Wolseley

HD's brief flirtation with gloss finishes pre-dates the introduction of nickel plated drivers and plastic bogie wheels. 1954, I think, but it might have been 1953. Silver King was the original BR A4 though, so I suggest the finish is original (and in very good condition) but the body has at some point been fitted to a later chassis. You can't repair Mazak rot, but from the photo it appears that the axle boxes on the tender have some sort of whitish powder on them which would be more like a reaction to dampness, somewhat akin to a bit of light rust, rather than Mazak rot, which would lead to distorted surfaces and small cracks. Perhaps a closer photograph would help . Does the matching locomotive, which appears to be lurking just out of the photograph to the right, have any issues?

At the risk of sounding heretical to those of you of GWR persuasion, I have thought of having a representation of a King by fitting a King bogie to a Dublo Bristol Castle. After all, all GWR 4-6-0s look pretty much the same anyway.......

All the LMS and BR Dublo coaches with metal roofs, other than some early LMS ones that had a slightly metallic gunmetal grey finish, had roofs that were finished in a mid grey colour. I have noticed a few of mine have a slight greenish tinge to them, but whether this is due to age or weathering or if the shade was a bit variable between batches, I don't know. I had to repaint the roofs on some of my LMS coaches, and I found that Tamiya TS-32, Haze Grey was a near perfect match. I gave the roofs a spray with gloss clear afterwards, to give them a finish similar to the original. The LMS coaches in the photograph below have all had their roofs resprayed, while the two Royal Mail coaches on the track behind them have their original factory finishes. You can see the slight difference in the grey on the TPO vehicles, slight, but noticeable. Jim

My latest purchase is a Dublo EMU trailer car. It was unboxed and with a slightly damaged underframe, so it was affordable. Finding a motor coach at a price I'm willing to pay might prove to be a bit more of a challenge though......

Tamiya "Orange" (TS12) is a near perfect match. I used it, together with a spray can of Tamiya "Light Sand" (TS46) when respraying my station buildings and signal box. Marginally brighter than the Dublo shade of orange, but that was rather variable anyway.

After a clean up: And the one that's going to donate its bogies to a future project:

As well as the streamliners, I have 17 non-streamlined ones, all of them slightly different from eachother. I also have enough bits to put together one more streamliner. I don't know if I will add any more to the total, but I'm not planning on having 38 of them........ Jim

Well, I spotted what I thought were four rusty Dublo coaches on eBay and I put in a bid for them at the starting price of $40.00 (£23.40) and was the only bidder. I was planning to dismantle them to get some spare bogies and maybe some other parts, but was somewhat surprised when they arrived today to find that only one of them was rusty and the rest just need a clean up and replacement couplings. They are: BR maroon D20 Restaurant Car (broken couplings to be replaced) Chocolate and Cream Superdetail Composite (needs new couplings - has been fitted with Tri-ang ones) BR Maroon Superdetail Full Brake (needs one coupling replaced) BR Maroon Suburban Brake 3rd (the only one rusty enough to use for parts) A rather unexpected result........

Thanks. I originally intended just to have two streamliners, one red and one blue, but things sort of got away from me. I also was going to have 6229, Duchess of Hamilton, in shop grey, as it ran briefly in service painted thus, but I wasn't satisfied with the paint job and I'm stripping it back before having a second go. It will join the others in due course. One thing I've noticed comparing the old Tri-ang and current Hornby bodies is that the Tri-ang ones are slightly shorter, compromised no doubt to make them fit an existing chassis. Jim

I was about to suggest the same thing, but I was beaten to it......

I've been spending the last few days working on my fleet of streamlined Princess Coronations. They are Tri-ang or in two cases, present day Hornby bodies, mounted on slightly modified Hornby Dublo A4 chassis, fitted with Hornby Dublo Duchess front bogies and Tri-ang trailing trucks. All but one have Tri-ang tenders. The reason I use the A4 chassis is that it allows me to retain the cab detail and also, as there are no cylinder casings, fitting the body to the chassis is made that much easier. 6220 "Coronation": 6223 "Princess Alice" (I still have to paint the wheels blue) 6237 "City of Bristol" (I still have to paint the wheels black) 46243 "City of Lancaster" (the only one to carry a BR number in streamlined form - although I believe it still carried the lettering LMS until rebuilt, in my parallel universe, it has received the lettering "BRITISH RAILWAYS" on its tender) 6244 "King George VI"

As I said in my post above, my repaints sometimes stick to the style of Binns Road's paint finish but some have a bit more detail. Here is my Duchess of Abercorn, finished in the grey blue post war experimental livery that was applied to two locomotives (the other one being a Jubilee) before the LMS opted for lined black. Done very much in the Binns Road style. Jim

I usually do break the insulation on the drivers but, as the Castle has pickups in the tender, I retained the 2-rail wiper pickups and re-routed the wires to the chassis. The locomotive when I got it didn't have a tender, but I had a chassis for a three rail one complete with pickups in my spares box, so all I needed was a tender body, which I got from that well known on line auction site. The lining is not by hand. I used Fox Transfers. When I refinish a Dublo loco, I sometimes stick to the style of Binns Road's paint finish but some, like this one, have a bit more detail. Aside from the lining, on the Castle it extends to lamps, etched headboard (Cheltenham Spa Express) and cab windows. I'm afraid I'm not a Great Western person (more Caledonian and LMS) so I wouldn't have a clue which is right, although I do think black looks better, which probably means it should be green, I suppose. And, yes, that is that a Trix 4472 in the background, converted to three rail using a Marklin skate.

Interesting - I did a similar rescue job about a year ago on a rather battered (I had to carefully bend the cab roof into position with pliers) and generally playworn "Cardiff Castle" which I converted to three rail and also renumbered as 5069 "Isambard Kingdom Brunel". Here it is: Jim

And it would be an easier conversion given that the original locomotive was an 0-6-2T. I might do one sometime, but I do have a few too many half finished projects at the moment. If I do get around to it, I'll probably finish it in G&SWR livery.

Yes it is.. Not completely accurate, but I think it's obvious what it's meant to be to anyone who knows HR engines.

Thanks. In this case it was a decal job, using a sheet by Fox Transfers. If I was doing a single line I would do it by hand (especially where there is a raised surface to guide me) but two thin straight lines of that length are a bit beyond me, so I resort to transfers. One thing with using transfers on Dublo models though, when it comes to things like cab and tender sides, for example, is that the models, although excellent in their day (except perhaps for the "Deltic"), are not 100% accurate but the transfers are, so a bit of creative work with scissors is called for.

And I think the original photo I posted may have gone to that image graveyard in the sky, so here's another photo of my Hornby Dublo Highland Railway 0-6-4 banking tank. The coach is a de-clerestoried Tri-ang GW clerestory, fitted with Dublo bogies. There is a second coach on the way, but I haven't finished modifying the roof yet. Jim

It's almost finished. All I have to do now is paint and letter the tender and fix the locomotive to tender coupling and I have the City of Bradford as running on the Southern Region during the Locomotive Exchanges of 1948. The tender is a Bachmann body mounted on a Dublo A4 tender chassis. The tender body needed to be shortened about 5mm to fit.

Yes, it definitely is an ex Caledonian Railway Pacific Tank or, as the Caley referred to them, a 944 class. The body looks pretty good (damage aside) and would be easily repairable (an old DJH kit perhaps?) but it would benefit from an upgrade to the chassis, which appears to be a vintage Tri-ang one, as well as it being in need of a missing pair of cylinders. Most of them made it into BR stock, with the last one going in 1953. Worth salvaging, I would say.

I just went digging through my odds and ends and came up with this - a Trix Twin coach fitted with Dublo wheels and still with its electrical pick-up for coach lighting. The wheels on the bogie with the pick-up have insulated wheels (Dublo plastic type) and the other bogie has metal Dublo wheels.

I would say that they are Trix bogies, but fitted with Dublo wheels (the axle dimensions are the same - it's a pretty straightforward swap). Also, one bogie has the remains of a broken pick-up shoe of the sort that was used on Trix Twin coaches for coach lighting.

I agree. I think that's the best way to look at it. What was modern in the 1960s is hardly modern now. Which would be laughable. As I type this, I have behind me a 3 rail Hornby Dublo layout on which there are two diesel shunters, one Bo-Bo diesel, and one "Deltic". I also have a Co-Bo diesel, another "Deltic" and three Co-Co diesels, but they're not on the layout at the moment. Using this definition, my 3 rail Hornby Dublo layout is "Modern Image"........

That's what I've been using too.

Some of my repainted tank wagons. I have posted this photo before but, as all the old photos have disappeared.......