Tri-ang 0-6-0 saddle tank shunter

[relaxinghobby]

Even after it's had a bath it looks like this.

 

 

Tri-ang saddle tank shunter, 00 4mm to the foot?

Picked up one of these old timers, it was cheap and seemed like a bargain at the time. In size it has turned out to be a bit of a monster, because it is so wide and tall it looks much smaller than it is but when placed beside a scale model one realises how big it actually is. Perhaps they made it slightly over scale to fit the chassis under a saddle tank body.

 

The chassis is not a moulded block of mazdac, it is two strips of steel held apart by spacers, this form of construction would easily allow space for a modern fold up gear box and can motor arrangement. The wheels are the old chunky sort. I cleaned up the motor, the commutator and brushes were particularly dirty, it just about runs, some more work will be necessary.

 

Unusually the chassis,which is the Jinty one I guess, is turned around and the motor is at the front in the smoke box under the chimney, leaving the cab clear of magnets.

 

What can be made of this model, perhaps new slightly smaller wheels than the original 19mm would bring down the buffer beam height to a scale 14 mm. I could cut a horizontal slice from the space below the saddle tank to bring down the overall height of the model.

 

What does this model represent? Some sort of main line tender loco converted into a saddle tank yard shunter like the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Aspinal 0-6-0 or the one off SECR converted 01?

 

 

 

 

Is that a 3F smoke box there?

 

 

[bigherb]

It was freelance but based on the SECR S class. It was made that tall to house the early clockwork mechanism.

[AdamsRadial]

I resurrected one of these a couple of weeks ago. The chassis is like a Jinty but doesn't have the protruding block for a chimney-screw. Mine has the earlier style of coupling (one end of the loop open) and I had to get new rivets to replace the broken-off hooks with some cannibalized from a wrecked truck.

 

As a runner, it's a bit of a disappointment. It has to be driven hard to get through a couple of Hornby Express points, but when powered from an old Clipper controller isn't too bad. I got it running purely for nostalgia, it was one of the first electric OO locomotives I had as a boy.

 

I also have a clockwork one, which insisted on hurling round the ovals at a speed which would make Lewis Hamilton look like Noddy, until it left the track and dived to the floor. Amazingly, all it broke was the front hook on the coupler. It was a sad end to a cunning plan I had, which was to tow a track-cleaning wagon around the layout by a clockwork engine, thus solving the chicken and egg problem of how do you run a track-cleaning train when the track it is to run on needs cleaning ?

[SRman]

Add a bit more weight behind the loco and the track cleaner, then it won't try to emulate an aircraft at the first bend. Sounds like a good idea to me, using the clockwork loco for track cleaning purposes.

[relaxinghobby]

So many different chassis versions, mine seems to be a version to go with the Jinty chassis.

 

Fixing screw is at the back of the cab into a special bracket and the motor is turned to the front end.

 

It was a surprise to me that the body was moulded in two parts, compared with the later

Tri-ang Hornby and contemporary Wrenn plastic bodies.

 

 

I don't think that's the original fixing screw?

 

 

[Il Grifone]

These models share a chassis with the Tri-ang Diesel shunter, 3F 0-6-0 and 0-6-0T.* There is an L shaped bracket to secure the body on the saddle tank and Diesel bolted to the chimney screw fixing for the other two (visible in the photos). As stated above, these were also available with a reversible clockwork mechanism.

 

My younger brother was given a clockwork set with the Diesel shunter. As the mere thought of a diesel (especially that model!) was inconceivable, 4/10d was spent on a spare saddle tank body....... (and another 1/6d to fit it with proper couplings - Peco conversion kit).

 

She is reputedly based on the solitary SECR S class saddle tank (converted from a C class IIRC), but is decidedly overheight (to allow space for the mainspring).

 

I have no idea where the number 748 came from however.

 

* Also 'Davy Crockett' in modified form.

[AdamsRadial]

Definitely not the original screw, all three of my locos (1 electric 2 clockwork) have a countersunk hole in the bunker rear. None of them had the screw. Luckily I found one black cross-head screw in the nightmare I call my parts-box. After all these years I still can't differentiate between Phillips and Posi so I just call them cross-heads, and tend to get cross myself when I realise I've got the wrong screwdriver for the screw in hand.

 

I view the Saddletank in much the same way as I view my O-gauge Hornby No 1 Tank, evocative. It looks like an engine without demanding you start comparing it to photographs and drawings to see if it's an accurate model.

 

I am contemplating putting more modern wheels into my Saddletank to try and get it to run through the express points as sweetly as my Hornby E2 and R1 tanks do. I think part of their secret is that the centre driver is the same size as the flanged drivers, whereas on the SaddleTank I think there's a minute difference, resulting in the beast becoming a very long 0-4-0.

[stewartingram]

Easy to tell Philips & Pozi screws:

 

Philips only have 4 (equal size) "arms" radiating from the centre.

Pozi have 8 "arms".  4 of them (like the Philips) radiate from the centre and form the "proper" slots for the screwdriver. In between these are 4 more, shorter, "arms".

 

Also, compare the 2 screwdrivers together. At the point, the "arms" are about 45 degrees either side of vertical. With the Philips, the point is sharper, at about 60 degrees. ( I haven't actually measured the angles, just a guestimation by eye, with the screwdriver vertical and the angle quoted from the horizontal.

It always annoys me that people do think of these 2 types as being the same, when they are not. Use of the wrong type of screwdriver on them will damage the head of the screw.

 

Stewart

[kevinlms]

 

So many different chassis versions, mine seems to be a version to go with the Jinty chassis.

 

Fixing screw is at the back of the cab into a special bracket and the motor is turned to the front end.

 

It was a surprise to me that the body was moulded in two parts, compared with the later

Tri-ang Hornby and contemporary Wrenn plastic bodies.

 

P1010087a.JPG

 

I don't think that's the original fixing screw?

 

P1010083a.JPG

 

P1010080a.JPG

 

Am I right in thinking you get a short if you tried coupling this model (with chassis reversed) to a standard Jinty?

[Il Grifone]

Am I right in thinking you get a short if you tried coupling this model (with chassis reversed) to a standard Jinty?

 

I've never thought of that, but yes.

 

In the pictures, it can be seen the loco has the insulated wheels on the left hand side. The Tri-ang Diesel shunter must be the same of course.

 

If you have a Posidrive screw, the driver to hand is always a Phillips and vice versa.  (Unless it's a Torx or flat blade of course!)

 

There is also a Japanese crosshead, which is different from both of them. These have an even shallower angle and are almost certain to suffer damage with the wrong driver.

[SRman]

All of those old 0-6-0 and 0-4-0 chassis were live for the return current. With metal couplings, that meant you get a dead short if the chassis are reversed in relation to each other. Not quite such a problem if double-heading with the tender locomotives like the 3F, but even those would short if coupled face to face. If you wished to double-head a train with two tank locos or the diesel shunters (or the steeple cab electric, for that matter), you had to make sure they were both facing the right way.

Conversely, if double-heading with two such locomotives, the electrical pickup was enhanced because there was a return current path through all of the wheels of both locomotives on one side.

[roythebus]

The easy answer then is to double-head with 2 clockwork locos!

 

On the MRC's original OO layout there used to be a Hornby Dublo clockwork A4 that would occasionally do the rounds on unsuspecting operators at exhibitions. Needless to say any attempts to control it would be met by the resounding PING of the H&M cut-out doing its job, and roars of laughter from the behind the fiddle yard curtains.