Hornby dublo

[cypherman]

Hi all,

Talking of pulling power the worst H/D engine I have for lack of power was the GWR Bristol Castle The one with the tender pick-ups. I am not sure if they ever fitted 3 rail pick-ups on the engine itself until its conversion to 2 rail. I was lucky if it would pull 4 coaches. Very slow and unresponsive whilst it was running as a 3 rail engine. It ran much better once it was converted to 2 rail. Yet the 2 rail version I also have still run much better.

[proton]

1 hour ago, cctransuk said:

 

Is that correct? My recollection is of two driven axles from a horizontal lay-shaft.

 

CJI.

I think Melmerby is talking about the HD AL1, not the Co Bo.

[melmerby]

2 hours ago, cctransuk said:

 

Is that correct? My recollection is of two driven axles from a horizontal lay-shaft.

 

CJI.

Vertical ringfield motor with worm driving pinion on one axle

[sagaguy]

4 hours ago, melmerby said:

The HD version bogies are wrong, far too short and they only drive one axle which has rubber tyres.

Haulage in one direction is good, the other way is pathetic. Underframe detail is nil, apart from the bit on the bodyshell.

Sold mine in playworn condition for £100 a while back (still had box, sevicing pamphlet and guarantee info), paid 67/6d for it new.

Here`s one of my Dublo AL1s running collecting from the wire with a train of Dublo die cast tank wagons,can`t really fault the haulage.

 

 

Edited May 12, 2022 by sagaguy

[cctransuk]

37 minutes ago, melmerby said:

Vertical ringfield motor with worm driving pinion on one axle

 

As per above - I read your comment as referring to the Co-Bo.

 

CJI.

[Il Grifone]

3 hours ago, cctransuk said:

 

Is that correct? My recollection is of two driven axles from a horizontal lay-shaft.

 

CJI.

 

That's how mine is. It's basically the same power bogie as the Co-Co/Deltic.

Removal of the traction tyres removes most of the tractive effort I found.

 

My Bristol Castle was quite happy with seven SD6 coaches.

Edited May 12, 2022 by Il Grifone

[roythebus1]

The AL1 shared the same motor bogie as the "Southern" EMU. My AL1 had good haulage capacity despite being single axle drive.

[melmerby]

4 hours ago, roythebus1 said:

The AL1 shared the same motor bogie as the "Southern" EMU. My AL1 had good haulage capacity despite being single axle drive.

In both directions?

In one direction the traction tyre really digs in and it has stonking pulling power, in reverse much less grip.

The torque reaction adds or removes mass from the driving wheel due to the forward/reverse rocking of the bogie due to the way it is mounted.

[sagaguy]

No problem with haulage in either direction,the power bogie is prevented from tipping by means of a shoulder screw which runs in a slot in the chssis.The most common fault is that the pantographs won`t stay down,i spent a long time studying the geometry and in the end,it was the angle of the pivot plate that the arm pivots on.

 

                           Ray.

[Il Grifone]

I forgot to say that the Dublo 3 rail Castles (and 8Fs) only ever had the plunger pickups in the tender. Despite the large weight of this solid lump of zinc alloy neither seemed to lack traction, though the tank engines (well not the plastic bodied R1, which suffers from rice pudding skin syndrome!) will outpull them, presumably due to the weight/friction of the tender. This refers to the 1/2" motors. I do not have the Ringfield versions.

[Robin Brasher]

Thank you for your posts about the AL1 and the Castles. At the Wimborne Railway Society trials I tested my Hornby Dublo and Wrenn A4s with a set of six heavy and stiff Hornby Dublo Mk1 coaches. Only my Hornby Dublo Sir Nigel Gresley and Golden Fleece could cope with the load and there was not much difference between the 2-rail and 3-rail versions. I had not run the others for a long time and did not service them before the meeting. I hope you find the pictures interesting.

[Robin Brasher]

Golden Fleece with a set of Hornby Dublo super detail MK1 coaches

[sagaguy]

This is my modern Hornby Sir William Stanier,one of the few that can handle HD SD coaches.

 

           

 

[Robin Brasher]

I have ordered a new Hornby "Golden Fleece" and "City of London" from my local model shop.  It will be interesting to see how they compare with my Hornby Dublo and Wrenn versions if the Hornby versions have not sold out. Although the Hornby models will have plastic bodies I think their performances will be similar to the Hornby Dublo models but I don't think the Hornby models will last as long as they are not as well engineered.  I also don't like the dummy rear pony trucks on the Hornby models.

[Wolseley]

The Co-Bo is not a particularly attractive locomotive, but I rather like it.  It's unprototypical, I know, but I think it looks particularly good at the head of a train of Super Detail Southern Region carriages.

Edited May 13, 2022 by Wolseley

[Hroth]

1 hour ago, Wolseley said:

The Co-Bo is not a particularly attractive locomotive, but I rather like it.  It's unprototypical, I know, but I think it looks particularly good at the head of a train of Super Detail Southern Region carriages.

 

The HD Co-Bo is an uncomely model, particularly in the way the underbody details and glazing are attempted*. Although from a different modelling era, the Heljan stab at the thing makes it almost respectable**.

 

Hauling the Southern Region stock, you could pretend it was a Leader...

 

* Where glazing is concerned, NOT attempted.

** Even if bits DO fall off the Heljan model. There's no possibility of that with the HD version!

 

[Robin Brasher]

The Hornby Dublo Co-Bo runs very well and looks good hauling a set of SD6 wagons.

 

[locomad2]

Interesting thread having both 3 and 2 rail layouts which have got larger over the years what different locos can haul means a lot to us, as mentioned locomotives of the same type class etc can perform vastly different. 

 

I've a few castles all 2 rail some quite easy haul 7 SD coaches other can't manage 3 why ? Swop motors hardy any improvement, watching the ampmeter some use 0.4 amps othere exceed  0.6 yet yet  quite happy racing round a track for hours.

 

Drag, rolling resistance, value gear, type of oil, magnet strength, armature condition type of wheel, all make a differance

 

One thing I can be sure of, those locos I've had over 50 years been used constantly over the last 5 decades generally preform the best, like a 2-6-4T 80033, 2 rail quite easy to pull 50 HD wagons around a track with minimum of 3ft curves on an absolute flat track, the 2 later make a lot of difference, probably why 3 rail don't  perform as well sharp curves!

[Robin Brasher]

6 hours ago, locomad2 said:

Interesting thread having both 3 and 2 rail layouts which have got larger over the years what different locos can haul means a lot to us, as mentioned locomotives of the same type class etc can perform vastly different. 

 

I've a few castles all 2 rail some quite easy haul 7 SD coaches other can't manage 3 why ? Swop motors hardy any improvement, watching the ampmeter some use 0.4 amps othere exceed  0.6 yet yet  quite happy racing round a track for hours.

 

Drag, rolling resistance, value gear, type of oil, magnet strength, armature condition type of wheel, all make a differance

 

One thing I can be sure of, those locos I've had over 50 years been used constantly over the last 5 decades generally preform the best, like a 2-6-4T 80033, 2 rail quite easy to pull 50 HD wagons around a track with minimum of 3ft curves on an absolute flat track, the 2 later make a lot of difference, probably why 3 rail don't  perform as well sharp curves!

I found that the Hornby Dublo "Sir Nigel Gresley" and "Golden Fleece" were performing better than the later Wrenn A4s. The "Silver King" was worn out when I bought it but the performance was no worse than my two Wrenn A4s.

[locomad2]

2 hours ago, Robin Brasher said:

I found that the Hornby Dublo "Sir Nigel Gresley" and "Golden Fleece" were performing better than the later Wrenn A4s. The "Silver King" was worn out when I bought it but the performance was no worse than my two Wrenn A4s.

 

I've had quite a few wrenn, most perform as well as Hornby dublo but there has been quality issues, armatures tend to fail, plastic inner wheels cracked and the metal tyre falls off, paint work on some is patchy. However cracked plastic  wheels especially pony truck tend to happen on Hornby Dublo, after all they are mostly over 60 years old

[melmerby]

At the start there shouldn't have been much difference between HD and (Triang) Wrenn as there were loads of parts already in stock, as well as plenty of rolling stock.

They took over a company that had over produced most things.

e.g. the 8F goods train pack fairly soon had the body casting changed to reflect the new owner but all the wagons in the pack were still marked HD.

I had the wagons out of one of these sets as the retailer was breaking them down as they sold better individually.

[Dave B]

I grew up in Montreal, Canada in the 1950's and had the now very rare 3 rail Hornbydublo CPR freight set complete with the rare CPR caboose. When we returned to the UK I decided to return the engine and the caboose back to their British bases. So I pulled the top cabin off of the caboose and sawed off the cow catcher off of the engine! 

 

I never finished the re-conversion and most of my Hornbydublo disappeared when I left home. However, I did find some of my track and rolling stock. Best of all, my F8 2-4-0 which I had bought at our local five and dime shop with my hard earned paper round money, had survived. 

 

Many years later I was at a local model train exhibition and I heard this wonderful sound from across the room. It was the sound of Hornbydublo metal wheels running on the tin plate 3 rail track. It brought back such terrific boyhood memories of my train set so I dug out my F8 engine and my remaining rolling stock and started building up a collection of Hornbydublo 3 rail. E-bay was new and provided a very easy way to source bits and pieces and I also found that model shops usually had a few.  I have a couple of foldable tables and I occasionally get out my Hornbydublo but we don't have the space to set it up permanently. My collection has got a bit out of hand I'm afraid but I haven't replaced my CPR originals. I am just not prepared to spend the silly money required!

Edited June 8, 2022 by Dave B

[SR71]

Had several battered N2's so knocked up this.

 

 

Need to put together a working chassis and varnish but quite pleased with it. Sunshine lettering is far harder to position on black than green!

[Pak75]

Hi there

Havent posted for a while as continue to have site access issues...

i have quite a bit of HD track now and some of points and buffer stops could do with some tlc in terms rust removal and touch up.

Does anyone know what is spec for HD grey gloss on points, etc? Closest I I have found is Humbrol #5 Admiralty Grey.

 Thanks 

[cypherman]

Hi Pak75,

I know this may sound strange but B+Q did a mix and match paint scheme. You took a sample of what you wanted of the colour in to them. They scanned it and worked out what the colour really was. I did this a couple of times and the results were really a close match. Once done they made up a test pot. I think the pots were 100mil or possible 250 ml. They cost me £5.00 each at the time. But you get loads of paint. So it may be worth you asking if they can do it for you.

Edited June 12, 2022 by cypherman