Right, I had a clear out of my mum's house last summer and found my old train set.
The track is in reasonable shape, a few of the plastic sleepers are broken but the track and connectors are still good. The engine I had was a diesel deltic which was bough new in around 1983 and stored away in around 1985/6.
Where would I start to look for the prongs to track and a controller for this or do I just bin it all and start again?
I want to set something up for my son, he's 6 and getting to the interested in cars and trains stage. He also likes electronics but the Pi is just a bit beyond him at the moment.
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Ebay. I've bought quite a few N gauge bits and pieces from there over the years and never had anything duff. Model rail enthusiasts tend to look after their kit, although there will always be rogues so buyer beware.
I take it by "Prongs to track" you mean the connector from the controller? They often come with the controller (Make sure it is for 00 gauge, assuming that's what you've got) or you can get them seperately for a few quid.
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Digital is the thing now. The voltage stays on the track, and the locos get digital destructions wirelessly from the controller as to when to go, which direction, and how fast. They can also have features like lights, horns, and even leaky valve noises controlled.
The digital locos are £100+ though so maybe it would be good to establish his level of interest before taking the plunge.
If you just want to get your old stuff going then look for an old set on ebay, it will be cheap and you'll end up with a bit more track and things to put on it.
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This is probably what you want:-
tinyurl.com/owjxt5d
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That looks a bit modern spamcan.
I've just realised the one I had wasn't Hornby, a quick google shows it was Triang. I've still got the original box which had a plain red lid.
Apologies for misleading. Slinks away red faced...
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Triang and Hornby were compatible systems I'm pretty sure. They're both the same gauge and run on 12 volts.
Triang stuff is pretty rare now and it might be worth a trawl on ebay to see what it is fetching, the original box will make it very sellable. You might get enough to replace it with a good Hornby setup.
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Ted is the expert, but originally Triang was a cheaper, less well modelled range, but as others have said if its OO it will be compatible with modern DC Hornby sets.
My Flying Scotsman of slightly older vintage to the OPs engine had seized when I dug it out of the cupboard, but diesels have less moving parts so he might be lucky.
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I've got nothing to lose £3 or £4 for the power to the track and ~£10 for a controller is hardly going to break the bank.
It's more something to sit down and spend some time with my son getting it working. Kind of a stepping stone into Raspberry Pi and who knows where that may lead him.
I can't get him into bikes so electrical/electronics might be the way to go for him.
My daughter is the adrenaline junky. Every night when I get home on the bike she asks to go out. Obviously I don't hoon about with her on the back but she still needs her speed fix. We use a Safe-Grip Jr. connected to a Safe-Grip.
8 years old and goes on fairground rides that have me thinking twice. Rollercoasters I'm fine with, speed where I can see where I'm going no problem but these one armed, twister things that fling you here, there and everywhere, I'm getting old.
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I was going to suggest buying new track...it's not vastly expensive for the amount you will need. But then I thought of some old stuff I have and remember that the coarse flanges of very old stock don't like the finer scale track. German track may be even finer scale.
Rail joiners cost next to nothing in small packs of 50 or so and are fairly adaptable to different makes. I use PECO ones with their own flexi track. A couple of my 1958 Tri-ang locos run ok on this but I also have a boxed set of Tri-ang Princess Elizabeth loco and coaches which doesn't like the points....from about 1956, I think
It's a terrible model compared with the model ones of today, but that was the 50s...and it's only a toy, after all. Hornby do a range of locos specially for kids.......good enough for adults but fewer breakable bits and simpler liveries. I have a Midland Compound and it does show up against the more expensive stuff.
Is your track the stuff with the grey plastic base with moulded sleepers ? I don't think it's compatible with modern track....the rails are a lot higher. Model shops over here tend to have a metre of powered track laid somewhere behind the counter to check locos they are selling. I don't know about where you are but if they do, you could always take the Deltic for a test. Hornby do pre-curved sectional track which is not too pricey but I don't know if your Deltic will run on it.
Good luck with it..my 3 yr old Enkel is mad on Thomas...If he keeps it up I'll do him a small railway on a board with some Thomas stuff off EBay in a couple of years.
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It's a bit of a hybrid set. I remember the track you're talking about, when I was in my early teens I bought a load of new track so most of it is early to mid 80s Hornby with black molded sleepers.
I was looking in the toy shop with my son last weekend, it was all N gauge. I've forgotten the brand name.
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N gauge British stuff is probably Bachmann. Tends to tun better than OO, the motors are better quality IMHO.
Triang stuff quite collectable so it could be wirth pricing it as suggested before eager small hands damage it. Any simple 12 volt train set controller will work (I used to have one off a Lego train set that was noticeably better than the Hornby ones - just had to remove the end plugs from a Lego cable to fit them in a spring-terminal power connection track piece).
Mid 80s black sleeper Hornby track should have had "code 100" rail on it; Peco Setrack and Streamline universal are compatible, claimed to accommodate all sizes of wheel, and are made of solid nickel-silver (Hornby was coated steel) so they gave better running when I swapped to it from my hodge-podge mix of Hornby, Lima and Joeuf in my early teens. They do starter sets of track to build an oval and sidings that are handy.
My old stuff is stored away for when younger lad is old enough not to smash it all with over exuberance in the first half hour after he claps eyes on it...
Enjoy!
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I modelled N gauge in my early teens, till I went to GCR at Loughborough one day for a visit to get some inspiration for a layout; ended up selling the models and have only worked in "12 inch to the foot" scale ever since!
Out of interest, went into a rather posh toyshop a few weeks ago in Bourton-on-the-Water; was pleasantly surprised to find a lot of familiar names still being produced including Peco and Graham Farish, the latter now owned by Bachmann. Books by the great C.J. Freezer too, the chap who used to edit Railway Modeller and must have had a huge influence on boys of my generation, not to mention their parents bank balances!
I rather wish I'd kept my stuff sometimes; after our house fire a couple of years ago, we acquired a decent loft in the garage thanks to some lateral thinking by the surveyor. It would be ideal for a layout but unsurprisingly Mrs HM is of the opinion that I spend enough time in there already!
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I had O gauge really. But when I was 13 or 14 I was at school with a boy who had not Hornby-Dublo, but another system whose name I forget. Its advantage was that unlike dublo, the centre rail was positive as usual but the outer neutral rails were separate, insulated from each other, so there could be two different locos on the same track controlled separately.
I went to the guy's house to play with the train set. To my great astonishment he made a grab for my privates. Anyone else ever been groomed by a contemporary? I was embarrassed and didn't want to know. But the signs were there: Jenkins had a bosom buddy in our class - the A stream of course - called Jones, and they were always tittering together in corners and making gnomic remarks, all lost on me. His father was alleged to be in the RNVR but was never in evidence. His mother was a pampered-looking blonde as I remember. I really preferred the company of spivs like Landeryou, a proper local, and Gibson whose father had been in the Indian army as a major and lived in a council house down the hill from our gaff.
Jenkins was the other 'intellectual' in our class and very full of himself, but he wasn't as bright as he thought he was. I met him again at university but we didn't maintain the connection.
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>> I had O gauge really. But when I was 13 or 14 I was at
>> school with a boy who had not Hornby-Dublo, but another system whose name I forget.
>> Its advantage was that unlike dublo, the centre rail was positive as usual but the
>> outer neutral rails were separate, insulated from each other, so there could be two different
>> locos on the same track controlled separately.
>>
Sounds like Trix Twin guv.
www.ttrca.co.uk/
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>> Sounds like Trix Twin guv.
Yes, I think so. Thanks gmac.
I've just remembered that there was a third 'intellectual' in our class, a solicitor's son With the same name as the Marylebone Coroner, unless Marylebone got a new one when I wasn't looking. I've often wondered if it was the same cat of course.
I remember so damn many people so well. Few could compete with my numbers. I still worry about a lot of them. Pathetic really. But it's the way one is made.
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>> Thanks gmac.
Sorry spamcan and gmac. I have no idea how these things happen.
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IF I should be so lucky as to get to your age.
Interesting reading peoples memories of their sets. Thanks all for replies.
Last edited by: gmac on Sun 19 Oct 14 at 13:41
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Hornby 00 track power and controller - Robin O'Reliant
