andyman7 Posted February 7, 2014 Share Posted February 7, 2014 I finally managed to obtain a New Zealand production Princess made by Triang Pedigree. The Australian and New Zealand Princess locos are particularly fascinating, with a range of exotic variations that didn't grace our shores. As with most tooling used 'down under', it was sourced from UK factory cast-offs - in this case, the Colonies were sent the original body tool for the very first Rovex Princess - this had developed a fault in 1952 and had been replaced, but clearly the original was repairable, at least for the relatively low volumes produced overseas compared to the UK. The original tender had also been retooled in 1955 so there was complete set available to send. As with other models, the Australian Moldex factory and the NZ Pedigree facility shared the tools, making the bodies locally but using Margate-made underpinnings. Production continued sporadically until the demise of the Triang empire. The NZ example I obtained is (for me) a particularly interesting one - it may be a boring black one, but it has 'Princess' on the splasher rather than the full name, and it has full valve gear and a Synchrosmoke generator. The chassis has a nylon main drive gear as well so this is a pretty late issue - 1968 or later. When it turned up it was non-working and with a broken motion bracket. I've got quite used to repairing the motion brackets with plasticard - spares are very hard to find as it is made from polystyrene and therefore suffers from contact with mineral oils when the mechanism is (over) lubricated. Supplies of what was once presumably a penny-spare have therefore been exhausted. The rest of the troubles were down to failure of all the solder joints. Once it was sorted, and a new smoke fuse element fitted it was off! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
sandwich station Posted June 5, 2014 Share Posted June 5, 2014 I have one of these. Although I live in Melbourne now, I bought it off of Ebay when I lived in the UK in the early 2000's As a collector of Triang Princesses, what attracted it to me in the beginning was the word Princess on the splasher, knowing this to be a colonial example. I didn't pay very much for it either. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
andyman7 Posted June 5, 2014 Author Share Posted June 5, 2014 I'm after an Aussie example to complement it. Any tips, leads etc welcomed ! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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