OO 274, Kitchener Train Show March 2024

[@tomellis4750]

Always wise to buy Hornby Dublo. The N2 chassis seems a bargain, in Canada, at $5 Received a box today from the HRCA auction. Ten, mostly pristine, tank wagons, uber cute, four road engine shed, plastic island platform, breakdown crane with packing van and jacks, two metal unknown make girder bridges, Crescent 3 arm signal, and a French Hornby prairie tank. Went to put the later on my 3 rail track, only to notice it's 2 rail. Ah. Are you in the HRCA? Play nicely.

[@kleedhamhobby]

I'm not a member of the HRCA. I thought it was more a club for folks in the UK. Would there still be benefits for me, given that I am in Canada? I've also never really considered myself a 'collector' as such - I just like playing with models, and enjoy exploring the history of things.

[@tomellis4750]

It is about collecting, debates about when the railer box changed from dark to light blue. Of no interest to me, nor you by the sound of it. However, for £20 a year as electronic member, you would get 10 magazines. These are well produced, but of little interest to runners, apart from the odd workshop article, layout suggestions. Membership would give you access to back numbers. There's a comprehensive spares directory with parts for, often , quite reasonable prices. And there are three auctions a year.I listed some items I bought. Without the Praire it came to £150, with 10& seller's fee, post and packing to UK. £70 of that was for ten pristine tank wagons. The most expensive thing in the auction was a rare loco for £805. Tinplate bogie coaches, unboxed but decent condition go for less than £5 each, likewise wagons can be had for £3/4 which would, I feel, suit you very well. Unboxed, not the best condition, but perfect for running, go cheaply, cheaper than Ebay. There are members all over the world. Don't know if auction items are posted to Canada. It might be worth finding out. You could have a look at the HRCA website. As I'm near Inverness, I don't attend any events, they're all down South. Don't appeal to me anyway. You may easily recover a £20 punt at membership. Go well. Tom@@kleedhamhobby

[@Hacksworth_Sidings]

I’ve had decent success with Trix wagons on Triang track, no need for rewheeling the wagons to run on Triang track, so they should take Dublo just fine, it’s only really the locos which have issues, I’m actually in the process of rebuilding a few Trix 0-4-0s on modified Triang chassis’s, just need to figure out how to mount the body on the chassis..

[@kleedhamhobby]

I don't use any Tri-ang track, just Dublo 3-rail, and Hornby, PECO and Bachmann modern 2-rail. Some of the older Trix stock will definitely not run round my Dublo 3-rail layout - regular straight and curved sections are ok, but the older Trix wheels can't get over the Dublo points. Examples would be the Trix crane set I worked on in Part 190 and the Trix LMS coaches I worked on in Part 239 - as demonstrated in those videos, those Trix items derailed basically whenever they hit a Dublo point, and it was only by changing the wheels that I was able to get them to run.

[@Hacksworth_Sidings]

@@kleedhamhobby I don’t have much experience with Trix stuff myself, I’m just going off what I’ve had with mine, the TTR LMS carriages and the tenders for the 0-4-0s namely, those all took Triang series 3 track rather well, and since, from what I’ve seen at least, Triang stock runs well on Dublo track without rewheeling, I assumed the same logic would apply to the TTR stock, you definitely know more on the topic though, so I shan’t argue

[@kleedhamhobby]

@@Hacksworth_Sidings I believe you're correct that Tri-ang stock will run fine on Dublo 3-rail track... I haven't tried very many Tri-ang items, but I've never had a problem with what I have tried (though I have had problems with some older Tri-ang stuff on modern track points). The Dublo points require fairly critical geometry from the wheels to be safe. Really I haven't had major problems with anything British from about the 1950s on. But the earlier Trix stuff is problematic. The wheels on the earlier Trix wagons are often just single plastic castings for both wheels and the axle, so you can't even re-gauge them. On the other hand, I have bought Trix wagons that came with metal axles and re-gaugeable wheels (and those generally have more modern type wheels, with smaller flanges).

[@kleedhamhobby]

Well, it turned out that your prediction was correct, at least in respect to the Trix wagons that I have acquired recently. It turned out that all of them (quite a few) ran without derailing on my Dublo 3-rail track. I should be putting up a video on that in the next day or two. Some caution is required, though, when buying Trix stock for use on Dublo track, as I have had items in the past that needed re-wheeling to get over Dublo points (e.g. small crane set, short LMS coaches).