Wolseley

Tempting, but with a £13.82 charge for postage, I think I'll give it a miss.

The easiest and cheapest way to do it would be to uninsulate the drivers with electrically conductive paint and fit a Dublo 3 rail pickup. There are usually a few used Dublo pickups for sale on eBay, but watch the price being charged - some vendors charge ridiculous amounts. The only person I have found selling them at a price I am prepared to pay is David Cameron, who trades as "dgfc". You could, of course use a Marklin skate if you wish, but I would prefer to use the original type of fitting.

Yes, I can see that should work - just a matter of rearranging the pickups. As for mine, I ended up getting a Tri-ang chassis and three railing it. For the early models, they used a Dublo tender chassis which has mounting points for Dublo plunger pickups, so the only difficult part of the process was finding some Dublo pickups (reproduction ones pop up for sale now and then).

I tried fitting a Tri-ang streamlined coronation body to a Dublo Duchess of Montrose body once and found there were clearance problems around the motor.

Is there really a shorting problem though? Dublo locomotives are so heavy that their momentum would keep them going until they're past the source of any potential short.

The wartime black A4 in my photo was purchased from John Winkley, as have been a number of other items on my layout. Jim

There's room for an approach that allows scenery as well, though. I don't see why there can't be some, as long as the scenery is subservient to the trains. Then again, my layout is a double track oval with a four platform terminus, goods shed, engine shed and turntable and a reverse loop on an 8'x4' board, so there is no risk of the scenery taking over from the trains.

I suspect that the motor would be too wide for it to fit, but I don't have a Tri-ang body to try it out. Perhaps it hould be easier to chop a bit off a Dublo body and chassis to get a 2-6-2T. I do have a spare Dublo body, and a rolling chassis for a 2-6-4T, but I have too many things on the go at the minute to try it out.

The term “Red Rattlers” as applied to the Sydney trains, as I recall, originated in the late 1960s or maybe early 1970s, when a tabloid newspaper, the Daily Telecrap Telegraph, began a campaign to upgrade the Sydney railway system. The name stuck and you still hear people use it today. Indian red and Tuscan red are two very similar, but different, colours, Tuscan (more properly called Venetian red) was in use on the NSW railways from at least around 1920. Tuscan and russet livery was the first livery applied to the electric carriages, the russet being applied to the panels between the area of the sides between the lines immediately above and below the windows, with yellow or gold lining on the panels. From around 1939, Indian red replaced Tuscan, the yellow/gold lining was omitted and broad horizontal yellow bands were painted above and below the windows. Initially the lines were also painted on the doors, but later they were not. By 1957, the colour reverted to Tuscan red and the yellow bands were omitted. To show how often the carriages were repainted, by the late 1960s there was still one of the 1927 steel cars running around with yellow pads on it (C3102 I think it might have been - I saw it pass through Chatswood station in that guise a few times). Roofs were supposedly silver, but I do recall seeing some wooden cars with roofs painted a mustard yellow colour. That's the first time I've heard the Sydney Harbour Bridge referred to as a modest addition...... The reconstructed wooden steam suburban stock (mostly trailer cars, but there were some driving trailers as well) were converted from end platform suburban carriages, but only those built after 1910 were converted, as they had steel underframes. Conversion of earlier carriages was considered, but was ruled out as they had wooden underframes which may not have withstood the additional pressure put on them in use on an intensive electric service with its rapid acceleration and deceleration. The EBA and EBB Wooden cars which are often referred to as “Bradfield” cars, were built in 1920-21, and initially used as steam hauled stock until 1926 when the first stages of electrification were brought into operation. Ten or so were converted to driving trailers, but the rest were all given driving controls and motors. They had three single doors and one pair of double doors on each side. They got the name “Bradfield" from the person most associated with the electrification, Dr J J C Bradfield, although I’m pretty sure that, although Bradfield designed the new suburban railway system (and, in conjunction with Dorman Long & Co, the Sydney Harbour Bridge) the carriages were designed by E E Lucy, a former GWR man who was CME of the NSW railways at the time. The steel Leeds Forge cars followed in 1925 (some also being used briefly in steam hauled service). Double doors at each end of the saloon portion. These were followed in 1926-29 by the Government Dockyard at Walsh Island, Newcastle, and the Clyde Engineering Co, at Granville in Western Sydney. The Clyde Engineering Co built more of these cars in 1937 to a modified design with slightly lower windows and more roof ventilators. 1940 saw a further batch similar to the 1937 cars, this time from Tulloch’s Phoenix Iron Works.These cars had one less window on the side compared to the earlier cars, and were the first to have a fixed portion of bodywork separating each pair of sliding doors. Further cars to the same basic design were built by Tulloch’s in 1952—53 and one set comprised solely of these cars, F39, was selected as a trial for the automatic door equipment.. Between 1956 and 1960, 40 power cars and 40 trailer cars were built by Commonwealth Engineering. They were similar to the Tulloch cars, but had motors on all four bogies and had power operated doors. The most notable difference appearance wise was the lack of visible rivets on the bodywork. They were coded as S sets and earned the nickname of “Sputniks” from the USSR spacecraft that entered service around the same time, although who was responsible for first calling them that I do not know. When the original double deck trailers entered service, they were put to use in the S sets - initially one per train until there were enough double deckers to replace all 40 “Sputnik” trailers. The replaced trailers were converted to manual door use and were used to replace some of the old converted wooden carriages that were well past their use by date.

It seems to be a tendency across a range of collectables. here's someone who's been pulling apart Edison phonographs, and he's not the only one doing it: https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/m.html?_odkw=&_ssn=tsfinestuff&hash=item36712b5ee7%3Ag%3AGhUAAOSwZ6tfjJ9t&item=233826901735&_osacat=0&_from=R40&_trksid=p2046732.m570.l1313&_nkw=edison+diamond+disc+part&_sacat=0

It was a good price once the cost of postage to Australia was factored in. It will be interesting to see what the actual cost of postage is once it arrives. I feel that the vendor has underestimated the cost.

I have a Wrenn LMS red 2-6-4T body in very good condition (other than the number being almost gone from one side and some scuffing on the lining) and a Dublo 2-6-4T rolling chassis (minus pony truck, bogie, pickup and armature) in excellent condition. After looking at the parts on offer on eBay, I ended up buying a rather sad looking but running (albeit sluggishly) complete Dublo 2-6-4T for £48.95 plus postage from the UK to Australia, for which the vendor was asking only £4.71. Much cheaper than separately buying an armature, pick-up, pony truck, bogie and fixing screws.

And, if a Dublo 3 rail layout isn't retro enough, here's a photograph I took on Ilford black and white film with a 1936 (older than Dublo!) Leica IIIa (taken a few months ago, when the scenic treatment was not very far advanced): Oh yes, and all the signals (other than one distant that is permanently on caution) are electrically operated, as are all the points that cannot be easily reached.

A group of black locos: a Dublo Silver King, repainted in LNER wartime black, a Dublo 8F 2-8-0, a Dublo 2-6-4T and an, as yet, unconverted Tri-ang B12.

They're not, I'm afraid. The GWR contingent amongst my stock is fairly small: two Dublo Castles, one (green) Trix 0-6-2T and a three-railed Tri-ang Hall. Then there's a "GWR" Dublo 0-6-2T, if you consider that to be GWR. Less than one tenth of my total...... jim

Another repaint, this time a GWR Castle. It started as a 2 rail Ringfield Cardiff Castle, badly playworn, with missing paint and a bent cab roof, purchased cheaply but without a tender. I mated it to a spare 3 rail Castle tender and, after a bit of work, it emerged as 5069 Isambard Kingdom Brunel, in BR green, with a cycling lion on the tender. I generally don't, but this time I added a few detai;s: glazed cab windows, brake hoses, lamps and a headboard (Cheltenham Spa Express, from Fox transfers). Here it is passing the Australian corner, with the model of the crossing keeper's cottage at Uralla in Western NSW, complete with holden Ute parked outside, and a route 175 bus, which normally travels from Chatswood to Wynyard and back, but seems to have found itself in a very different place.

A view of of my almost finished repaint of a Dublo 2-6-4T, with a 48-215 Holden sedan waiting outside the Dublo station building. The loco has a Wrenn front pony truck, as can be seen from the bright tread on the wheels. It will be replaced in time with a Dublo pony truck and will find a place on my Wrenn LMS 2679 version, which is currently awaiting a transplant of vital organs from a scrap 2-6-4T that is somewhere between the UK and Australia at present and hasn't arrived yet. It was intended to be 80135 as preserved in BR green but somehow I managed to get two of the numbers back to front and it ended up as 80153 - at least there was such a loco, with numbers running up to 80155......

A view of one end of the layout showing, amongst other things, Cardean somewhat improbably hauling a train composed of Dublo Gresley stock.

Not all the buildings - there are two of Australian prototypes, constructed from laser cut wood kits. And I missed the Caledonian brake van which was built from an etched brass kit when I was listing everything else......

Predominantly Dublo, yes, but there's no harm in letting a few others infiltrate the layout, as long as Dublo reigns supreme. On the desk next to me I have four Dublo 2-6-4Ts, one with a Wills Stanier body, one partially assembled Nu-Cast Highland Railway 0-6-4T banking tank (patiently waiting for me to three rail a Tri-ang chassis) and a DJH Highland Railway Jones Goods I have only just started on. On the layout behind me there are, on the board, four Dublo A4s, a Trix Flying Scotsman, one Dublo 0-6-2T, one Dublo Castle, two Dublo West Countries, one Dublo Bo-Bo, one Dublo diesel shunter, one Tri-ang B12, a (present day) Hornby 700 class converted to an approximation of a Highland Railway "Barney" 0-6-0, and a whitemetal GEM Cardean on a Tri-ang B12 chassis. All the rolling stock, other than one Bachmann wagon and two Wrenn items, is Dublo, as are all the buildings and, of course, the track. In spite of the interlopers, I consider it to be a Dublo layout.

In my first post mentioning Meccano, it was in connection with the longevity of Meccano versus Meccano Ltd, which, I think, could be said to have a link with the subject of the thread. My second post was purely concerning Meccano, for which I apologise. I made the mistake of treating a forum thread as if it were a normal conversation, where one does tend to stray from the subject of conversation from time to time. It's as if someone made mention of BMW motorcycles in a thread about BMW cars, I suppose, clearly not a done thing. Anyway, to avoid stirring up the ire of certain individuals, I shall refrain from posting anything in this forum for the foreseeable future.

I recently bought our eldest grandson one of these:

Thanks for the link. I have dealt with Modelmaster before, but I had no idea that they, or anyone else, had such a product. I will order a sheet. I do have a very good lining pen, however I do tend to often set myself higher standards than I can achieve, and what has held me back from doing this is the thought that, once completed, I would be unsatisfied with the result. I would not want to spend considerable time on something if there was a likelihood that I might not want to run it on the layout.......... I used Humbrol RC411 Diesel Blue Matt, not because I specifically have a preference for it, but rather because it is pretty much all that is available out here. As with most of my other models, I am brush painting it to this stage, to be followed by a couple of spray coats of semi gloss clear.

I thought about that, but I can't see how I could get a satisfactory finish on the tinplate sides as regards doors, handles and other details. Plus I have so many locomotive projects on hand, the last thing I need to do is to start work on a rake of coaches. I think I'll either wait for some Trix ones to turn up at a reasonable price, or I'll get some Tri-ang ones and change the couplings. Here's the soon to be named "Meld" although I still have to finish painting the ends and affix some transfers:

If we're talking about manually operated isolating points, an insulating tab would do the job: