Lone Star Diecast OOO Trains.

[Mike Trice]

Remember these? Diecast, crude, easily broken. For reasons I cannot explain I have a soft spot for these. I used to have a largish collection of them as a kid, presumably buying bits with my pocket money so lots of nostalgia.

A while back I spotted a box of track and stock at an antiques fair but baulked at the price the dealer wanted. Since then I have watched on and off for items listed on ebay.

In a moment of weakness I ended up bidding and winning a job lot thus:





As can be seen from the photos they are in quite a state. I then bought another job lot defined as scrap:


Of the original wagons one had its couplings intact but hardly any paint left (often described as playworn):


Over the years couplings have varied. This loco has a pivoted drawbar which has been through the wars:


The shunter had a simple hook to pull trains but is missing the upright part and is slightly bent out of position (another common fault):


This tender also has a bent hook at the front:


But the loop at the back is broken off:


Likewise the tender loop is broken off (well they were sold as scrap):


Since the initial purchases I have aquired a few more pieces just to get a good representation of the range. My idea was to have a go at restoring them as will be seen in the next post.

 

[Tappa]

Excellent! I have a biscuit tin full of LoneStar stuff. Also got these:

 

[Mike Trice]

I am very much two minds about the restoration of these. Should I restore them as they were with incorrect colour schemes or should I file off the casting lines and overscale livery details then paint them more realisticly. At the moment I am tending towards the former:

A common problem, certainly with the A4s is the rear of the cab roof gets bent:




For this models I wanted to attempt a restoration by stripping the body, fixing the bent parts and repainting in one of the original Lone Star colours. When stripping I did not want to damage the finish of the chassis which looked as it they have been chemiblackened rather than painted. The two rivets holding the body to the chassis were drilled out:




After a bit more drilling the two parts are separated:


Now came the big test. The bodies were stripped of paint and the bent parts carefully straightened. I got a very slight crack on one corner which I filled:


Here are the bodies after spraying with Halfords' Grey Primer:


While trying to decide how to finish the bodies (and try and aquire some matching tenders) I decided to attempt something simpler.

Remember that black 2-6-2 with the wonky coupling? The coupling looked somewhat familiar and I managed to source some solder tags around the same size:


The body and chassis were separated as before and the body stripped of paint and cleaned up. The footsteps were bent inward so I carefully straightened them but one of them suffered a stress fracture but not snapping off completely. Here the stripped body has been primed and sprayed with Halfords' Gloss Black paint:




When removing the chassis I managed to snap off the rear mounting. Oops! Having tried various soldering methods using a variety of fluxes to no avail I gave up and sought an alternative solution. Enter metal glue. Never heard of it but was surprised how strong it appears given there is very little gluing area available:


So that is as far as I have got at the moment. A lot of the models appear to have crudely painted red lining and colouring of the BR totem so I am trying to decide whether to go this route. I think plain black was produced so I probably don't need to however I am keeping my options open at the moment.

 

[ICH60]

I have a soft spot Lone Star and have box in the loft somewhere that I had collected when my grandad would come, and collect me on the Saturday morning in the early Sixties. It involved two buses for him. We went in to town ( Wolverhampton) and he would buy me a couple of things from the toy shop in the arcade. He didn't have much money as he was foundry worker. For that reason I never could bring myself the get rid of the collection.
Happy Times

 

[timbowales]

I bought my first of these in Woolworths in Christchurch, then in Hampshire, in the early sixties. Long gone to the great scrapyard in the sky.
Tim T

 

[simond]

Wow, takes me back. A cousin gave me a Treble-O-Lectric set about 60 years ago. 2 rail, rubber band drive.

Diesel outline loco, two maroon coaches

like Tim‘s, gone to the great scrapyard…

 

[Mike Trice]

I did progress on to the Treble-O-Lectric myself having the 0-8-0 American outline locomotive and yellow coaches. I might even still have them somewhere.

 

[David Waite]

Thank you for sharing this wonderful piece of nostalgia and the restoration looks great.
Di cast can be soldered I have repaired Di cast items in the past, automobile emblems ect that were badly damaged
and pitted the trick is to clean the items thoroughly (grinding with a burr to remove any corrosion) then simply copper coat (by electroplating) the Di cast then you can solder on this to your heart’s content, if chrome plating is required then you copper plate again to cover over the repaired soldered areas then nickel and chrome plating can then be applied in the usual manner with no visible sign of any repair work.
If you require to fit a new brass coupling hook for instance at the end of a chassis you only need to copper plate the area that needs to be soldered.
David.

 

[Peter Insole]

Ah yes, the Treble-O-Lectric diesel loco and maroon two coach set - and that slightly strange, continental looking, red and cream station! My pride and joy all those years ago!

I went all squiffy when I spotted "baby deltics" at Stratford, and realised that I had got one of them at home!

Consequently, I too have a bit of a soft spot... for both the tiny die-cast, and the real thing!!

Pete.

 

[Tim V]

I was given some Lone Star when I was five, played with it till I was seven when I was given a Hornby Dublo three rail set. The Lone Star was forgotten about.

Then I went to the Talyllyn, came back, fished out the Lone Star - narrow gauge adjunct to my train set! The third rail even created 'mixed gauge' track, but I was then trying to find an elusive short circuit - I'd put a Lone Star engine on the three rail!

Happy memories.

 

[Mike Trice]

In hindsight I decided that my earlier respray was too glossy so resprayed with satin black:


In the meantime I have been going through models available on ebay, not in order to buy but to make notes on the variety in the liveries and decoration. Proving very interesting.

 

[midnightmiller]

Thanks for the education , amongst my joys of youth was the American A unit (long gone now) I was ignorant of the Princess until now though .
Current nostalgia for me comes in the form of Dublo 3 rail , which seems to be like ivy on a building and takes over , any one thinking of dabbling beware !

 

[Mike Trice]

Carrying on the restoration theme one of the items in my original purchase was a playworn Jinty 3F:


This was a later version which featured a fixed loop coupling on the rear buffer beam. Unfortunately this had been snapped off. After drilling out the chassis rivets the body was removed and the remaining broken parts of the loop filed off. The body was stripped of paint.

I fabricated a new rear loop from two pieces of 1mm square brass:


These were soldered together and cleaned up:


The metal glue was used to glue the coupling to the rear of the body casting, the idea being that the chassis will still fit between the rear legs:


After spraying with the Satin Black this is what it looks like:


It was quite common for the black 3Fs to feature red lining and BR crest so I am now awaiting obtaining some red enamel to finish the restoration.

Whilst talking about the 3F the Lone Star range was introduced in 1957 and at least 3 types of coupling were featured on the model, the simple hook, the later loop (as replicated here) and finally a mini tension lock to be compatible with the Treble-O-Lectric range. Different body colours were produced being: Black, Maroon, Dark Green, Bright Green and a smokie Blue Metallic. Later models had the moulded BR Totum removed and a printed totem substituted. Black models were lined in Red and Yellow. Some references state that production continued to 1962 with others suggesting a later date, either way the range was short lived.

 

[Mike Trice]

Given that I cannot get away just spraying everything Satin Black I had an interesting visit to Halfords this morning:









The colour I picked for the dark green was not very successful. They might well have used British Racing Green originally:

 

[pdsteveo]

I to have/had a load of Lone Star trains. I have a strong feeling that a lot of it was copies or near copies of other makers OO models.

 

[Mike Trice]

Thank you for sharing this wonderful piece of nostalgia and the restoration looks great.
Di cast can be soldered I have repaired Di cast items in the past, automobile emblems ect that were badly damaged
and pitted the trick is to clean the items thoroughly (grinding with a burr to remove any corrosion) then simply copper coat (by electroplating) the Di cast then you can solder on this to your heart’s content, if chrome plating is required then you copper plate again to cover over the repaired soldered areas then nickel and chrome plating can then be applied in the usual manner with no visible sign of any repair work.
If you require to fit a new brass coupling hook for instance at the end of a chassis you only need to copper plate the area that needs to be soldered.
David.

Apologies for not replying previously. Plating makes perfect sense.

 

[Tim Watson]

Here is my Lone Star A4…

Of course these models were copied from proprietary OO models, hence the A4 with a flat top to the boiler (originally). Some of the Groves’s Jintys have Lone Star bodies. Interestingly, when we moved to St Albans our neighbour saw my 2mm scale stuff and said, “Ah, Treblo”. He was a toolmaker and made the moulds for the plastic track for DMCo.

I always lusted after the layout pictured in the leaflet - I suppose my dreams have been realised.

Tim

 

[oldravendale]

Cor! That Lone Star A4 scrubs up a treat! It does have a sort of lustre about it.

Brian

 

[Tim Watson]

Cor! That Lone Star A4 scrubs up a treat! It does have a sort of lustre about it.

Brian

It was converted in the late 90s and does have patina to it now. When I get the Coronation set made (it’s well up the list Mike!) then I may give the loco a refurb. The bell will never tarnish of course.

Tim
P.S. corrected the predictive text btw.

 

[oldravendale]

Ah... Lusted, not lustered. There is a quite significant difference.