Triang Lord Westwood

[lightengine]

I have a Lord Westwood bought in the 70's and stripped down to the basics back then and stored ever since. I believe it is a Triang Castle, but am open to correction if not.

My question is whether it is worth buying parts to make this into a decent loco and tender or whether to leave time and energy to something more useful.

Any suggestions?

[rovex]

The model is based on the old Hall class sole by Hornby as Albert Hall and Hagley Hall. It requires so much work that you'd be better off buying one of the new hall locos on ebay.

[DCB]

They were good locos in their day, even today their motors and gear train are far more robust than Bachmann etc and their pulliung power when weighted 50% better, also the tenders are better than the later tender drive tenders and the too squat Hogwarts Caste type,

 

Pics of two I converted (25 years) earlier  should be attached  Hagley was a green Hall Westwood was a red Lord Westwood

[BR60103]

The consideration in this case may be whether the loco has a collector's value. I remember it was regarded as a bit outre when it appeared, so many may have been repainted, If enough were redone, it could be scarce; Lionel's pink train didn't sell well and is now a valuable piece.

[edcayton]

I'd agree with that. The best route to a good looking Hall is a S/H Bachmann one-I got mine for about £50 and it had been nicely weathered. Mine runs OK and I think it looks fine, but there is a new one due I think.

 

Keep the red one, it's costing you nowt and may appreciate in value. Meantime it may be popular with younger visitors to the layout.

 

Ed

[lightengine]

I'd agree with that. The best route to a good looking Hall is a S/H Bachmann one-I got mine for about £50 and it had been nicely weathered. Mine runs OK and I think it looks fine, but there is a new one due I think.

 

Keep the red one, it's costing you nowt and may appreciate in value. Meantime it may be popular with younger visitors to the layout.

 

Ed

Its not a question of keeping it. In the 70's when I bought it I decided to strip it and convert it. The stripping was done and I repainted it,or at least primed it in green. Since then it has sat in storage.

I have some choices of what to do with it;

1. Convert it to a Hall. But where can I get the necessary parts for this 70s model?

2. A rusting scrap.

3. Can the motor & chassis be utilised for anything else? The motor and chassis are hardly run in and are ok.

[DCB]

The body needs a lot of work, they were fine in the late 1960s early 70s but even then inferior to the 1957 Hornby Dublo castle.

Compared to the drawings in an old Railway Modeller the smokebox is too long, ( it can be shortened) as is the front footplate which needs cutting at the top of the upswept curve and the level part of the running plate in front of the smokebox saddle cutting away (For a 6959 cut behind the buffer beam and make some dummy frames.)

The solid blob behind the nameplate needs cutting away I trim the name plate itself to provide a good mount for an etched plate, Fire iron case on left side for high numbered halls

 

The bod y sits too high to clear he massive dull flanges in the early chassis so the mounting under the cab needs trimming, also cut away the rear mounting to just leave a slotted lug for the fixing screw so the tender coupling can be brought forward under the cab. The chimney cap sts too high file the chimney round below it to lower it, cab glazing remembering the ATC takes up most of the Right window, Crew, driver on right probably standing as the seat was just a wooden flap which tipped up, no back to it, fireman likewise.  Which leaves splashers too big and firebox too short and the cab front should be set back from the leading edge of the sides (Unlike Manors and Granges)

 

Separate handrails and ejector pipes help the look, but I never bothered, scrapped Airfix and Hornby castles are a useful source of hand rails and ejector pipes

 

The Chassis is robust and was used in the B12 originally, later in the A3 (running backwards) but the dull wheels are horrible, the cylinders sit too high and the front extension is too long so you need to fabricate another and the bogie is too far forward.  The Shiny wheels are but the later coarse plastic worm wheel and worm is horrible.  I have used these chassis but have shimmed the worm wheel to have 10 thou sideplay to stop the loco crabbing, and much prefer the finer brass or finer plastic worm wheels.   Romfords on Markits Triang size axles are good if you control the sideplay but you need to space the coupling rods away from the flanges with small washers 10 BA? maybe 12BA.  The Motor is an X04 solid robust, controllable on a variable Transformer or non PWM controller like a Morley or OnTrack.

 

Personally following advice in a 1965 Model Railway Constructor article "Hoang or nis it Trinby" locomotives I put Hornby Dublo Castle wheels (24mm) and coupling rods on my Halls as the crank throw s bigger than Romfords

 

There is lots of potential for adding weight in the smokebox, behind the motor under the cab etc, mine pull 22 Hornby Dublo wagons, the Hornby 24XX 2-8-0T managed 14

 

The Tender is good, Better than the short wheelbase tender drive one and ithe Hogwarts castle one which sits too low due to its chassis Mailline Collet heritage   The back should be level with a Mk1 coach cantrail, not the top level with a Mk 1 cantrail and the footplate should be much higher than the bottom of a a Mk1 coach side.  Drilled out axle holes take mainline tender wheels. It needs close coupling, about 3mm if you need to get round 18" curves, they were designed for 12" curves

 

The Cylinders and slide bars are pretty poor and more modern types like late Hornby Saint or 28XX Tender drive ones look far better but at least they clear the bogie wheels and are easily repaired with pipe weld when not if they snap off.

 

From the above you may gather that it is far too much hassle, that said I have another under construction and have a Hornby Grange body on a Hall chassis with old as in pre 1961 Hornby Duble 2-6-4 Tank wheels. currently running in, "Why?" you might ask?  Well when struggling to start 22 coal wagon, slipping on the points and then regaining its feet it looks more raiway like than the modern out of the box variety which a) either refuses to take more than 12 wagons or B) strips its gears or bends its coupling rods when weighted, and still doesn't manage 22 wagons.   "Why not use lighter wagons?"  Because 22 Hornby Dublo wagons with H/D Peco couplings will reverse through 2ft Radius peco points reliably, and modern ones with tension lock couplers wont..

 

So hows about that for sitting on the fence, Its not worth doing but I am doing one.

[rovex]

This might be what you are looking for

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Crownline-Kit77-GWR-BR-Hall-early-Conversion-Kit-Boxed-/141201333103?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item20e0415b6f#ht_120wt_1182