Rehab for old Hornby Wagons

[petethemole]

I've been working on ways to make the old type Triang/Triang Hornby/Hornby wagons fit to be seen in trains with more recent RTR stock and kits. I had several, mostly acquired cheap and originally used for weathering practice, and son has a few as well. Here are a couple:

 

 

 

To deal with the awful chassis I've used two basic methods. First (right) is to split body and undergrame, then cut away the couplings and all underframe details except axleguards, V hangers and brake levers. Then attack the brake lever from behind, removing plastic until it's fairly thin. Cut away a slice from the bottom of each axleguard to reduce the height. Fit brakes from spares box. For Morton, the lever on one side can be carefully slkiced off the V hanger and bent upwards slightly with a slice of plastic rod at the base of the V. The bend in the lever can be partly disguised by filing the concave side. Add door bangers and glue to body. It has Hornby metal spoked wheels, although Romfords would reduce the ride height a bit. The unprototypical doors were covered by a wagon sheet made from drafting linen.

 

The alternative is to place the body on suitable parts to make a 16ft underframe (left). This one used Ratio LNWR wooden solebars with Cambrian headstocks and brakes and Romford wheels. Body treatment as above.

 

I don't think either can be matched to an actual diagram but they should pass muster.

 

A third example is the old blue Insulfish van. Apparently this is based on a L&Y diagram 3 van. This again used Ratio/Cambrian underframe parts, this time with Ratio LNWR brakes and (altered) lever. I'm not sure if the length is correct; the preserved example at Chasewater looks a bit longer. The roof originally had a top-loading hatch but I balked at that. This has been re-roofed due to a leaky hatch!

 

 

I'm working on others, mainly with the hacked-down original underframe. I'm working on a way to disguise it as timber. The basic work isn't much but there's all that ironwork and bolt heads to glue on!

 

Pete

[BernardTPM]

Well done for making good use of these old wagons. The original Trackmaster versions of these wagons first appeared over 60 years ago! The van looks close to a number of pre-group designs with a little work.

[Ruffnut Thorston]

Very good work there.

 

The "Insulfish" van (R.14) is the same moulding as the "Goods Van" R.11. As said above, the original design was made by Trackmaster (Pyramid Toys) from C 1949. Tri-ang Railways bought the original tooling around 1951. They made a new tool later in the 1950s, which lasted until the 1970s. The last model made to this design being the "Express Parcels Van", in Dark Blue.

 

It is probably as generic as the open wagon (R.10) which came from the same source.The "new" Tri-ang derived tooling was last used for the "Pugh" "Special Edition" R.010 Wagon.