sagaguy Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 I never did use the foundation point plans so it`s interesting to see the chairs. Ray. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hayfield Posted January 5, 2013 Author Share Posted January 5, 2013 I never did use the foundation point plans so it`s interesting to see the chairs. Ray. Ray All I have are the plain track sleepers, did longer ones exist? I thought of either using 2 sleepers cut to the correct length, or buy some pre-cut strips of timber and cut to length. The precut sleepers are 4mm wide by 1.9mm thick Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagaguy Posted January 5, 2013 Share Posted January 5, 2013 It was never made clear to me where you got the sleepers from,if anyone has the ERG catalogue from 1959/60,perhaps they were listed there.The only sleepering i got & i still have a few lengths was Peco Individulay black fibre point sleepering in about one foot lengths.I think that i bought the plans & the sleepers because i was inspired by that complex 00 junction but being only 16 at the time,the deed was beyond me.Soon after that,Formoway appeared so that was the end of any thoughts of track building. Ray. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
hayfield Posted January 6, 2013 Author Share Posted January 6, 2013 Ray Thanks for that info, pretty much like ply sleepering today. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Kirk Posted January 10, 2013 Share Posted January 10, 2013 Hi, I had a bit of the ABC track (18 in. length), super stuff, bought when I was an impovrished schoolboy modeller so using it on a layout was well beyond my means. It made a nice bit of track to "pose" something on though. My last memory of it was in my workshop in St. Monans in the 1970s where I used it to display samples of my "basic" 00 wagon kits. (horrible thought do they not now count as vintage). Lost it I think when I changed workshops. I am surprised that no one has mentioned Wrenn Universal so far in this thread. The one with the large fibre sleepers and O gauge rail. I have some somewhere and if I can get the camera to work will post some here. In the late 50s I upgraded my Triang layout using this in the mistaken belief that it was more "scale". It wasn't but it did allow Triang and Hornby Dublo to run together including the ones which had been fitted with Romford wheels and Dad's early scale stuff was released to me around this time .As an aside I also upgraded some of the Triang curves (still used in the balloon loops) by sliding out the tinned steel rails and sliding in the O gauge Nickel Silver section. best wishes, Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Il Grifone Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 samples of my "basic" 00 wagon kits. (horrible thought do they not now count as vintage). I am surprised that no one has mentioned Wrenn Universal so far in this thread. The one with the large fibre sleepers and O gauge rail. I have some somewhere and if I can get the camera to work will post some here. In the late 50s I upgraded my Triang layout using this in the mistaken belief that it was more "scale". It wasn't but it did allow Triang and Hornby Dublo to run together including the ones which had been fitted with Romford wheels and Dad's early scale stuff was released to me around this time .As an aside I also upgraded some of the Triang curves (still used in the balloon loops) by sliding out the tinned steel rails and sliding in the O gauge Nickel Silver section. Hi Ian, I still have some of your kits bought back then. I'll post some pictures, if anyone is interested (and I can find what box they're in!) My experience with Wrenn track was not happy. The rail pulled out of the fixings at my first (undoubtedly ham-handed) attempt to curve it to extend my Dublo layout. Perhaps it wasn't intended to emulate Dublo Radii.I always found Tri-ang would run on Dublo track, with at most a slight bump on the points. Coupling the stock together was another matter, even using Peco's conversion couplings. Replacing the Tri-ang rail is an interesting idea. I have a quantity of Super 4 with realistic rust, that keeps being reprieved from the bin.... Regards David. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
roythebus Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 Wrenn made some quite complex fibre based track, including curved points and a double junction! I suspect we didn't realise we had to cut the web of the flexible track before we bent it.... IIRC it was done in 3-rail versions as well. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hunslet Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 I just remembered that I have some Wrenn fibre sleepered track fastened to a piece of Conti-board in the loft eaves ! Here is a photo of one end of it showing a curved point. I have no idea where I got the track from but there are three points and some straight track. Looking at the photo the straight track looks like 3-rail with the centre rail removed as it has the "chairs" for the centre rail. I also have a big box of Trix bakelite track which I think was given to me as the original owner could not get rid of it. Colin. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagaguy Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 Wrenn 3 rail track was six & twopence (31 pence) for a yard length.I remember my dad trying to work out how to curve it not realising at the time that you had to cut sections out of the web.Expensive in the days when the average wage was about £6 a week. Ray. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Kirk Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 Hi, The three rail was more expensive. Somehow four and threepence springs to mind for the 2 rail. This was a lot of money at the time but still made a yard cheaper than the three or four triang/dublo straights it replaced and it could be curved. My pocket money was two and six a week but by working around grand parents and great aunts I could make a bit more. ( I collected boxes from outside grocers and if it was not in the "cartie" season broke them into firewood. Everyone had a coal fire so always needed kindling. - in the cartie season you added pram wheels to the boxes and raced them down the snake bend in the local park. Either way they ended up as firewood!)Points were more expensive and needed saving up for. Set pieces were more expensive still and were Christmas /Birthday purchases. Somehow I managed to rebuild/extend the layout using this track 57 to 58. This layout was dismantled when we moved house in 1961 and never rebuilt as in the new house I had an attic to play with and was trying to go "scale"and put my RTR away. I found bits of it when I cleared out the attic after my Mother died in 2008. That was Model Railway Archaeology and perhaps needs another thread. Some of the Wrenn track from it was used in an early O 16.5 layout (probably before O 16.5 was invented) that I built in the early 60s. I had noticed two things. The overscale Wrenn track looked narrow gauge and the early Triang couplings looked like NG ones.So waste nothing,some early Triang locos got tinplate NG bodies. The metal bogies from under the,well bent by then,Acetate short LMS coaches and my oldest goods wagons got card bodies. best wishes, Ian Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagaguy Posted January 11, 2013 Share Posted January 11, 2013 There`s some vintage Wrenn trackwork on Ebay at the moment,a crossover & scissors!! http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wrenn-Type-0033-Universal-Crossover-LH-3-rail-fibre-sleepers-/140903473073?pt=UK_Trains_Railway_Models&hash=item20ce805fb1 Ray. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium DIW Posted January 12, 2013 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 12, 2013 The overscale Wrenn track looked narrow gauge Indeed it does. I used some when I last re-tracked my S-scale metre-gauge layout; saved me having to hand-build a few yards of track. Dave Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Il Grifone Posted January 13, 2013 Share Posted January 13, 2013 Wrenn claimed to be "Scaled to match the rail!" (A ludicrous idea IMHO). It thus follows that since the rail is suitable for 0 gauge, so is the sleepering (About ¼" wide IIRC)and hence the narrow gauge look. There seems to be a general consensus between track manufacturers to set the sleepers too close together (apart from the insistence on making them H0 size). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Re6/6 Posted February 13, 2013 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 13, 2013 Good to see this thread John. Seeing that pic Ian reminded me that I've got some of that very track, though all very rusty compared to your clean example! I'll dig it out and some other rather interesting pointwork and put some snaps up ...when I can find it! Does anybody remember Alan Brett Cannon (ABC) trackwork? IIRC it was sold in a shop in the City. It was of fibre base, plastic bullhead chair construction........ Gem (I think) Repaired early fibre and steel rivet pointwork. Can anybody identify it? The rail section is quite 'finescale'. I acquired it 50+ years ago from the depths of a cupboard in the school music building after we formed the then new model railway club. We pooled all our HD and made quite a layout. I suspect that they're probably from around the just pre-/post- war period. Alan Brett Cannon (ABC) 'chairway'. An early C&L/Exacto 'style' type. Painful on the fingers to assemble! Although a little overscale but when painted and ballasted, it did look the part in those early days. Pretty dire Farish 'Formoway' Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Il Grifone Posted February 13, 2013 Share Posted February 13, 2013 The top photo certainly looks like Gem. The clue is the fragile white metal crossing assembly, which tends to suffer breakage of the rails. The same thing has happened to the one I have. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
BernardTPM Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Is the second 'scale' point 'Little Western'? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Re6/6 Posted February 15, 2013 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 15, 2013 Is the second 'scale' point 'Little Western'? That name 'rings a bell' Bernard.....just can't place it.....Jim Russell maybe? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sagaguy Posted February 15, 2013 Share Posted February 15, 2013 That name 'rings a bell' Bernard.....just can't place it.....Jim Russell maybe? Yup,it`s Jim Russell,I have an article on different types of track in a Model Railway Constructor (I think) somewhere. Ray. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
5050 Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 That spiked track point kit is a posh one! It's 'fine scale'. I could only afford the 'universal' ones which I could never get to work due to my complete lack of appreciation (at 10-12 years old) of the finer points of electrics after being used to Triang standard track. Here's a fine piece of Wrenn pointwork, every young boys' dream BITD. However, getting it to work electrically might be a problem given the situation mentioned above. No advice or instructions provided! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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