Il Grifone

When they decided to produce models that actually looked like the real thing*, Trix introduced a rather clever plastic flange to convert locomotive wheels from their coarse standards to something compatible with Dublo standards. It was only one way however. The fibre track became 'universal' and later still they went the whole hog and became two rail. * Previously, apart from four-coupled toy trains, they had three Pacifics* that were reasonably like their prototypes (provided you kept them away from a ruler) and some 4-4-0s that shared the wheel arrangement. * On the chassis of the Trix Express '01' (discreetly marked "FOREIGN" after the war - fooled nobody) - LNER/BR(E) A1 'Scotsman', LMS 'Princess' and Streamlined 'Coronation'. The last two did not reappear after the war (apart from factory 'one-offs'), though the Princess seems to have inspired the Rovex (later Tri-ang) version. https://www.brightontoymuseum

Our collie was 'Duke' too*. He lived up to his title! He was a great wanderer and loved the beach (but not the water beyond getting his paws wet). Once we left him with friends several kilometres inland from Imperia (Province of Liguria, Italy). He got away and was found next morning in front of our shop in Diano Marina. I'll try and post a map., * Officially he was 'Shantora Black Prince' - We were going to just call him 'Prince' but settled for 'Duke'. It was a long time ago! He was a first anniversary present for my wife. We were married in August 1973. Our other three dogs have all been rescue dogs, along with many cats. Duke lived happily with three cats. we found them all together in his abasket one morning. They became six when one presented us with kittens - all three black like mum. We should be very lucky - we have three now....

They were rather scathing about the power of the G-Wiz' electric motor. Mr. Ford considered that enough for a Model T for a similar weight. The engine was 3 litres and must have been most of the weight of the vehicle! Yes it is cr@p, but it does come from the country that thought the Italian 'Ape' (Bee) (from the company that inflicted brought you the 'Vespa' (Wasp)) was worth copying. They are both well named for being (no pun intended) buzzy and irritating! Lewis hates Api (especially white ones) and always barks furiously at them, aided and abetted by Arran. (Any excuse is good for a barkfest!) We think his last owner must have had one (and a white Panda he hates those too!). (He's a rescue dog, found abandoned in a field. He was supposed to stay with us, just for a while...).

IIRC they crashed a Smart into a concrete beam on 'Top Gear' and it sort of bounced off, suggesting that you are the crash protection for the death trap car.

This just appeared (one of those odd things the computer thinks one might be interested in): https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/272922764051 "Oh my first 'proper' train" (Xmas 1949) I thought and investigated . First the frightening price and then the quartering error - obviously due to the missing wheel on the other side, OK it's in Argentina, but junk is always junk!

Nothing is as bad as a Smart. (IMHO - If there is anything worse I don't want to meet it. It's the only vehicle that ever gave my the impression it was actively trying to kill me!). I thought the Ford Escort Mk. 1 was the worst car ever* until I drove a Smart and, yes, I learned to drive on a Ford Popular (as in 'Sit up and Beg!). Dad said, "If you can drive that , you can drive anything!" *Gas guzzling, gutless, carp brakes, and awful roadholding - just for a start!

Our collie (rough tri-colour) wasn't too keen on water either. He thought swimming served only to get out of the water. Once though I'd left him on the beach and gone swimming. Next thing I found he was desperately swimming after me. I still not sure whether this was a rescue attempt or fear of being left behind. I quickly got him out of the water of course. The Ratio kits are indeed rather delicate and IIRC the composite has length issues. Really the footboards need to be made of metalhe less said about the paint job the better.... The price is ridiculous, but it is the Studebaker fan (huge bills just for petrol!).

Does anyone know the wheelbase of the 0 gauge Hornby M1 locomotives? I was thinking of making a model* of one of the first streamlined GWR railcars with the shrouding over the wheels and thought of using a spare M1 works I have to power it. At present I am in Italy and the mech. is in the UK.... * It will be somewhat simplified and possibly shortened in the tinplate tradition though card is the planned material.

Wikipedia keep suggesting one should make a contribution....

Please forgive my lack of knowledge of Australian trains (it is rather far away). I suppose Tri-ang's effort could pass for the 'L' (as long as you can't count beyond 4). If they could pass off their Pacific as a Princess.... The dogspedition I used as an excuse was rather eventful. My daughter and I decided to take them down the hill along the old road, as it was warm and sunny. Off the lead, they shot off into the distance as usual. Eventually we got as far as we had intended to go and called them back - no sign of them and no response! Eventually they were found stuck half way up the hillside and unable to get down due to the steep slope and large quantities of brambles at the bottom. This involved some mountain climbing to find them a way down. Lewis came at once, Arran found some fields that still required exploration! All this time there were several griffons circling overhead - we suspected this had something to do with the unfortunate deceased dog* by the side of the road. * I was informed that it was very smelly. Luckily, old age means I have lost my sense of smell!

The dreaded two up, two down.... (privy in the back yard and tin bath in lieu of a proper bathroom!) As I recall, the TC range consisted of The EMD F series look (something) like, the CPR 4-6-2 2335 (a not unreasonable model*), the Alco? B-B switcher, NZ 4-6-4T, the double-ended (VR) diesel (gauge errors on both these two) double ended electric (flight of fancy), steeple cab 0-4-0 electric and a Budd railcar. Later incarnations brought the first & last in CNR and CRR liveries; Passenger cars consisted of baggage, passenger/diner, vista-dome and observation cars and a second series of more Canadian outline (both series short in length) and freight cars of various types (and scales). During Tri-ang's historical period we had a 'typical' 19th century wood burning Mogul (boasting the name 'Davy Crockett'**) a passemger car and 4 wheel bobber caboose. Scale was somewhat variable throughout the range, from H0 upwards. (I may have missed some - I didn't count the 0-4-0 shunter as leaving off the buffers does not make a British model into Transcontinental, whatever Meccano Ltd. may have thought (Trix also indulged in this aberration, though theirs was of German origins). Many appeared in 'Battlespace' guise. * Provided one avoids the acetate examples (the tender is always humped for a start). It later gained the name 'Hiawatha' for some unknown reason. ** I have a recollection of a 'Minehaha' version in yellow, but can find no confirmation. Did I imagine it? Should have posted earlier, but seems to have been lost in cyberspace. (Possibly something to do with taking the dogs out....)

The steeple cab seems to be based on something Swiss (don't quote me on that!), Back in the day I was going to get one and even built some catenary masts for it. This floundered on the unavailability of the wire I intended to use (and lack of the 36/- needed to purchase the locomotive). Just as well, as my flimsy masts would have fallen apart under the stress of the pantograph spring. The Dock Authorities I have (black, red and TC yellow) go like the proverbial bats out of hell....

The Atlas aren't bad for what they are - I bought a few from a local charity shop on an earlier visit to the UK, but they were only £2. The GBLs suffer from being copies of R-T-R (mainly from the last century) and some are better than others. The Tri-ang 08 and S class* saddle tank both suffered from being stretched lengthwise to fit the Jinty chassis and vertically to accomodate the spring in the clockwork versions. My brother received the diesel goods set one Xmas. I gave him the saddle tank body quite quickly.... (4/10d as a spare!). Even then I couldn't abide the horror (or diesels!), IIRC the first Tri-ang diesel was the overscale pseudo (why?) EMD F7? in 1954 followed by the shunter in 1956 and the Dock Authority effort in 1957. (This in its way is almost as bad as her larger sister and seems to be a complete flight of fancy - Trix produced a much better industrial shunter a year or two later, but this model was hampered by the steamroller flanges, which ensured it could only be used on Trix or one of the awful 'universal' tracks. It came with a shunter's truck (GWR style) which wasn't really appropriate for an industrial locomotive and suffered from the continued use of acetate. even Tri-ang had seen the error of their ways by then and switched to polystyrene. * Not claimed as such , but usually so identified - an obscure one-off, which had been scrapped several years previously (1952 IIRC).

This 'model' is so bad (even by Tri-ang standards) it should never have got past the draughtsman's drawing board. (IMHO), Hamblings already produced a better version (admittedly at rather a higher price) and the Dublo and Lima versions should've seen the end of it.

I'd check first that the axle pinpoints aren't rusted or clogged up with fluff or other crud. I assume the axle bearings are plastic which is not the best material. Brass bearing cups are far superior though rather a faff to fit. Plastic axles require replacement with metal, though the price of wheelsets today makes this an expensive proposition.

Zooming in, the serial no. appears to be 575A and the price £2/something, but it is rather indistinct and the handwriting leaves something to be desired.

The loco will go on for ever. I wouldn't be as confident about the weight,

AC doesn't do DC motors any good either.

I have tried soldering to zinc alloy in the past, but it was a complete failure. I'd use epoxy resin (preferably the proper slow curing stuff) or drill and tap for screws if there is enough metal.

The screw that holds the motor together is missing, although that is not sufficient reason for it not working. The gear meshing does not seem optimum either. I'd start by removing the motor and getting that working. Luckily, XT.60s are as indestructible as their bigger brothers the X.04 though parts are not as easy to obtain. It looks like the kit has been motorised using the Perfecta kit, which was intended for a Romford Terrier. This, though smaller, was still a tight squeeze into the boiler. The one I built aeons ago was a failure. It ran OK, but could only manage 3 Dublo wagons - about equivalent to10 wagons with pin-point bearings - and ran hot doing so. The remains are in a box somewhere.

Thousandths of an inch????? Decimals are a separate argument from Metric. You can just as easily talk about a quarter of a litre as 250 cc sorry ml. Tens are easy to divide/multiply by anyway. Try using fractions on a calculator!

For the later Hornby wheels (Dublo standards), the flange should be 0.8mm thick. This gives a check gauge of 15mm, which is correct for BRMSB standards also, (I'm ignoring finer standards as these really require finer wheels (preparing for objections!). The wheel thickness is not really critical (as long as it's not too fine), but should be of the order of 1/8". Ready-to-Lay points of sharp radius have a continuous curve through the frog and tend to have the closure rails out of line with the crossing nose which results in the flange hitting it, if the B2B is too large. I don't think I have any Hornby wheels here, but I'll check. EDIT: Rereading I realise this is rather irrelevant to the question in hand which involves Tri-ang wheels. However the later open spoke ones have rather nasty square tyres (and too many spokes - a common failing). I have replaced all mine with Hornby wheels.

I have never seen a figure for the correct back to back for Tri-ang. The wheels are however designed to be the correct value if pressed hard against the shoulders of the axles or with the wheel/axle units pressed together. Tri-ang standards are rather on the coarse side for today's set track*. Once they became Hornby, they adopted the Dublo setting of 14.2mm. (check gauge 15mm). I'll dig out a set and measure them. The problem could be the deeper flanges causing a bump as they pass through the frog? If my 3MT is anything to go by the tyres are rather square which certainly does not help. *Peco or Hornby?

I have a Lima US Mikado. A lump of lead will replace the swollen weight. I feel any attempt to make the original weight fit is doomed to failure, as the expansion will probably continue.

2.54cm is the actual definition of an inch since 1959. https://www.britannica.com/science/inch https://www.vedantu.com/physics/inch Earlier definitions in the above links are rather open to error.... Spot the arithmetical error in the second link!