Hornby dublo

[Great Eastern]

Hi all,

Has anybody had a go at doing a Dublo neverwazza King ??

I've seen one or two Castles with a King bogie, but I wondered if anyone has done one using a  King  body ?

If so which chassis / wheels / motor etc ??

GE

Edited August 5, 2022 by Great Eastern

[Il Grifone]

I did plan on doing one on a Tri-ang  0-6-0 chassis, but having acquired a Farish King the project is on hold.

The motor would have been an X.03/X.04 driving HD castle wheels through a the 28:1 plastic gearset.

Seeing how rubbish the Farish mechanism is, this may be the way forwrd.

(Apart from the eccentricities of the motor, they mounted the bogie incorrectly so that it fouls the leading driving axle on anything less than two foor radius.)

[SR71]

To me nothing evokes the real thing more than Dublo but I'll save Andy's blood pressure and post this here rather than when models look like the real thing thread.

 

 

All basket cases recovered, rebuilt, and given a new look.

[Great Eastern]

Hi Il Grifone,

Yes, I know what you mean about the Farish one, I looked at that myself, but it is a bit odd as you say.

I've got a few bits together, Margate body and bogie, half inch Dublo motor and Dublo Castle tender. I was thinking maybe making up my own chassis. If I used Castle wheels and valve gear I wasn't sure which coupling rods to use, as of course the wheelbase of the King is longer. Alternatively I'd considered using a Margate wheelset and complete valvegear, but then of course it's getting further away from being Dublo.

 

Hi SR71,

Like your work, well done !

 

GE

[Il Grifone]

Hi,

A "bit odd" is about right (that firebox!), So odd that I resolved to never have one. Then I got a very Grifone-friendly offer on a not-so-well-known trading site*. She (He?) lacks a tender body (spare Dublo!) and part of the mechanism is missing, but there was a Pullman car thrown in (usual condition - useless collectible only). A buffer got broken off in transit, but they are awful anyway, so no great loss

 

* So not-so-well-known that I've forgotten the name!

[MikeCW]

Back on August 1 I posted this photo of my next restoration project, a near-scrap "Silver King".

 

 

Yesterday I put the finishing touches to "Sea Eagle" in late 1941 condition, after a photo in Yeadon's book of the A4s. Yeadon says that 4487 was one of the (few?) A4s that had the valences removed when blue and ran briefly (circa 4 months) in this condition before being painted wartime black.

 

In Dublo style it has no lining on the smokebox.  HMRS Pressfix transfers provided the lettering and numbers; Fox provided the nameplate.  In the oblique light the tender shows, at top right, some remaining signs of its heavy damage.  The valve gear on the donor chassis had been mutilated at some point and I'm not sure about the position of the return crank, but it runs well and I'm inclined to leave well alone.

 

This was a speedy restoration job for me, perhaps one advantage of a week of rain in a Southern Hemisphere winter.

 

Mike

[Il Grifone]

An excellent job and the return crank looks right to me.

I di have a book than explained it in detail, but stupidly I listened to SWMBO and threw it out in one of our removals.

[SR71]

Had anyone used Anyrail's Dublo feature?

 

I've had a lot of time with it and it's great to use but does it translate to reality? I've got a tabletop exhibition layout to do and I'm not going to be able to test the plan before setting up Friday night and I'm going to look a tad silly if nothing connects up.

[Il Grifone]

We really need to see the plan before offering any comments.

 

Most layouts will work, but there are some arrangements that won't without making up special rails.

Edited August 21, 2022 by Il Grifone

[DCB]

23 minutes ago, Il Grifone said:

We really need to see the plan before offering any comments.

 

Most layouts will work, but there are some arrangements that won't without making up special rails.

And of all the track systems out there I reckon H/D 3 rail has to be the most difficult to make special rails for.  I habitually murder Triang Super 4, System 6, Farish Formoway and Liveway, Peco Set track and Streamline and anything else  can get my paws on, live frogging, shortening, easing out the radius, reducing the radius anything to make it fit but H/D three rail is seriously well engineered and totally beyond my bodge engineering capability..

[Il Grifone]

Altering the radius is difficult - it would require multiple saw cuts in the base,- but lengthing or shortening is fairly straightforward. I try to make a cut in the middle of a sleeper to make it less conspicuous and it helps, if lengthening, to choose two rails with the same colour/base design.

 

I remove the rails first. This involves prising up the fixings - just enough for it to slide. Then cut the bases to the required size and fix them together either soldering (preferable) of with glue (epoxy for example). next cut the rails to length (the centre rail will need to be joined in the middle to give two ends) and reassemble. If I can find a piece I'll post a picture.

 

I've made half curved large rails and the odd length required to make a loop without involving vicious reverse curves. Short and quarter curve rails are uncommon and premium priced. Here is a cheap solution!

 

Formo (if you can find any!) and Märklin (again you really need the early 3 rail versions) will join to Dublo, but in the case of Märklin the gauge is a tad narrower and can cause problems with the larger locomotives.

Edited August 21, 2022 by Il Grifone

[Wolseley]

I've been spending the last few days working on my fleet of streamlined Princess Coronations.  They are Tri-ang or in two cases, present day Hornby bodies, mounted on slightly modified Hornby Dublo A4 chassis, fitted with Hornby Dublo Duchess front bogies and Tri-ang trailing trucks.  All but one have Tri-ang tenders.  The reason I use the A4 chassis is that it allows me to retain the cab detail and also, as there are no cylinder casings, fitting the body to the chassis is made that much easier.

 

6220 "Coronation":

 

6223 "Princess Alice" (I still have to paint the wheels blue)

 

6237 "City of Bristol" (I still have to paint the wheels black)

 

46243 "City of Lancaster" (the only one to carry a BR number in streamlined form - although I believe it still carried the lettering LMS until rebuilt, in my parallel universe, it has received the lettering "BRITISH RAILWAYS" on its tender)

 

6244 "King George VI"

 

 

Edited August 21, 2022 by Wolseley

[SR71]

In direct answer to my question it seems that the answer is no. However I'm appreciative of the offer to review my track plans and save me potential embarrassment.
 

I don't want to share the full plan because it's not yet set and also because I need to agree it with the person I'm doing the show with who hasn't seen it yet.  So I've put together a view highlighting the main geometry for the main loops. Filling these out are straights or half straights etc. but provided the loops work I can at least be sure of having trains running on Saturday morning!

 

Suggestions of track modifications are interesting but impractical for me as this is a for a show so most probably a once only event. I'm a bit annoyed by the number of '1/4' straights needed so thoughts there would be welcomed.

[Il Grifone]

An excellent display layout with four trains running and space to store two more.

 

I'd be inclined to replace the six quarter plus short straight units with half rails. This would push the spacing out a trifle, but, since there is no connection, this does not really matter. Likewise the strings of three short rails could possibly be replaced by a half rail with some slight misalignment (bodge alert!). One side could still be equi-spaced and maybe have a double crossover inserted for through running (It depends how much playing rather than just running  trains is required - it doesn't have to be used.)

 

The diamond crossing in the feed to the turntable is unlikely and could be replaced with a point. Less spectacular, but more track available to display locomotives.

 

Two short or quarter rails in the 'slip' may be necessary to allow space for the pointwork beneath the turntable.

The four quarter rails in the inner ovals between the lower curves and the points have no real function either.

[Wolseley]

2 hours ago, Il Grifone said:

I'd be inclined to replace the six quarter plus short straight units with half rails.

 

I was about to suggest the same thing, but I was beaten to it......

[Great Eastern]

Hi Wolseley,

Excellent work sir !  Nice combination of parts in your streamliners, they work well together, especially interested to see that you've used Triang and modern Hornby bodies; equally effective with both. 

GE

[Wolseley]

Thanks.  I originally intended just to have two streamliners, one red and one blue, but things sort of got away from me.  I also was going to have 6229, Duchess of Hamilton, in shop grey, as it ran briefly in service painted thus, but I wasn't satisfied with the paint job and I'm stripping it back before having a second go.  It will join the others in due course.

 

One thing I've noticed comparing the old Tri-ang and current Hornby bodies is that the Tri-ang ones are slightly shorter, compromised no doubt to make them fit an existing chassis.

 

Jim

[BernardTPM]

They were made to fit the, then recent, Flying Scotsman (A3) chassis. Early ones used a Hornby Dublo Duchess tender chassis (still being made by Wrenn at that time) so the tender is scale length though the 1970 catalogue illustration had a tender chassis from the old (and short) Princess, complete with open axleboxes.

[Il Grifone]

It's actually the 8F chassis (though also used under the 'Cities') and incorrect as streamlined tenders shouldn't have rear steps or rivets (exceptions may exist - the 'Coronation' class tender history is very complicated!).

I started to fit a 'Duchess' chassis to a GBL streamlined body, but met a problem with clearance for the bogie wheels. I didn't want to adopt the solution of undersize wheels and mounting the body too high and/or cutting away the valance.

[cypherman]

Hi all,

Back on the topic of the never was Hornby Dublo King, Would it be possible to use the old Lima King body on the castle chassis to mock up a King. Is there enough room inside the body shell to fit the motor. Just thought that it might be a cheap alternative for the body.

[Il Grifone]

It should fit as there is a large chunk of metal filling the boiler, but there may be a problem with the coupled wheelbase not matching the splashers.

[Great Eastern]

Here's a couple of pics of the problem, showing my more recent Margate King body compared to a Dublo Bristol Castle, ie with  1/2 inch  inline motor.  The longer King wheelbase inevitably requires longer coupling rods, repositioning of the cylinders etc, as I mentioned earlier the easiest solution is to use Margate wheels  / rods, but then it's not very Dublo.

 

 

Also there is another issue, I can't fit the body onto the chassis straight away as the motor extends into the cab, so the backhead would have to be cut away (like the Dublo Castles). With a new chassis the motor could conceivably be moved forward to drive the front axle, but then would be more visisble under the boiler as the Dublo motor assembly is so long. 

 

 

Also the steps and various bits under the cab need to be cut away as the Dublo chassis already has steps (or vice versa).

I've not tried a Lima body (simply as I don't happen to have one), but it's a good idea, it may be that the dimensions  have been fudged a bit and it might be possible to do something a bit different.

 

GE

 

[Great Eastern]

On 22/08/2022 at 13:47, Wolseley said:

...... but things sort of got away from me.

 

Hi Wolseley,

I know EXACTLY what you mean !!!!!!!   I started by doing a Dublo Class 20 with a yellow panel, then before I knew it  I'd done every permutation of green cab roof / grey cab roof / with and without yellow panels then full yellow ends..................   then there's the carriage roundel ones instead of BR red lion logo.............

 

GE

[BernardTPM]

A Farish King body would be more to period, but no doubt would come with a whole new set of problems.

Edited August 23, 2022 by BernardTPM

[Wolseley]

Well, I spotted what I thought were four rusty Dublo coaches on eBay and I put in a bid for them at the starting price of $40.00 (£23.40) and was the only bidder.  I was planning to dismantle them to get some spare bogies and maybe some other parts, but was somewhat surprised when they arrived today to find that only one of them was rusty and the rest just need a clean up and replacement couplings.

 

They are:

BR maroon D20 Restaurant Car (broken couplings to be replaced)

Chocolate and Cream Superdetail Composite (needs new couplings - has been fitted with Tri-ang ones)

BR Maroon Superdetail Full Brake (needs one coupling replaced)

BR Maroon Suburban Brake 3rd (the only one rusty enough to use for parts)

 

A rather unexpected result........