Hornby dublo

[Il Grifone]

Thanks David,the problem is now solved.I replaced the magnet with one i keep as part of a spare stock as i don`t like neo magnets.I fitted it with the North pole to the right facing forward & remaaged.The loco now goes like a bomb & in the right direction.

 

                       Ray.

 

Glad to have been of assistance. Dublo magnets seem variable some hold their magnetism well and others go flat. I find a couple of 6mm cube neos padded with steel washers are the solution (not possessing a magnetiser)*. A couple have needed four - possibly a faulty armature? - s/c turn or something?

 

*Cross sectional area calculated on the basis of a neodymium magnet being 3/4 times as strong as AlNiCo. I find the full size ones too strong.

 

David

Edited October 10, 2018 by Il Grifone

[Wolseley]

Hi all,

Well if some people seem to think that you should not repaint your Hornby models because it is sacrilege then I must be doomed to hell. I have repainted nearly all mine. Only my 2 8f's and 2 West country class engines have escaped the spray can. That's because they are nearly mint condition. But to go on from that premise does that mean that you should not build the rare Slaters or Milholme models engine kit you have had sat in a box for 20 years. As you are only looking after it for some one else. I mean you need to keep it original and building it would stop it being original. I have seen some stupid things said in online forums but that idea really takes the biscuit.

 

 

I did a bit more than just repainting this one (I know I posted the photo in the thread about the 0-6-2T Dublo tanks, but it seems relevant here too, given some recent comments):

 

[cypherman]

I did a bit more than just repainting this one (I know I posted the photo in the thread about the 0-6-2T Dublo tanks, but it seems relevant here too, given some recent comments):

 

N2 10.jpg

Nice paint job. Do like that blue colour used on Thomas, Here's some piccys of one of mine.........

[Wolseley]

The blue was Humbrol Garter Blue, mainly because it was the closest colour I had handy at the time.

 

Here's another repaint (once again, posted earlier in the 0-6-2T thread):

 

 

[sagaguy]

One of the oddities of the Trix accessories range were these lighted signals,a 14v lamp in the base travelled up the post through a perspex moulding & emerged through the red & green or orange spectacles on the signal arm.They are only visible really in a darkened room but they are quite effective as a piece of reasonably useless equipment.I got 2-3 of these signals as part of a lot of Dublo & Trix signals but without the bulb holders so after i bit of thought,i made this complete with 12vdc les led.I do like things to work.I do use Trix accessories on my HD layout,they do tend to compliment each other.

 

 

                   

 

 

                 Ray.

 

[Wolseley]

Trix Twin products had quite a few potentially great innovations that weren't fully thought out.  Take their coach lighting units for example (I have some of their lit Pullmans and BR "Blood and Custard" coaches) - a good idea, but the coaches have no interior fittings so, when the lights go on, what you see is not very realistic - two bright bulbs and their associated wiring.  Some basic partitions or seating would improve it no end.

[Il Grifone]

Trix Twin products had quite a few potentially great innovations that weren't fully thought out.  Take their coach lighting units for example (I have some of their lit Pullmans and BR "Blood and Custard" coaches) - a good idea, but the coaches have no interior fittings so, when the lights go on, what you see is not very realistic - two bright bulbs and their associated wiring.  Some basic partitions or seating would improve it no end.

 

True, but you can't expect too much. They cost enough as it was. Around 21/- IIRC. The lighting unit alone was 7/6d. The whole inside of the coach is white (for reflective purposes) including a sheet of paper on the floor (usually detached I find - it's held in place by the bogie rivets and thus subject to wear. The currect draw is rather heavy at 150mA, They require the beefy 3A TTR transformer really! (Or rather a modern equivalent. The original Trix ones are long past their 'use by date'.)

 

There is also a lighted brake van which is quite effective (and usually cheap enough for use for spares - they suffer badly from corrosion however). Other lighting was available as yard lamps and lights for the station buildings and signal box.. There is also an all singing and dancing semaphore signal* lit and remote operated (by a device which operates every time you flick the lever, so it doesn't give a positive indication (some of the points work the same way) and the single aspect colour light signals.

 

* I have some missing the mechanism in the base, There is a special bulb for these (expensive obviously). LEDs are a worthwhile replacement for the bulbs. Otherwise they are sold for doll's houses at considerably less than Trix spares prices. The ones I have are only 50mA but quite bright enough. (bought ages ago when white LEDS were expensive).

 

By the time Dublo cottoned on to the possibilities of lighting it was too late.

Edited October 13, 2018 by Il Grifone

[Il Grifone]

Some prices from the 1954 TTR Year Book:-

 

Lighted Pullman   25/-

Ist class, dining car* and brake/3rd  21/-

spare bulb  1/2

special bulb 1/6 for remote control semaphore signal - a snip at 31/-

yard lamp 5/9

colour light signal 19/6 each or 32/6 for a set of 2

(above included a switch and centre rail connector (5/9 and 2/-)

Also available in the 'predetermined train control' set at 48/- of which 16/6 was the special 'indicating check switch'.

 

If any one is interested I can give more details of this.

 

Besides the above coaches, the lighting unit could be fitted to the American passenger cars, but these were sold less lights at 21/9

[sagaguy]

I`ve replaced the 14v filament bulbs in my Trix colour light signals & semaphore signals with LES leds,they are only £5.95 for 10 & run much cooler.

 

Ray.

[Wolseley]

Some prices from the 1954 TTR Year Book:-

 

Lighted Pullman   25/-

Ist class, dining car* and brake/3rd  21/-

 

 

Well then, after taking inflation into account, my Trix coaches were dirt cheap, even if they're not quite mint.

 

Mind you, at those prices, I'm surprised any of them got sold in the first place.  25/- could cover your grocery shopping in 1954.  You would have been able to buy around 75 loaves of bread for the price of a Pullman coach......

[Il Grifone]

Well then, after taking inflation into account, my Trix coaches were dirt cheap, even if they're not quite mint.

 

Mind you, at those prices, I'm surprised any of them got sold in the first place.  25/- could cover your grocery shopping in 1954.  You would have been able to buy around 75 loaves of bread for the price of a Pullman coach......

 

I can remember being surprised when my parent's weekly shopping bill (a regular Saturday morning safari to the Coop in Bristol City Centre) reached £2. It was usually around 30/- or less.

 

Dublo is often accused of being expensive compared to Tri-ang, It was, but not excessively so., In 1954, the TTR 4-4-0s were £5.18.0 and the Pacific at £10.0.0. was well over twice the price of a Dublo Pacific, which were around £4. R.P.M. meant there was no point in shopping around for cheaper prices. The Trix wagons were around the same price as Dublo however.

 

I always fancied the Diesel Flyer (a German Trix Express model), but, leaving aside its inability to run through Dublo pointwork, the price of £7.0.0 ensured I never got one. I stil haven't, though I do have a bit of broken metal which I think was once part of a bogie of one.

[sagaguy]

I think you mean the Trix Meteor 3 car streamlined train,theres one on Facebook market place in model trains along with  some other Trix & HD stock For £25 at the moment if you fancy a restoration project .They are notoriously difficult to get running but the instructions are on the TTRCA website & spares are available!!!.You could start a whole new project  LOL.

 

                         Ray.

[Il Grifone]

I think you mean the Trix Meteor 3 car streamlined train,theres one on Facebook market place in model trains along with  some other Trix & HD stock For £25 at the moment if you fancy a restoration project .They are notoriously difficult to get running but the instructions are on the TTRCA website & spares are available!!!.You could start a whole new project  LOL.

 

                         Ray.

 

It's not the Meteor (not that one would not make a desirable addition to the collection*), which was a British Trix product AFAIK, but this one  https://www.google.com/search?q=trix+diesel+flyer&client=firefox-b-ab&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiD4_3oyYPeAhVdGsAKHQBjAS8QsAR6BAgGEAE&biw=1630&bih=840#imgrc=gzYusl1-NxvG4M:

 

It claims to be a diesel, but the bogies have third rail collector shoes, Presumably they are the same as the pre-war SR EMU.

 

I have plenty of restoration projects already....  but I couldn't find the insertion anyway. Someone must have beaten me to it!

 

* there are blue and red variants to collect! (and so it goes on....)

Edited October 13, 2018 by Il Grifone

[sagaguy]

Ah yes,steam roller wheels,quite a collectable model in good condition.Some where in my stock cupboard,i have a Kato N version of that,i don`t know why,perhaps it was because i liked the colours.Runs like a dream though.

 

                            Ray.

[sagaguy]

Now here is my 50 year old Barnstaple,after all thse years it may need a replacement armature,as you will see on the video,it tends to slow down & stop.It also shows a refinished Cl.20 at the head of a short oil train.Yes,i know it has the wrong size numbers but they were all i had at the time.This video was shot with my iPad pro,still getting to grips with it after 9 months.

 

 

                             Ray

[Wolseley]

What with all this talk of should you or shouldn't you repaint old Dublo equipment, as I'm getting closer to commencing construction of the layout, I'll have to decide what I'm going to do about the buildings and platforms.  The stations, platforms and signal boxes are all a bit playworn, so I suppose the question is will I repaint them in standard Dublo colours or not (although if I go this way I'll repaint them the cream colour of the later plastic buildings, as I've never liked the strange colour of the originals) but then, I might repaint the orange roofs the grey of the later plastic buildings, or maybe I'll paint them orange.

 

Then, of course, I might decide to repaint them in a more realistic colour scheme.  I'm not convinced I want to do that as it wouldn't be a "classic Dublo" layout if I go that way - that and the fact that my goods shed and engine shed are in virtually mint condition.

 

I'll probably go with cream structures with grey roofs, but I'm not sure.....

Edited October 15, 2018 by Wolseley

[Il Grifone]

What with all this talk of should you or shouldn't you repaint old Dublo equipment, as I'm getting closer to commencing construction of the layout, I'll have to decide what I'm going to do about the buildings and platforms.  The stations, platforms and signal boxes are all a bit playworn, so I suppose the question is will I repaint them in standard Dublo colours or not (although if I go this way I'll repaint them the cream colour of the later plastic buildings, as I've never liked the strange colour of the originals) but then, I might repaint the orange roofs the grey of the later plastic buildings, or maybe I'll paint them orange.

 

Then, of course, I might decide to repaint them in a more realistic colour scheme.  I'm not convinced I want to do that as it wouldn't be a "classic Dublo" layout if I go that way - that and the fact that my goods shed and engine shed are in virtually mint condition.

 

I'll probably go with cream structures with grey roofs, but I'm not sure.....

 

You could aiways paint the roofs green! I did this with a rather tatty signal box (leaving the underside orange to avoid faking accusations). It's not really realistic, but less unlikely than bright orange (or use the pre-war colours of brownish beige and green or red roofs).

Edited October 15, 2018 by Il Grifone

[Wolseley]

You could aiways paint the roofs green! I did this with a rather tatty signal box (leaving the underside orange to avoid faking accusations).

 

 

Rather like when I converted a Duchess of Montrose into a Canadian Pacific loco - I left the underside green for pretty much the same reason.

 

or use the pre-war colours of brownish beige and green or red roofs

 

Now there's a good compromise - looks more railway-like but it's still Dublo colours (why on earth Dublo used that bright orange is beyond me).

 

I'm rather leaning now towards making it something along the lines of the heritage colours used recently for Gleneagles station: https://www.crassoc.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=461. The style as well as the cream colour used, in particular, would suit Dublo buildings quite nicely, I think, better than the brown (or as the Caledonian Railway called it, "Duck's Foot") and purple brown used for timber buildings, but then, none of the Dublo buildings were models of timber prototypes.

[NCB]

Nice to see something has been done about Gleneagles station. I stopped there for a break driving south somewhere around 2000, and it was in a very sorry state. In one window the view inside had been blocked off by cardboard, and a bird had become trapped between that and the glass, and was very dead.

[Il Grifone]

omis

 

 (why on earth Dublo used that bright orange is beyond me).

 

omis

 

Beyond me too (job lot of cheap paint?). Even as a child, I didn't like the colours, though I only had a signal box and a level crossing.s which uses the same beige colour for the road surface.    

[GoingUnderground]

Beyond me too (job lot of cheap paint?). Even as a child, I didn't like the colours, though I only had a signal box and a level crossing.s which uses the same beige colour for the road surface.    

I agree, I don't think I've ever seen a cream platform or building. I suppose it was meant to represent pebbledash or sandstone, but that was greyer/darker because of dust and dirt. The use of light and occasionally garish colour schemes was inherited from the Hornby O gauge range. Their station platforms were also cream, as was the footbridge.

[sagaguy]

I suppose that it was designed as a toy railway to be laid down on the kitchen table & taken up before going to bed.The beige was supposed to represent the concrete of the contempory of the time,I don’t know where the orange came from but as a toy,it was quite eye catching.The prewar stations & buildings had green roofs.Hornby Dublo may not be a model railway in the modern sense but it works & properly fettled,does so very well.

 

Ray.

[NCB]

Quite liked the colours. Not prototypical, but the buildings aren't either to any great extent and they had to paint them something, Might as well give them a bit of life rather than something drab. The fact that they're to a consistent style helps.

 

The model railway scene in this country has never done that well for buildings. Some of the continental ones are far better.

[sagaguy]

I can admire the realism of todays model railways & i spent many years constructing an N gauge layout with buildings & scenery but it grew like Topsy & became a maintenance nightmare.That`s why i went back to HD,it works,the locos are easy to repair & a couple of my locos were bought by my dad in the early 1950s & are still running today.I have a large collection of N locos & stock,some still in their boxes unrun.I should think that these masterpieces which they are will not be running in 60yrs time unlike my HD.

 

                         Ray.

[Il Grifone]

Dublo comes from a time when things were built to last. Unfortunately we bought into the awful American idea of 'planned obsolescene'. I try to forget that the newest Dublo is now fifty odd years old (most of it is sixty plus), as it reminds me of how old I am (i was born in the same year as its rebirth after the war....)

 

I've seen its origin of planned obsolescence blamed on General Motors*, but they have denied it (but if that's the case, why bring out a new model every year? (bigger (slightly), more chrome, higher fins etc., but basically the same junk as the year before).

 

I had a Dublo pre-war green roof island platform in my youth (notably better made than the other wooden buildings I had, but I didn't know what it was back then, so it was disposed of along with the others. 

 

*It's true that the fashion industry have used it since forever!

Edited October 16, 2018 by Il Grifone