Hornby dublo

[cypherman]

Just been looking at some pictures of some of my Hornby/Dublo engines. So I thought I would share them.

[cypherman]

A couple more piccys. The last 3 pictures are locos that started out life as N2s, But became Drummond class 42 0-6-2 and an X class 0-6-4. The last one became a Southern E7 0-6-2 tank engine.. I do have more H/D engines not shown here as I have not taken and photos of them. 2 0-6-0 Diesel shunters, 2 Class 20 diesels and another 2 R1s.

[SR71]

Browsing the web - while waiting between marking Christmas cards - I came across this;

 

 

https://www.brightontoymuseum.co.uk/index/File:DC_Converter,_Hornby_Dublo_(HBoT_1939).jpg

 

Clearly it would be solely a museum piece for display now but were any actually made? I don't think I've ever seen one though I'm not sure I would have realised what it was if I had!

 

[DCB]

Castle with Hornby wagon wheels as bogie wheels, Cylinders need   new lining

[MikeCW]

I have too many Hornby “Dublo Castles” but rose to the challenge of bringing this one back to operational and cosmetic acceptability. It was advertised by Hattons as a non-runner and cost me £30 plus postage. I suspect that the good box (not important to me) was about a third of the price.

As you can see, it had been crudely repainted at some time in its life before being stored for a long time in a very damp environment. There was plenty of “white rust” on the mazak, oxidation on the brass plated safety valve casing and copper chimney, and rust on the nickel plated steel parts.

 

The mechanical parts hadn’t escaped either.

 

I disassembled the locomotive completely apart from the wheels, coupling and connecting rods and treated the chassis with a commercial degreaser and hot water and the motor parts to an electronics cleaner from a spray can. The engine and tender bodies went into a bath of paint stripper.

 

The person who carried out the repaint seems to have been heavy handed with coarse sandpaper.  A couple of coats of Tamiya primer and gentle sanding filled in the worst of the scars.

 

The motor was cleaned, lubed and remagnetised and reassembled with the Ringfield magnet turned 180 degrees as this was to be a conversion to 3-rail.

 

All the plated parts were polished with an automotive chrome polish which removed the corrosion and left the nickel plating. After a final polish with an oily cloth they should stay corrosion-free if kept in a dry environment. I replaced the handrails with stainless steel wire. I also replaced the plastic wheels in the bogie with “Castle/Montrose” uninsulated wheels to help 3-rail pick-up. At some stage I would like to replace the tender wheels with an uninsulated “Bristol Castle” set. The reproduction tender pick-ups were from Michael (Mick) Turner. Transfers and nameplates were from Fox.

 

It's certainly a cosmetic improvement; it runs very well; and is probably one of my better restorations.

Edited December 28, 2023 by MikeCW
Spelling

[johnw1]

Part of the Hornby Dublo 3 rail OO gauge model railway on display at Locomotion, Shildon, 21st October 2022. Hornby Dublo was introduced by Meccano Ltd in 1938 and remained in production until December 1964 being overtaken by cheaper and less well engineered 2 rail systems produced from the late 1950’s by Hornby (Meccano) itself and Tri-ang.

Hornby Dublo - https://www.flickr.com/photos/pics-by-john/52490474773/

[45568]

This is for sale on Oz Ebay at the moment. Any thoughts, observations, comments?

https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/325921724046?hash=item4be272d68e%3Ag%3AplkAAOSw7nxldJ0v&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwAV%2FegT09gQ36i52YT0mAmBs1FkQvUbizxG6qe3aytmNAcYlKId6U6cLTD5ZIamzrPNrupaO0w52qKJp3%2B0t9FkfT1XBtShMyhQaE%2F9khb84LOrTGl4nBvnkmgSHA5UG76aHPhXYUpd3wi6HOC2m7Bro7UdeQSkba0JN7Z%2BCFllluhwf%2FZTV%2F9QylrQkU%2FMu1nrw%2F7en3k7eOG5S0uW9TK0BAoqc0rFqpyAuTHSjV4qjEwm4riww6aTeiu7CpUgNhg%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR4L5k8-WYw&LH_Auction=1

Cheers from Oz,

Peter C.

[SR71]

I was going to say replica box but the listing already states that. Other than that the photos seem to have some kind of filter that makes it hard to determine exact condition and observe anything else.

[Wolseley]

On 29/12/2023 at 20:48, 45568 said:

Any thoughts, observations, comments?

 

From the rather playworn and retouched appearance of the transfers on the locomotive and tender, I'm tempted to suggest that it is an original Dublo "Canadian Pacific".  It's impossible to say for sure though.  

 

I see no-one has put a bid on it yet.

[Wolseley]

The locomotive isn't Dublo, but the track and coaches are.  I haven't finished lining it yet, but here's my LMS liveried Cardean (GEM body and tender kit on a three-railed Tri-ang B12 chassis) hauling a train of Dublo LMS carriages.  There are four on, but it can take more although, as my layout is only 8' by 4', more than four carriages look a bit silly.  As I said, the coaches are Dublo, but it really looks at its best when hauling a train of Trix Twin "scale length" LMS coaches, of which I have four.

 

 

[Tom Burnham]

Collection of Hornby Dublo and other items built up since the 1940s to be auctioned -

https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/heritage-and-retro/heritage/Hornby-astonishing-model-railway-layout-dating-back-to-the-1940s-with-131-locomotives-to-go-up-for-auction-after-yorkshire-collectors-death-4466711

[Colin_McLeod]

Some nice items there in very goid looking condition.  Note the 22% buyers premium plus vat, and also the postage charge.

[rekoboy]

https://www.davidduggleby.com/auctions/120120242245/SingleOwnerCollectionofModelRailway.aspx

[Wolseley]

I had three Hornby Dublo green Co-Co diesels, so I decided to turn the one with the least impressive paint job into something different, so here we have "Meld" in BR blue.  All I need now are some blue and grey coaches for it to pull........

 

[jimwal]

Or a blue/grey 3 stone child!. 

 

Assuning the loco is still up to doing that sort of thing.

[sagaguy]

8 hours ago, Wolseley said:

I had three Hornby Dublo green Co-Co diesels, so I decided to turn the one with the least impressive paint job into something different, so here we have "Meld" in BR blue.  All I need now are some blue and grey coaches for it to pull........

 

Try these for starters,to fit SD coaches

[Wolseley]

11 hours ago, jimwal said:

Or a blue/grey 3 stone child!. 

 

Assuning the loco is still up to doing that sort of thing.

 

I haven't been able to test it to it's limit, so maybe it could still do it.  I don't think I could get any of the grandchildren to still for long enough to do it though.

[Wolseley]

10 hours ago, sagaguy said:

Try these for starters, to fit SD coaches

 

Thanks for that.  I might give that a go after I have a few other projects out of the way.  All my SD coaches are mint or near mint condition, but I do have four very scruffy and rusty D12 coaches I bought to dismantle for their bogies that I could use.  I would have to shrink the image a bit horizontally for them to fit, but it should still look OK.  It could take a while before I get around to it though.

[Wolseley]

And a couple more of my almost Dublo locomotives.  

 

First is the LMS streamliner "Coronation" in its USA visit guise.  If anything is Tri-ang/Hornby, this one is.  Tri-ang body, Dublo A4 chassis, Dublo Duchess bogie, Tr-ang Coronation trailing truck and Tr-ang tender (which of course has a Dublo type chassis).  The bell and headlight are Cal-Scale fittings for US models.

 

Second is a Dublo Highland Railway 0-6-4T banking tank.  Basically a stretched Dublo 0-6-2T with a styrene sheet fabricated extension to the bunker end, a safety valve cover made from styrene sheet to replace the safety valves, and a Dublo 2-6-4T trailing bogie in place of the pony truck.  The coaches began life as Tr-ang clerestories.  They run much better since I fitted them with Dublo bogies.

 

 

 

And yes, that is a three-railed Tri-ang/Hornby Caledonian Single on the turntable.  The van in the distance at the goods shed is a Dapol NB gunpowder van.

 

 

 

Edited January 24 by Wolseley
fixed a typo

[Wolseley]

After running “Coronation”, I started looking through my collection of Duchesses, of which I have quite a few, and here are some of them:

 

“Princess Alice”, a similar collection of bits and pieces to “Coronation” but this time in blue.

 

“Duchess of Montrose” of which I have two, one in gloss, and this one in the more usual semi-gloss finish.  I will probably rename and renumber this one as “City of Glasgow” (in her post-Harrow condition) and keep the gloss one as “Duchess of Montrose”.

 

“Duchess of Abercorn” in the LMS post-war experimental blue-grey livery.  I didn’t realise it at the time, but this one is fairly popular in model form, being something a bit different (only two LMS locomotives wore this colour - the other one was a Jubilee).  Some models I have seen photographs of show the colour as being quite light which, given the state of cleanliness of post-war British railways (and the LMS in particular) seems most unlikely, while others are in a colour similar to mine (the version by Ace Trains is in an almost identical colour).  The only photograph of it I have seen of it in this livery is by H C Casserley and is reproduced in one of David Jenkinson’s books.  Unfortunately, it is in black and white, but it does show up as being about as dark as this.  Anyway, as there do not appear to be any colour photographs and it’s unlikely anyone who could remember seeing it is still alive, I’m saying this is the right colour and, if anyone thinks it isn’t, let them prove it…….

 

Last in this little selection is my “Duchess of Atholl” which, as it has a horseshoe motor, is either the oldest or the second oldest Dublo locomotive I have (the other contender is a horseshoe motored A4).  She does look a bit tired, but has a lovely patina, which I would hate to destroy by repainting.  I will have to touch up the paint on the cylinders though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 24 by Wolseley
correcting typo

[sagaguy]

7 hours ago, Wolseley said:

 

Thanks for that.  I might give that a go after I have a few other projects out of the way.  All my SD coaches are mint or near mint condition, but I do have four very scruffy and rusty D12 coaches I bought to dismantle for their bogies that I could use.  I would have to shrink the image a bit horizontally for them to fit, but it should still look OK.  It could take a while before I get around to it though.

These are for the D series coaches,I thought i produced a set for the brake ends but you can alter the length of the sd brakes.

[sagaguy]

You can see the D series overlays here.

[Wolseley]

And here is the "City of Bradford" as she appeared when on the Southern during the 1948 Locomotive Exchanges, fitted to a bogie tender due to the lack of water troughs on the SR.  Three railed Dublo "City of London" coupled to a tender assembled using a Bachmann WD tender body and a Dublo A4 tender chassis, the tender body being shortened by about 5-7mm to fit.

 

[cctransuk]

3 hours ago, Wolseley said:

And here is the "City of Bradford" as she appeared when on the Southern during the 1948 Locomotive Exchanges, fitted to a bogie tender due to the lack of water troughs on the SR.  Three railed Dublo "City of London" coupled to a tender assembled using a Bachmann WD tender body and a Dublo A4 tender chassis, the tender body being shortened by about 5-7mm to fit.

 

 

The WD tender has a rigid wheelbase, not bogies - or are you referring to the model?

 

CJI.

[Wolseley]

15 minutes ago, cctransuk said:

 

The WD tender has a rigid wheelbase, not bogies - or are you referring to the model?

 

CJI.

 

No, I was talking about the real thing.  I must confess that the WD Austerities fall a bit outside my area of knowledge, and I had assumed they were bogie tenders.  I stand corrected.....