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Cheapo train sets....get creative!


33C
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  • 3 weeks later...

I posted some more photos here but the best thing I’ve made out of the train set in a tin (or in this case a slightly different set but with the same stock) is this diesel (hope this is OK for people who’ve already seen it on the other thread):

 

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They’re roughly supposed to be representing 15” minimum gauge in 1:32 scale. I’d be interested to hear the gauges of some of these. Mine is about 12.5mm (so just wide enough to be incompatible with TT/H0m track, as I’ve discovered) and it might be nice to have something that would run on track other than the track it comes with.

 

 I do have an unusual set of this track system, with a point (with one moving part - the whole frog/rail assembly all swivels together) and the end curves moulded in one piece. I can try and photograph it later if anyone is interested - probably easier than trying to describe how it works. It was bought second hand at an exhibition so I’m not sure if it’s still in production. Edit: it is! See here: https://www.rexlondon.com/traditional-miniature-battery-operated-train-set

The point has a moving switch on one side while the other side is static to return the train to the main circuit.

 

 

Edited by 009 micro modeller
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Yes, that's the set but different box. Mine has a suppliers label on it, "Imported by P.M.S." SS9 and it's called "Western train set". I notice the rods are upside down in your set as they were in one of my TIN sets but, just take the bottom off the loco, flip the axle over and they look more realistic, especially if you paint out the extra rods.....:locomotive: 

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8 hours ago, 33C said:

I notice the rods are upside down in your set as they were in one of my TIN sets

 

If it’s the one from the start of the thread then it isn’t my photo. With the other link, I thought it might be interesting for people to see that there are points (of a sort) available for this system, even if they only work one way (the exit side has no moving parts). 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Remember this? £2 from the charity shop. Itch scratched and now it's this...(I kept the steam loco whistle and horn feature!) Changed the driven wheels for a pair of Triang tender wheels, a push fit on the axle, and the cardboard templates to get a feel for what fits and as a false floor and seats. Whole body hooks over small pegs so just pops off. Grill is an old tea strainer and the head-light is rerouted to a new housing on the bonnet and works a treat. Gauge is 00, 4mm and body scale is 0, 7mm, same as my Darjeeling class B.20201202_131127.jpg.d7bca7c580861856edd72a6fdc3aaf37.jpg20201209_043627.jpg.d31bf10a52fe509dbb0999d10addc99f.jpg20201209_043706.jpg.d6fa7fe9be23cfc22d4a76a9fdb5d4db.jpg20201209_043814.jpg.1607350b73d45fc3a3cc3af0fdba22c8.jpg20201227_215615.jpg.258f0817ed9d408b0f97821f76646206.jpg20201228_195239.jpg.c45b8e103cf197817ba918994c0870ae.jpg20201228_195256.jpg.9716805e0745f5dbd913aac56fe6f671.jpg20201228_195719.jpg.4bfaad47565f0f1aa15d970035652c12.jpg20210101_223916.jpg.b2eeeb1dc4b3bb74560c74fb641e3f5c.jpg20210111_213406.jpg.e72d79516ed313131ca60f26f0e9c9b0.jpg20210111_213426.jpg.39b448cf65d78a43028856296b0360e6.jpg20210117_130103.jpg.b05bbd64556b7398ff7d0ba2c8d58972.jpg20210117_130153.jpg.2816f37d822fbfd4b381fc9b1461b822.jpg20210117_130234.jpg.51799e6e8fcd7293eb4b14ae22d795e6.jpg20210117_130633.jpg.7769b1adbdd8fb25ea4f483e26811cfd.jpg

 

Edited by 33C
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9 hours ago, 009 micro modeller said:

 

What was its wheel arrangement originally?

BO-BO, sort of. The front bogie is unchanged, i just popped out the plastic wheels and popped in some ancient wagon wheels i had laying around. The driven "bogie?" was fixed with one driven axle and a dummy wheel set. Cut off the plastic frame and dummy wheels and pushed the Tri-ang ones onto the driven axle.

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6 minutes ago, 33C said:

BO-BO, sort of. The front bogie is unchanged, i just popped out the plastic wheels and popped in some ancient wagon wheels i had laying around. The driven "bogie?" was fixed with one driven axle and a dummy wheel set. Cut off the plastic frame and dummy wheels and pushed the Tri-ang ones onto the driven axle.

 

Did the dummy wheels rotate (unpowered) or was it really a single axle?

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Just now, 009 micro modeller said:

 

Did the dummy wheels rotate (unpowered) or was it really a single axle?

They were just part of the moulding of the bogie with a single, powered axle. :locomotive:

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  • 3 weeks later...

Here is my latest incarnation of the cheapo train set, hope you like it! Simplex, 40hp, tractor, "A" class 4 wheel wagon, "P" class 4 wheeled wagon, (assembled) and metal bodied, tip truck. 

She runs really well and with a little bit of lead under the wagon frames, they too run smoothly. Couldn't resist the last picture!

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • RMweb Gold

Inspired by this thread, I dug out a train set in a tin bought for me by my nieces a few years back, and was pleased to find that the chassis is an exact - and I mean exact - fit for the Tri-ang Nellie body, with no trimming or packing required. This one is the 1980s Hornby pushalong version of the Nellie, which handily came with plain buffer beams, and once I've added side skirts and painted the thing it should make for a nice little more or less Cape Gauge tramway engine. The cowcatcher is from a cheap plastic Wild West toy of unknown origin.

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Come to think of it, the pushalong version also lacks the coupling mounting holes of the original, so a tiny amount of trimming would be required on most Nellie bodies. I dare say that if the chassis fits a Nellie it will also fit the Tri-ang NBL and Barclay shunters, the top tank, and the international tank.

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41 minutes ago, papagolfjuliet said:

Inspired by this thread, I dug out a train set in a tin bought for me by my nieces a few years back, and was pleased to find that the chassis is an exact - and I mean exact - fit for the Tri-ang Nellie body, with no trimming or packing required. This one is the 1980s Hornby pushalong version of the Nellie, which handily came with plain buffer beams, and once I've added side skirts and painted the thing it should make for a nice little more or less Cape Gauge tramway engine. The cowcatcher is from a cheap plastic Wild West toy of unknown origin.

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This i like, where's my spares box? (your rods are upside down, just pop out the drive axle and flip it over.) :locomotive:

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I went to buy a £2.99, wind up, "Train set" (tiny loco, tender and 1 truck, circle of track, all in light blue plastic) on a peg in the toy section of my local corner shop and it's gone! Right, who got there first? 

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4 hours ago, papagolfjuliet said:

Inspired by this thread, I dug out a train set in a tin bought for me by my nieces a few years back, and was pleased to find that the chassis is an exact - and I mean exact - fit for the Tri-ang Nellie body, with no trimming or packing required. This one is the 1980s Hornby pushalong version of the Nellie, which handily came with plain buffer beams, and once I've added side skirts and painted the thing it should make for a nice little more or less Cape Gauge tramway engine. The cowcatcher is from a cheap plastic Wild West toy of unknown origin.

20210213_175825.jpg

 

I like the look of this and you seem to have got it to sit on the chassis at a sensible height which I’ve struggled with slightly with my locos based on this set. I did think of using it as a 3ft/metre gauge (slightly under for 3’ 6”) loco when I made the diesel I posted earlier (which used an American H0 body as a basis) but then I decided I wanted to carry on with the 1:32 stuff and that I could get away with more (in the sense of adding detail and making it look relatively less coarse) in a larger scale. But I might have another go at some 4mm stuff using one of these sets at some point.

 

4 hours ago, papagolfjuliet said:

Ta. The rods will be disappearing under side skirts, so I might as well leave them as they are.

 

If you’re not going to see them and don’t plan on ever reusing the chassis under anything that needs rods I would remove them. The rods don’t actually do anything useful but I found that they do have the potential to bend or spring out eventually and get caught in the mechanism or the track. The chassis is reasonably solid and dependable but the rods are a bit flimsy.

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10 hours ago, 009 micro modeller said:

 

I like the look of this and you seem to have got it to sit on the chassis at a sensible height which I’ve struggled with slightly with my locos based on this set. 

 

No skill required there. As I say, it's a perfect fit for the body and that is where it naturally comes to rest.

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I’ve posted this elsewhere already but it might be of interest and in the spirit of this thread. Bandai ZZ gauge, from 2005. Although not quite as cheap as some of the stuff we’ve seen so far it is an inexpensive battery-powered plastic train set (a watch battery in this case). It is also a very interesting footnote in model railway history; when introduced in 2005 ZZ was the smallest commercially available model railway (1:300, 4.8mm gauge). The following year T gauge was unveiled and ZZ never really took off as a serious scale. It does seem to be used occasionally by military modellers and war gamers in similar scales who want a railway in an appropriately small scale for their dioramas, but I haven’t seen much use of it for railway modelling per se.

 

I will probably be leaving this particular one as it is (but possibly building a 1:300 layout for it) although there seems to be potential to build a larger (perhaps 4mm) scale NG or miniature railway based on a ZZ set. The issue would be getting a reasonable quantity of equipment to experiment with, as they are long out of production and fairly rare in the UK.

 

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