Need help finding old Hornby wagon chassis.

[cypherman]

Hi all,

I need to get 4 of the old Hornby 16 ton mineral wagon chassis from the 1980s for a project. They are as rare as hens teeth even on Ebay. I have tried the usual places such as Peters Spares with no luck. Any one got an ideas where I might have overlooked looked. I just want the chassis. But they must be complete with all buffers. I do not need wheels, bodies or couplings. If any one has for sale I would buy them from you.

Edited October 14, 2023 by cypherman

[Paul H Vigor]

1 hour ago, cypherman said:

Hi all,

I need to get 4 of the old Hornby 16 ton mineral wagon chassis from the 1980s for a project. They are as rare as hens teeth even on Ebay. I have tried the usual places such as Peters Spares with no luck. Any one got an ideas where I might have overlooked looked. I just want the chassis. But they must be complete with all buffers. I do not need wheels, bodies or couplings. If any one has for sale I would buy them from you.

Show traders or toy fairs?

[TinTracks]

7 hours ago, cypherman said:

I need to get 4 of the old Hornby 16 ton mineral wagon chassis

https://www.elaines-trains.co.uk/index.php?pg=w

 Hi Ged, there seems to be 3 or 4 16t minerals at Elaines Trains (unless I've got it wrong) link above

 I have over 30 of the old Dublo 3 rail cast minerals and could certainly spare a few but I doubt that's what you're after

 Hope this helps, Regards, Rich

[cypherman]

On 14/10/2023 at 18:49, TinTracks said:

https://www.elaines-trains.co.uk/index.php?pg=w

 Hi Ged, there seems to be 3 or 4 16t minerals at Elaines Trains (unless I've got it wrong) link above

 I have over 30 of the old Dublo 3 rail cast minerals and could certainly spare a few but I doubt that's what you're after

 Hope this helps, Regards, Rich

Hi Rich,

You are correct. It is the old cast metal chassis that I am replacing with newer and I use the term newer ones very loosely for the chassis I want. But thanks for looking. There does appear to be another job lot of chassis coming up on Ebay in the next week. I will have a go for them

[Il Grifone]

I assume tjat would that be the 16 foot (64mm over headstocks) generic chassis inherited from Tri-ang (i.e. six inches short for a  16T mineral). There are several versions of this.

The Dublo/Wrenn version is not suitable as it is a scale 17 foot 6 inches long, despite supposedly being the same wagon.

[cypherman]

1 hour ago, Il Grifone said:

I assume tjat would that be the 16 foot (64mm over headstocks) generic chassis inherited from Tri-ang (i.e. six inches short for a  16T mineral). There are several versions of this.

The Dublo/Wrenn version is not suitable as it is a scale 17 foot 6 inches long, despite supposedly being the same wagon.

You are quite correct in your assumption. I have bought 2 job lots of broken Triang/Hornby and Hornby wagons for very little But there were several on the old Triang cast metal chassis that I want to replace. So far I have restored and repaired 14 wagons, But still have 4 that need the new chassis. They currently still have the old Triang chassis. So far I have finished15 wagons for a cost of about £17.00. Will see how much the extra chassis will cost for a final tally. I am very happy with the costs so far. About a pound a wagon.

[BernardTPM]

2 hours ago, Il Grifone said:

I assume tjat would that be the 16 foot (64mm over headstocks) generic chassis inherited from Tri-ang (i.e. six inches short for a  16T mineral). There are several versions of this.

The Dublo/Wrenn version is not suitable as it is a scale 17 foot 6 inches long, despite supposedly being the same wagon.

Neither were right, but Triang were closer. The real ones were 16' 6" over headstocks.

[Il Grifone]

Tri-ang were indeed nearer, but it looks shorter due to the buffers being about 2mm too high. The wheelbase is wrong too.

This is thanks to Trackmaster, back at the dawn of time making their wagons 16 foot over headstocks and 9 foot 6 inch wheelbase, which was correct for nothing*. Their van is similar to a L&YR design (maybe by accident? - It came in GWR grey or LNER brown) and the open (same choice off livery) is presumably supposed to be a RCH side door mineral. Since the solebars have crown plates it would have been quite ancient even then. However for their time (nearly as old as me - born Jan. '47 - the Trackmaster hails from '49 or '59 IIRC - I was given a set in my early years) they are well detailed models, but usually wavy due to being made of acetate. The early Tri-ang inplastications (up to about 1956) also suffer from this and stay on the shelf! The Tri-ang versions are available in a wide choice of colours.

 

*I have only ever found two designs of wagon with this wheelbase, (one is a Cambrian open of different style).

My go-to of choice for diagram 1/108 welded 16T minerals is the old Airfix (now Dapol) kit. These have weird brakegear - pressing the lever down would apply the brakes - but this is quite easy to remedy. I have picked these up for only 50p! Don't use the wheels supplied in the kit - straight to bin!

I have made a rebodied 17' 6" version (These exist built on redundant underframes) from a Wrenn example of the HD wagon and other diagrams are provided by Parkside and Cambrian.

 

I do have a Tri-ang body on the converter wagon chassis, which is useful for running Tri-ang and Dublo together; As is the horse box of course. This is a quite a good representation of  a GWR design, apart from the raised planking grooves (a common Tri-ang penny pincher). (Lima's version is superior but needs a culling of its surfeit of ventilators . Presumably this is due to an Italian misreading of the GWR drawing, which admittedly is not very clear on this feature.)

 

Time to stop waffling on David!

[BernardTPM]

The old Airfix kit is still pretty good, especially so given it was tooled over 70 years ago. And yes, the 9' 6" w.b. was rare in real life. When they went to plastic and raised the buffers* by 2mm it spoilt the proportions.

There were a few 16t minerals built on redundant 17' 6" chassis, but they didn't have top flaps which the HD body has. I did once do a master in N Gauge for the NGS for those 1970s 'new' builds to fit a standard Peco chassis, but it seems the master went missing at some point.

 

* The diecast steel solebar chassis has slightly higher buffers than the earlier diecast wood variety, but by less than 1/2mm.

 

Edited October 17, 2023 by BernardTPM

[Il Grifone]

Filing the top flaps off was part of the modification. The first Tri-ang chassis probably needed to be slightly higher as the Trackmaster wagons had very fine wheels (no pointwork to worry about). Dublo wheels would fit, but Tri-ang were a lot coarser. Trix solved this problem with small wheels.