Hornby dublo

[Il Grifone]

It looks like I have some catching up to do....

[Hroth]

7 hours ago, Ruffnut Thorston said:

There's a lot more to the Dragons Saga than the three main movies! 😉😀

 

Quite an industry!

 

For a while the "Riders of Berk" DVDs were being sold cheaply at Home Bargains, that was a while ago so I suspect they're long out of stock. I might have a look at the Nine Realms series on CBBC sometime...

[Il Grifone]

One of the disadvantages of being in Italy; one misses out on this stuff!

We do get 'Smurfs'* and a Russian 'Bear and brat little girl'. (They do travel by train, so not all bad!).

* Called 'Puffi' in Italy. We have a TV presenter**, who looks rather like one (just needs the blue and silly hat), so he is 'Il Puffo'.

** Obnoxious, like all of them! 'Raccomandato/a de ferro' is the Italian expression! (I don't think it needs translation!)

(Is it just me or do the 'Faces of TV' make others reach for the remote?)

 

Like the UK, we have a Govermental crisis. They keep talking about 'Centre-Left' and 'Centre-Right', when they mean 'Centre-Right' and 'Extreme-Right'.

 

Back to Dublo!

Circumstances have meant the dismantling of my 'Railway Room' and I'm now putting things back together. So far I've laid the staion (Depot? it's American) loop and have a few locos and a Marshall III to test - Athearn ATSF Budd Railcar*, Bachmann **** ATSF 2-6-0** and Lima/Märklin DSB***

*This needed the bands replaced. I had ordered some from the States some time ago (when postal costs allowed this). These have now all perished and I have been replaced them with hairbands from China. I doubt that these will last long, but at 1€ for a large bag, they don't have to!

** Runs beautifully, (once I discovered that the front tender bogie had reversed itself! - the tender wheels had accumulated sufficient crud to allow intermittent operation. I cleaned them and she wouldn't go at all!)

(I think ATSF versions of both a a flight of their manufacturer's fancy!)

*** This runs weli, but large radius Peco pointwork is not a serious challenge.

The DSB MVs (not unlike the Tri-ang TC double ended diesel) are probably something like what we would had in Britain if EMD had been allowed to tender; (They would have needed a bit of shrinking as they stand 14' 6" (or thereabouts) tall.)

All (even the Lima) rock going through the Peco frogs (OK here - they're American!). I shall have to rebuild the crossings properly. (A job for sometime in the future - when it's all back tpgether, but obviouslybefore ballasting!)

I was going to try a Rivarossi FS Gr835 0-6-0T, but she lacks a motor (some of the wretched ball bearings have gone AWOL!) Maybe I'll shove an X.04 in it, but the gears would be a problem Rivarossi is metric!

The above have little to do with Dublo, but I was moving back one of the large boxes that live under the layout, "Why is this d**n thing so bl**dy heavy?"  Investgation revealed masses of Dublo 3 rail track! (From the layout in my pictures.) It's not worth a great deal in the UK, but here no-one would want it. (You could run Märklin on it, but that's all!)

EDIT

****

She's not Bachmann (thinking about it, that's an UP 0-6-0 switcher and several F9s). The box claims IHC. but she herself states 'Mehano'

Edited July 24, 2022 by Il Grifone

[Wolseley]

It's almost finished.  All I have to do now is paint and letter the tender and fix the locomotive to tender coupling and I have the City of Bradford as running on the Southern Region during the Locomotive Exchanges of 1948.  The tender is a Bachmann body mounted on a Dublo A4 tender chassis.  The tender body needed to be shortened about 5mm to fit.

 

[Wolseley]

And I think the original photo I posted may have gone to that image graveyard in the sky, so here's another photo of my Hornby Dublo Highland Railway 0-6-4 banking tank.  The coach is a de-clerestoried Tri-ang GW clerestory, fitted with Dublo bogies.  There is a second coach on the way, but I haven't finished modifying the roof yet.

 

 

Jim

[MikeCW]

On 25/07/2022 at 02:09, Wolseley said:

It's almost finished.  All I have to do now is paint and letter the tender and fix the locomotive to tender coupling and I have the City of Bradford as running on the Southern Region during the Locomotive Exchanges of 1948.  The tender is a Bachmann body mounted on a Dublo A4 tender chassis.  The tender body needed to be shortened about 5mm to fit.

 

A  very nice job indeed.  The lining along the footplate edge is especially well done. Is it a decal or a paint job?  I find that getting tidy lining along this edge can be a challenge on "Montrose" and "City" body castings with the moulded ridge which, I assume was a painting guide for the orange and straw lines respectively.  It can be especially difficult to achieve a tidy finish when this ridge gets chipped and dinged with hard use by careless previous owners.

[Wolseley]

2 hours ago, MikeCW said:

The lining along the footplate edge is especially well done. Is it a decal or a paint job?

 

Thanks.  In this case it was a decal job, using a sheet by Fox Transfers.  If I was doing a single line I would do it by hand (especially where there is a raised surface to guide me) but two thin straight lines of that length are a bit beyond me, so I resort to transfers.  One thing with using transfers on Dublo models though, when it comes to things like cab and tender sides, for example, is that the models, although excellent in their day (except perhaps for the "Deltic"), are not 100% accurate but the transfers are, so a bit of creative work with scissors is called for.

[MikeCW]

54 minutes ago, Wolseley said:

 

One thing with using transfers on Dublo models though, when it comes to things like cab and tender sides, for example, is that the models, although excellent in their day (except perhaps for the "Deltic"), are not 100% accurate but the transfers are, so a bit of creative work with scissors is called for.

I agree.  I have had to develop some dexterity in matching modern decals to Hornby-Dublo cabs and tenders.  An example is this repainted "Castle" (fitted with Romfords) where both cab and tender lining was fabricated from curves and straights from the Fox range.  On the much-more-than-life-size photo the joins are indicated with the red dots.  I found the Fox decals to be both accurate in register and reasonably easy to slide into position. 

 

 

[cypherman]

On 24/07/2022 at 15:14, Wolseley said:

And I think the original photo I posted may have gone to that image graveyard in the sky, so here's another photo of my Hornby Dublo Highland Railway 0-6-4 banking tank.  The coach is a de-clerestoried Tri-ang GW clerestory, fitted with Dublo bogies.  There is a second coach on the way, but I haven't finished modifying the roof yet.

 

 

Jim

Hi,

Is this a conversion to a Drummond X class 0-6-4. I did one during lockdown in 2020. Like your previous picture I think mine was lost in the great photo famine of 2021. This is it.

[cypherman]

It also lends itself to making a Drummond 45 class quite nicely.

 

Edited July 26, 2022 by cypherman

[Wolseley]

3 hours ago, cypherman said:

Hi,

Is this a conversion to a Drummond X class 0-6-4.

 

Yes it is..  Not completely accurate, but I think it's obvious what it's meant to be to anyone who knows HR engines.

[Wolseley]

1 hour ago, cypherman said:

It also lends itself to making a Drummond 45 class quite nicely.

 

And it would be an easier conversion given that the original locomotive was an 0-6-2T.  I might do one sometime, but I do have a few too many half finished projects at the moment.  If I do get around to it, I'll probably finish it in G&SWR livery.

[Great Eastern]

Me too, I've often thought of doing a 45 in the lovely G&SWR green. Like you I've got so many unfinished projects on the go........

GE

[MikeCW]

My latest restoration (in fact reassembly was completed only this afternoon) was the mechanical refurbishment, complete cosmetic restoration, and conversion to 3-rail, of a previously "improved" Cardiff Castle.  The engine was an impulse buy, at a reasonably low price, from John Winkley. The locomotive had been renamed and numbered "I K Brunel", given some additional shaky lining, then varnished with some thick compound which certainly didn't enhance the overall appearance.

Mechanically 5069 seemed fine, but a complete paint strip and repaint was required.

 

Here it is after much work.  I think it's an improvement and confirms for me that the restoration was worth the time, effort and cost involved.

In summary the motor was stripped, cleaned and lightly lubed, and the ringfield magnet turned 180 degrees.  The magnet was given a belt on my Ronald Dodd remagnetiser, which certainly improved noticeably the "pull" exerted on a screwdriver laid next to the motor.

 

The holes in the tender floor were reamed for a force fit of reproduction plunger pickups sourced from the ever-helpful John Holland of MainlyTrains in Clitheroe.  I left the radio suppression fittings on the motor rather than transfer them to the tender.

 

After airbrushing the body and tender with my own brew of BR Green, black areas were brush painted (Humbrol Enamel 85). Rather than use a silver paint on the buffer heads and cylinder covers, I opted for Humbrol Gunmetal, giving a slightly less "fairground" effect.

 

The reversing rod had been painted and showed considerable rust when the paint was removed.  I decided to nickel plate it, putting a few other small items through the plating bath at the same time as it's too much of a faff to set the system up just for one tiny piece of steel.

 

Not seen on the photos are the buffers on the engine.  The originals had been replaced with what I assume were GW style buffers.  One had been badly bent in a fall and I replaced them with original Hornby-Dublo buffers from a redundant "Castle" body shell.

 

I haven't broken the insulation on the RH driving wheels, instead opting to replace the plastic wheels on the original bogie with uninsulated "Duchess/Castle" wheels to give some more electrical paths from the running rails.  This seems to work fine although I would still like to find a set of uninsulated wheels for the tender. 

 

Fox transfers provided the lining and early BR Crest.  One of the cabside number plates was missing so, rather than fork out for a full set of nameplates and numbers, I ordered 3D printed number plates from Railtec (excellent service) and resurrected the original name plates.  These might possibly be those early Jackson Evans type which had to be snipped from a sheet. They were slightly irregular and certainly not identical in shape each side. The etching was very shallow and, after tidying them up, cleaning them with paint stripper and spraying them black, even a very gentle wipe with 1200 grit wet and dry (used dry) stuck to a small block of wood was enough to start eroding the black background.  However, they pass muster and saved me a tenner in sterling.

 

An overall spray with satin polyurethane completed the paint job. ln fact the finish turned out rather matte and I prefer a slight sheen on these old models, but I decided not to risk another coat.

 

Stainless wire handrails and 1mm split pins from ModelFixings completed the job. 

 

My next project is a tad more daunting: a "Silver King" bought off the local internet auction site, without front bogie or tender.  I have a front bogie from the spares box, a very battered tender (dent removal already started), reproduction tender top and, after finding a few odd screws, the parts list seems complete.

 

 

Mike 

[Wolseley]

1 hour ago, MikeCW said:

My latest restoration (in fact reassembly was completed only this afternoon) was the mechanical refurbishment, complete cosmetic restoration, and conversion to 3-rail, of a previously "improved" Cardiff Castle.  The engine was an impulse buy, at a reasonably low price, from John Winkley. The locomotive had been renamed and numbered "I K Brunel", given some additional shaky lining, then varnished with some thick compound which certainly didn't enhance the overall appearance.

 

Mike 

 

Interesting - I did a similar rescue job about a year ago on a rather battered (I had to carefully bend the cab roof into position with pliers) and generally playworn "Cardiff Castle" which I converted to three rail and also renumbered as 5069 "Isambard Kingdom Brunel".  Here it is:

 

 

Jim

Edited August 1, 2022 by Wolseley

[MikeCW]

And a very nice job you have made of it too, Jim.

 

Have you broken the insulation on the RH drivers or otherwise enhanced 3-rail electrical pick up?  I understand that one dodge is to retain the 2-rail wiper pickups but re-route the wires to the chassis. 

 

I see too that you have neatly lined the splashers.  I decided not to, in part through idleness, in part because I was keeping to the style of the Binns Road's paint finish.

 

One detail which I've  puzzled over in these repaints has been the colour of the valence or footplate angle.  Now I know next to nothing about GWR or BR(W) liveries but my reading, and photos of preserved engines in BR guise, suggests that in BR days these were painted green.  My original pair of "Bristol Castles" have them painted black.

On my "Castle" restorations I have kept them green and painted only the top of the plate black.  I suppose if I had kept to the Binns Road standard they should be black.  Or if I had gone the whole hog, perhaps the valence under the tender body should also be green?  In the scheme of things I don't think all this matters as much as a neat paint job that captures the spirit of the original model - and you've certainly done very well indeed there.

 

Is that a Trix 4472 in the background?  

 

Mike

Edited August 1, 2022 by MikeCW

[Wolseley]

I usually do break the insulation on the drivers but, as the Castle has pickups in the tender, I retained the 2-rail wiper pickups and re-routed the wires to the chassis. The locomotive when I got it didn't have a tender, but I had a chassis for a three rail one complete with pickups in my spares box, so all I needed was a tender body, which I got from that well known on line auction site.

 

The lining is not by hand.  I used Fox Transfers.  When I refinish a Dublo loco, I sometimes stick to the style of Binns Road's paint finish but some, like this one, have a bit more detail.  Aside from the lining, on the Castle it extends to lamps, etched headboard (Cheltenham Spa Express) and cab windows.

 

I'm afraid I'm not a Great Western person (more Caledonian and LMS) so I wouldn't have a clue which is right, although I do think black looks better, which probably means it should be green, I suppose.

 

And, yes, that is that a Trix 4472 in the background, converted to three rail using a Marklin skate.

 

 

Edited August 1, 2022 by Wolseley
fixed a couple of typos

[Wolseley]

As I said in my post above, my repaints sometimes stick to the style of Binns Road's paint finish but some have a bit more detail.  Here is my Duchess of Abercorn, finished in the grey blue post war experimental livery that was applied to two locomotives (the other one being a Jubilee) before the LMS opted for lined black.  Done very much in the Binns Road style.

 

 

Jim

[Il Grifone]

Strictly ringfield 3 rail Castles should have plastic bogie and tender wheels.

From what I remember the valances are black with the thick raised section painted  orange. The real line should be ⅛", but Dublo's are something like 1½". (Pedantic I know, it is a toy!) As to the colour of the real valances, I can recall being uncertain when the Kitmaster kits appeared (IIRC they specified green). From what I remember of the real thing, they were a dirty black, whatever the colour was supposed to be. Theoretically the orange line reduced to 4mm scale is below the resolution of the human eye. I think the high contrast upsets the theory.

 

Breaking the insulation has the snag of being irreversible. I prefer an extra pickup from phosphor bronze, held to chassis by a convenient screw.

[MikeCW]

16 hours ago, Il Grifone said:

From what I remember the valances are black with the thick raised section painted  orange. The real line should be ⅛", but Dublo's are something like 1½". (Pedantic I know, it is a toy!)

David,

You have forgotten more about Hornby-Dublo matters than I've ever learned, so it's with some trepidation that I suggest that this isn't so. Unlike the "Montrose" body, where the cast ridge along the footplate edge was painted orange in the factory, all the unmolested "Castles", 2- and 3-rail, I have seen, have plain black valences; as in the  three, randomly selected photos of "Castles" currently for sale on specialist websites.

 

As far as the real thing is concerned, I've again checked my small collection of reference books and it seems that, in BR days and in contrast to the lined green of other regions, the footplate edge of WR lined green engines was unlined green.  The photo of "Clun Castle", carefully restored to BR condition shows this well in the Wiki entry below.  As always, I'm happy to be corrected.

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GWR_4073_Class_7029_Clun_Castle

 

I fully agree that the non-driving wheels of all factory-standard Ringfield Castles, 3-rail or 2-rail, were plastic. I suppose that the decision whether to change them depends on whether one is doing a factory-faithful restoration or a (hopefully sensitive) conversion. My decision to fit metal wheels on some of these conversions (reversions?) to 3-rail means that I don't have to break the insulation on the driving wheels (as well a general dislike of plastic wheels).  Now if I had a nice, original "Ludlow Castle", its plastic bogie and tender wheels would certainly be left alone!

All the best

 

Mike  

 

 

 

Edited August 2, 2022 by MikeCW
Clarification

[DCB]

21 hours ago, Il Grifone said:

 

From what I remember the valances are black with the thick raised section painted  orange. The real line should be ⅛", but Dublo's are something like 1½". (Pedantic I know, it is a toy!) As to the colour of the real valances, I can recall being uncertain when the Kitmaster kits appeared (IIRC they specified green). From what I remember of the real thing, they were a dirty black, whatever the colour was supposed to be. Theoretically the orange line reduced to 4mm scale is below the resolution of the human eye. I think the high contrast upsets the theory.

 

The difference between GW and BR (WR) livery was the valances became green and the cab side lining became a single rectangle below the windows instead of going up around the window.  H/D and ( Triang OO Hall) wisely chose the BR Cab side lining and GW Black valance because basically it looks right. It  would also have been difficult to get a clean line between the black footplate top and the green valance.

To me the preserved ones look most odd with green valances and I suspect BR(WR) cleaning staff carefully forgot to clean the valances when they ran an oily rag over the boiler and cab sides.

I find glazing the cab sides with rectangles of thick none too clear plastic makes a huge difference to the Castles appearance and mine are just a tad oversize so they don't need gluing and can be removed without damaging the loco if required. There should be a great big ATC panel blocking most of the R/H window anyway

A plastic cab floor level with the running plate and a couple of blokes really helps the 1/2" motor ones come alive.  Ours  are still working on the layout alongside 2020 Hornby Castles, the Airfix, Dapol and 2000 era Hornby having all been withdrawn, One or two have the chassis ground away at the front to clear Hornby replacement 12mm spoked metal wagon wheels minus their pin points, glazing, crews, close coupled tenders etc, one had generic Romfords but to be honest they may be the right size but the profile was horrible and the chassis carving needed and the redrilling to take Triang axles to minimise the resultant wheel wobble was a waste of effort so it was withdrawn.  Any deficit in appearance over the 2020 is made up by the extra pulling power, about 33% up my realistic 1 in 38 gradients.   Its odd a 1957/62 loco working in a link with 2020 models and out performing them. Just shows how much progress we have made in the last 65 years.

[Il Grifone]

Sorting through some stuff (I have been told to clear up my junk??????????????????) I came across one of my Dublo girder bridges, The paintwork is a bit rough weathered and it's held together with some nuts and bolts. (These are metric and obviously non-original.) IIRC the green* deck was originally riveted, but the cross girder is held by nuts and bolts (presumably Meccano). Can anyone confirm?

*A strange choice of colour. The orange could possibly pass for red oxide (with a bit of imagination), but green???

Should I restore it or leave well alone?

 

BR(WR) cleaning staff! Was there such a thing? Cardiff Canton would occasionally bull up a locomotive, (white buffer faces!), but no-one else bothered from what I recall.

Edited August 3, 2022 by Il Grifone

[MikeCW]

16 hours ago, DCB said:

The difference between GW and BR (WR) livery was the valances became green and the cab side lining became a single rectangle below the windows instead of going up around the window. 

I'm no expert on GW and BR(W) matters but weren't the cladding bands on the firebox also lined out in GW days?

Mike

16 hours ago, DCB said:

 Its odd a 1957/62 loco working in a link with 2020 models and out performing them. Just shows how much progress we have made in the last 65 years.

Well said.  Each time I've refurbished a H-D careworn "Castle" it has reinforced for me why the original "Bristol Castle" was greeted with such enthusiasm when it arrived in the model shops 65 years ago.  It really was a remarkably good model for its time.

[Il Grifone]

Not only was it an excellent model, it was also the first new locomotive for three years, following the 2-6-4T in 1954 (itself excellent) and before that the 'Duchess' in 1948 (postponed from before the war). We did get everything in BR livery (1953!*) and a few wagons and coaches after that, but these don't really count. Tri-ang had been much more prolific.

* They did have the Korean war as an excuse, but we kids didn't care about that!)

 

The only real faults are the undersized wheels and incorrect* wheelbase, the top of the safety valve casing, overscale handrails, lining and rivets, and lack of brass beading on the front of the cab. Etched plates would have been nice, but that would have been expecting too much (easy to add, but 7/6d a set!)

* 7 foot between leading and centre coupled axles does present a problem. (There's just about space to get your hand in on the prototype), as does getting the deep flanges into the splashers. (Dublo cheated with 7' 3" + 7' 3" which enabled them to use the A4/Duchess coupling rods.)

[Il Grifone]

On 03/08/2022 at 22:53, MikeCW said:

I'm no expert on GW and BR(W) matters but weren't the cladding bands on the firebox also lined out in GW days?

Mike

Well said.  Each time I've refurbished a H-D careworn "Castle" it has reinforced for me why the original "Bristol Castle" was greeted with such enthusiasm when it arrived in the model shops 65 years ago.  It really was a remarkably good model for its time.

 

The fireboxes were indeed lined in GWR days, but latterly only on the sides of the box not the top. (Instructions from GJK himelf after witnessing a painter fall off a locomotive in Swindon Works.) I'm not sure of the exact date, but presumably about the time of the switch to black frames from Indian red.

Edited August 5, 2022 by Il Grifone