Childhood layout photo discovered

[Noel]

Found this old photo of my childhood layout when I was about 12 or 13 many moons ago. I still have some of the rolling stock and buildings. I vividly remember mixing plaster to form terrain over scrunched up newspaper balls. No idea what the CIE shunter was. Most of the LLPs also survived and have walked the platforms of Kingsbridge. This was in the attic of my dads house.

 

 

[Dhu Varren]

The shunter looks like the old Triang/Hornby 4 wheel Dock Authority shunter, with added white bits to represent CIE livery.

[Tarabuses]

Plenty of Airfix kits there.

[Noel]

7 hours ago, Tarabuses said:

Plenty of Airfix kits there.

Yes Dapol now own the tooling and sell many of the same railway series kits as those famous ones from the 1970s

[jhb171achill]

Is that a Wrenn tank engine on the passenger train?

I had one of those - big solid things. Wish I still had it.

Out of idle curiosity, if anyone else had one of those (4MT, I think the number was 80054), did you find that if you ran it chimney first, the 4-wheel bogie just wouldn’t stay on the track - it kept derailing? I always had to run mine bunker-first.

Also, would it be possible in this day and age to DCC-chip a thing like that?

[Noel]

On 2/7/2020 at 11:43 PM, jhb171achill said:

Is that a Wrenn tank engine on the passenger train?

I had one of those - big solid things. Wish I still had it.

Out of idle curiosity, if anyone else had one of those (4MT, I think the number was 80054), did you find that if you ran it chimney first, the 4-wheel bogie just wouldn’t stay on the track - it kept derailing? I always had to run mine bunker-first.

Also, would it be possible in this day and age to DCC-chip a thing like that?

Yes that's an old Tri-ang MT with the hideous old X04 motors that started locos moving at 25mph, DCC might actually improve the crude motors performance due pulsed current and BEMF. There was certainly enough space inside those yokes to fit a decoder, but my memory is they were a horrible runner.

[jhb171achill]

What I found was that you had to run them bunker first. Chimney first meant the trailing bogie lifted and derailed. 

I thought it was just mine, in teenage innocence, but a school friend (who contacted me via Facebook two weeks ago, completely out of the blue, hadn’t seen or heard of him in 46 years!) had the same problem with the same engine.

I tried putting a small weight on it, but with limited space it didn’t make much difference. 

Did anyone else have issues with these locos?

Apart from that I found it ok to operate.

[Noel]

3 minutes ago, jhb171achill said:

What I found was that you had to run them bunker first. Chimney first meant the trailing bogie lifted and derailed. 

I thought it was just mine, in teenage innocence, but a school friend (who contacted me via Facebook two weeks ago, completely out of the blue, hadn’t seen or heard of him in 46 years!) had the same problem with the same engine.

I tried putting a small weight on it, but with limited space it didn’t make much difference. 

Did anyone else have issues with these locos?

Apart from that I found it ok to operate.

That rings a bell alright. Tempted now to fish it out of the attic and give it a run on DC.

Edited June 13, 2020 by Noel

[David Holman]

I had one and converted it to EM gauge. Ran without any problems, so guess I got lucky! Also used a Crown line detailing kit. Replacing the chimney was a nightmare as at the time didn't have the tools to cut through the cast Mazak body, which was unbelievably tough.

 The little diesel is indeed the Triang/Hornby 'Diesel Dock Shunter'. My one was a fearsome thing with a top speed of Warp 9 and sounded like an angry hornet. Had a working light though and would pull five coaches, which was more than my Princess Royal ever could! Strange, knurled wheels too.

[Dhu Varren]

On 2/7/2020 at 11:43 PM, jhb171achill said:

Is that a Wrenn tank engine on the passenger train?

I had one of those - big solid things. Wish I still had it.

Out of idle curiosity, if anyone else had one of those (4MT, I think the number was 80054), did you find that if you ran it chimney first, the 4-wheel bogie just wouldn’t stay on the track - it kept derailing? I always had to run mine bunker-first.

Also, would it be possible in this day and age to DCC-chip a thing like that?

 

On 6/13/2020 at 1:55 PM, Noel said:

Yes that's an old Tri-ang MT with the hideous old X04 motors that started locos moving at 25mph, DCC might actually improve the crude motors performance due pulsed current and BEMF. There was certainly enough space inside those yokes to fit a decoder, but my memory is they were a horrible runner.

I think that JHB and Noel are talking at cross purposes here. I believe that JHB is talking about the Wrenn 2-6-4 tank locomotive, whereas Noel is talking about the Tri-Ang 2-6-2 tank locomotive.

The Wrenn 2-6-4T had a tendency for the rear bogie to lift whilst under load. If I remember correctly, I think this was due to the tension lock coupling, being a retrofit to the ex Hornby Dublo bogie, being mounted a little lower than the standard tension lock fitted to Tri-Ang Hornby stock. The original Hornby Dublo version with it's buckeye coupling did not seem to suffer with this problem.

It is possible to fit a DCC Chip to a Wrenn locomotive, I fitted one to a Wrenn Duchess a while ago for a friend, but it requires a bit of surgery. The problem is that one of the motor brushes in Wrenn and Hornby Dublo locos is mounted directly in the diecast chassis, and needs to be insulated. This requires the brass brush sleeve to be removed, the hole enlarged and the brass sleeve refitted with an insulating sleeve.  

[jhb171achill]

Yes, folks, I was referring to the Wrenn 2.6.4T.

Apologies for any confusion....

[WRENNEIRE]

I used a small piece of upholsters foam between the body and the bogie. just kept enough pressure to stop the bogie derailing