First of all a quick update on the new vs old Peco code 100 points. This photo should illustrate that the crossing gap is narrower, around 15thou if I've managed to measure correctly.
Most of my modelmaking time has been taken up with scratchbuilding a signal box for Northern Town, more on this later on. As light relief I've also been spending time tarting up some more vintage products. On Wednesday I picked up an old Triang NER coke wagon for a couple of quid and set about seeing what I could make of it.
The body parted from the chassis easily enough.
You'll see that the lettering came off easily with some light abrasion. Looking at the few photos I could find of the real thing it appears as though the brakes were operated by levers on the ends and only worked on the outer sides of the wheels, very different to the Triang chassis. Undeterred I set about seeing what I could do to the Triang under-bits.
I think we can all agree that the answer is, not a lot. There are still ugly scars round the springs and I'd have to fillin the front face of the solbar to turn it from channel steel to solid wood. Time for a rethink. Whilst rummaging to see if I had anything suitable I came across a set of antique Trackmaster and early Triang opens given to me by a late friend. One of the wagon bodies had become parted from its chassis. I thought it had promise. The chassis comes in two halves pushed together, trapping wheels and axles.
After a couple of minutes with piercing saw and files.
On the rear face I gently recessed the axleguard rear face so that the brass pinpoint bearings would lie flush.
The body went to the paint shop for a quick blast of Halfords grey primer, while the bearings were fixed into the axleboxes with a dab of Bostik. On putting all together everything fitted perfectly, the stubs on the chassis halves locating in the holes in the wagon floor and the new Hornby wheels held in place and free to rotate in their bearings.
The gap you'll have noticed in the headstocks is there I believe to hold the original style of Trackmaster/Triang coupling. Though not at all finescale (I seem to be saying this lots these days) I'm very pleased with how it's all shaping up. One unforseen bonus of using these old chassis components is that the buffers end up at the right height, not the normal Triang Hornby 2mm too high.
Further reading/info on the Trackmaster/Triang early wagons here.
