Upgrading an ancient Hornby dock authority.

[Harrogate009]

I found this little one lurking at the back of my draw the other day and thought it would be nice to see a new lease of life into it. It was excellent timing for it to appear as I am planning on a dockyard shunting area - Somewhere for the little loco's.

 

Here is how I upgraded it.

 

 

 

Using a spares fence kit knocking a round I made up a new front grill.

 

 

A hole was then cut and filed out in the front to accompany the new grill.

 

 

I then glued in the grill using ordinary UHU glue.

 

 

I then filed out the footsteps to give a more finescale appearance.

 

I then removed to old buffers and fashioned some new ones by filing down some pins and modifying with some plasticard.

 

 

I then filed off the moulded handrails

 

 

Then I gave several coats of thinned humbrol matt black which I sprayed on using my airbrush.

 

 

Windows were then fashioned from a old box of unpainted figures. The driver leaning out is a modified version of one of these unpainted figures!

 

A lamp was attached and several other details.

 

A British railways late emblem was then added. I have not fitted a number. This was from a HMRS BR loco + coach transfer sheet.

 

The body was then weathered with humbrol powders, my preferred method of weathering.

 

Next the original motor was completely stripped down and removed and the wheels pulled apart slightly so it runs freely over the points on my current layout (for which it will operate as a piloting loco, until the dockside layout is built)

 

 

Then the axle with the worm gears was rebuilt but part of the original motor cut off and a new gear fitted on to connect to the motor. The gear system is quite a slow one and for every 1 turn of the wheels there is 37 revolutions of the motor.

 

 

A plasticard mounting for the motor was then made and added before mounting the motor into place (This image is of the test mounting the actual one has a much cleaner finish.

 

 

The chassis was then weathered and fitted to the body.

 

 

The finished model. I am pleased with the overall effect but I tone down the weathering a little Am I am yet to put back the little lamp at the front! The last image of of the locomotive on my test layout "Wharf-draughtston" which i use for testing out new methods for scenery + electrical etc. And for testing rolling stock I've done work on and letting new locomotives 'wear in'.

 

I hope this is of some interest ! (And I know my modelling capabilities are not the best but this is my first locomotive upgrade!)(Apologies for poor quality pictures!)

 

Thanks, J.

Edited January 19, 2014 by Harrogate009

[Moxy]

Then the axle with the worm gears was rebuilt but part of the original motor cut off and a new gear fitted on to connect to the motor. The gear system is quite a slow one and for every 1 turn of the wheels there is 37 revolutions of the motor.

 

 

I hope this is of some interest ! (And I know my modelling capabilities are not the best but this is my first locomotive upgrade!)(Apologies for poor quality pictures!)

 

Thanks, J.

 

That is definitely of interest, that's an inspired upgrade of a Triang loco!  You've mentioned adding an extra set of gears, may I ask where did you get them?  And could we have a picture of the chassis showing the new gears please?

 

thanks in advance

 

Paul

Edited January 19, 2014 by Moxy

['CHARD]

Don't be so harsh on yourself!  I reckon the weathering makes a lightweight loco really have a sense of heavy metal about it.  

 

Good, and useful project.  Thanks for sharing 

[Harrogate009]

Of course you can have some more pictures

 

I acquired the gears from a childs motorised 'spiramouse' which was being thrown out so i saved the motor and gears.

 

 

The motor used is a oldish one from a spare Hornby 0-4-0 'smokey joe' chassis I had lying around.

 

 

Edited January 19, 2014 by Harrogate009

[BernardTPM]

Interesting upgrade of the old Tri-ang Bagnall!

[PaulRhB]

Nice to see one getting upgraded for better running. I had one of these years ago but the bonnet melted a bit when the bulb got displaced. I had a look on evilbay and there's an optimist asking 125 for a red one and 110 for a black one! I seem to remember the wheels needed cleaning regularly to get reasonable running.

[daveyg]

my three, (red,black and yellow) all run fine on my modern Hornby set track. agreed the wheels do seem to need cleaning regularly. I have seen the ones on E Bay, I do think that some vendors do try their luck. I have never spent more than £15 on one. The yellow one is suppose to be the rarer one as it was only sold as part of a set. There was also a purpose built snowplough for it but they are like hen's teath. good build BTW

Edited January 19, 2014 by daveyg

[Ian Smeeton]

I seem to remember my Dock shunter being fitted with two speeds.

 

Stop & Mach 3.

 

Curves were not negotiated, they were left at a tangent.

 

The only thing faster was the B*** P***m*** without its trailing load.

 

Regards

 

Ian

[hayfield]

Of course you can have some more pictures

 

I acquired the gears from a childs motorised 'spiramouse' which was being thrown out so i saved the motor and gears.

 

Picture 054.jpg

Picture 055.jpg

Picture 056.jpg

Picture 057.jpg

 

The motor used is a oldish one from a spare Hornby 0-4-0 'smokey joe' chassis I had lying around.

 

 

Looks very ingenious way of getting a better running chassis. 

[JDW]

Coincidentally, I just bought one of these cheaply, with the idea of repainting it and updating it to represent something a bit more modern-looking, with wasp stripes, modern lights, etc., and was considering replacing the motor with something like a Black Beetle.  But when I cleaned the wheels and tested it, despite the motor being covered in dried-up grease and years worth of other dirt, it ran surprisingly well, so much so that I don't think I'll replace it at all, I imagine when cleaned it will run very well!

 

Incidentally, flush glazing is available (easily found on that [in]famous auction website), as are replacement decal sheets, which includes cab interiors and wasp stripes,

Edited February 3, 2014 by JDW

[Satan's Goldfish]

Drawing pins for buffers, genius! I may have to try that on mine.

[Dagworth]

If anyone ever comes across any in these colours please let me know...

 

 

 

Andi

Edited January 24, 2014 by Dagworth

['CHARD]

Good Lord!

 

[JDW]

Drawing pins for buffers, genius! I may have to try that on mine.

 

Agreed!  Wish I'd read that a week earlier!

[DCB]

Interesting motor trsnsplant, I guess you could not get the second worm back on?     With a bit of work the K's  5 pole  armature will fit trimming to length is critical however as the Dock shunter has ball bearings at the spindle ends and the commutator has to be exactly the right distance from the shaft end.  Singe start (Triang TT) worms are a good idea as are some scale wheels, although, if you file the flanges down and keepthe knurled wheels, and fit one singloe start worm and one two start worm you have an instant track grinding/ track cleaning, plastic frog destroying machine as the one axle tries to go twice as fast as the other!

[Harrogate009]

Interesting motor trsnsplant, I guess you could not get the second worm back on?    

Actually in that picture I only had one of the worm gears onto test if it still ran smoothly after altering the chassis just in case. Both worm gears are on the shaft now and both wheels run smoothly

 

J.

[NERBOB]

Fabulous conversion! I'm struggling at the moment with putting DCC in mine. NOT an easy job, connection-wise, and I just can't figure it out. Everything is insulated (works fine on dc with a blanking plug in the 8pin socket - from the "spares box"), but all is not well somewhere along the line.

Have posted in DCC thread, but no joy of a successful conversion reply. Yet.

If anyone has an idea, would be pleased to hear from you. Ta, Rob

[NERBOB]

Fabulous conversion! I'm struggling at the moment with putting DCC in mine. NOT an easy job, connection-wise, and I just can't figure it out. Everything is insulated (works fine on dc with a blanking plug in the 8pin socket - from the "spares box"), but all is not well somewhere along the line.

Have posted in DCC thread, but no joy of a successful conversion reply. Yet.

If anyone has an idea, would be pleased to hear from you. Ta, Rob

All,

Have now successfully converted this to DCC. Now on with the bodywork, flush glazing and cab detail.

Working a treat and very smooth on code 100 and Peco pointwork.

A sound decoder might be next, but which one? probably a Class 03/04 or Class 08 would do, maybe...........

Best wishes,

Robert

[Catweasel]

Brilliant job on it. I've smoothed off the side frames on mine so as make something more loco like instead of the original bogie. Not sure yet as to what exactly I'll do. Wheels are a pain. I don't know what I'll fit (if indeed I do change them). Just don't mention Ultrascale. 

[Harrogate009]

Thanks for all the kinds comments all 

 

J.

[JDW]

A while ago, I commented in this thread that I was playing around with one of these little shunters too, so I hope no-one will mind me posting a couple of pictures of my progress so far here - it still needs some numbers and a few other details adding, to bring the dark blue to life a little.  I removed the extended 'platform' from the cab end, I think that makes it look much neater, and added a high-intensity headlight to the cab.  The colour choice was just a Halfords aerosol I happened to have to hand, but I quite like it. 

With this, a couple of Hornby Sentinals, and the Knightwing shunter I've just bought, I'm thinking a small depot diorama might be needed, something like a corner of the old RFS works at Kilnhurst...

[hayfield]

Nicely finished, well worth adding

[Harrogate009]

Lovely work there JDW, excellent paint finish too. May I ask, where or what are the buffers from?

 

J.

[JDW]

Thank you for the kind comments, the buffers are a bit of a mix in fact - I had initially ordered a set of large industrial brass buffers, 24" ones I think, but they looked too small, and around the same time I saw your post about using drawing pins.  Combine that with managing to damage one of the buffer shanks as I tried to assemble the spring mechanism, and I ended up using the parts supplied with the brass buffers mounted onto the buffer beam, into which I fitted a length of plastic rod (the silver part in the pictures) to hold a shortened drawing pin. 

 

If I hadn't already painted it, I think I'd be tempted to remove or at least reduce the lip over the cab windows too - and looking at the pics, it needs a cab floor to hide the wires.

[BernardTPM]

While below the footplate the Tri-ang 'model' is a work of fiction, the bodywork is a fair representation of a late 1950s Bagnall, similar to the one here.