memories as I started with H/D 3-rail in the early 60's and still have some of the locos converted to 2-rail, A couple still run, a 4MT tank detailed up which runs regularly and an 8F which sits in a display case.

Jeremy

[M.I.B]

Thanks for the tip.

[Il Grifone]

Tired magnets can be replaced with neodymium versions, which are available on eBay (Check the suppliers website as I have found they may be cheaper), but check she is not gummed up with dried out oil and crud first (white spirit will shift it - some more aggresive makes may attack plastic, not that this is relevant to 'Sir Nigel' - the only plastic here is the 'coal' on the tender - being acetate this is invariably warped - again replacements are available). Also check the brush pressure as this is quite critical.

[M.I.B]

Thanks David. I will send the GW tank and Sir Nigel off to Scalespeed. I cleaned up the aforementioned and the wheels etc etc but no joy. They've never had any new magnets since the 40s, so it's about time.

 

I found some old 60s unopened and unmade Airfix kits in one of Dad's boxes so they went on Ebay - the sale prices will more than cover the 2 overhauls at Scalespeed. Neither pof us would have made the kits and we will get more enjoyment out of seeing the engines run properly again.

[Il Grifone]

Their service seems quite reasonable. I've wondered about the effects of lap winding and would be interested to hear the results. Take care not to send the GW tank bodyshell through the post. These are quite valuable (a decent GWR tank sells for around £250) and, while the chassis* is easy to replace the body is not.

 

*The LMS version is common and reasonably priced or you could use a BR one, though, apart from possibly the first batches, the coupling rods and crank-pins have been beefed up (they needed it - most of the early ones have worn oval).

[sagaguy]

Their service seems quite reasonable. I've wondered about the effects of lap winding and would be interested to hear the results. Take care not to send the GW tank bodyshell through the post. These are quite valuable (a decent GWR tank sells for around £250) and, while the chassis* is easy to replace the body is not.

 

*The LMS version is common and reasonably priced or you could use a BR one, though, apart from possibly the first batches, the coupling rods and crank-pins have been beefed up (they needed it - most of the early ones have worn oval).

 

 

 

When I was refurbishing some HD chassis,I levered out the crankpins carefully with a pair of side cutters,They were splined & came out fairly easily.Found some thinwall brass tube which fitted the crankpins & reamed out the holes in the connecting rods to fit the tube,soldered it into place & filed almost flat with the rods & pushed the crankpins back into the wheel.!!!

 

Ray.