Many years ago I had a small collection of SM32/16mm stock, mainly Saltford Models locos, a few waggons from the same stable as well as a few Binnie skips. All that I still have in storage in my mother's loft. One loco I never owned was a Tri-ang Big-Big Ruston. That is, until now.
I picked this one up from a stand at the Bakewell exhibition, for a quite reasonable £20;
It's actually a good representation of a Ruston LHT if you can ignore the lack of a jackshaft, the underlength body and the un-prototypical sloping cab front.
The condition is pretty good for such an old loco, these were basically toys designed for rough handling.
The switch on the right hand side is for forward and reverse, and is designed to be activated by a lineside post. On the other side there's an on/off switch, which again can be activated by a post.
The body clips on at the rear and is held in place with the lever above the front bufferbeam. On mine the rear clips are broken, as is the part of the bonnet that the lever slides into. Not a big deal to be honest, and to be expected.
The battery contacts are tarnished, and in one place green with corrosion. I'm hoping that this will respond to some careful cleaning.
I rigged up the contacts to my mint tin controller fitted with crocodile clips and, with a wall wart set to 3 volts, gave the loco a test run on the table. It runs rather well!
I do like the paint on the lights;
My plans for this are simple, just a strip down and clean up leaving it pretty much as I bought it. I may however fit a battery box for a couple of AAs, I don't have a garden railway and therefore I don't need either speed or power.
There's an article in issue 100 of Narrow Gauge & Industrial Modelling Review about this model and the tipper waggons that accompanied it.
Paul.
The broken bonnets on these are usually down to the change in C batteries, they are bigger than they used to be. I always thought the chassis, minus the rest of the underframe moulding , would make the basis on a nice little loco.
ReplyDeleteThe damage on mine is slight, nothing that I can't live with. I'm not going to bother trying C cells, a couple of AAs should suffice.
DeleteThese, and the steam loco on the same chassis, were the basis of a lot of conversions back in the day, there was at least one article in Model Railways in the 80s on the subject.
We have a FB group dedicated to them
DeleteThe only one I can find has all of 3 posts...
Deletehttps://www.facebook.com/groups/443275192423309
Delete'This content isn't available at the moment'.
DeleteI took my Green End to the Milton Keynes show on Saturday and they had a huge display of Big Big Trains on the 'stage'. Made me smile as my first trainset was the Hymek and two Mk2? coaches plus a circle of the bright red plastic track. I used to enjoy flicking the switch on the side to change the direction. Unfortunately they wouldn't let me do that on Saturday!
ReplyDeleteOne thing they had, which I hadn't seen before, was a steam outline Ruston, with chimney etc, as you get on the more toy-like 2ft lines. Looked all plastic, but don't know if it was a conversion or a real product.
Hope all is well Paul.
I have a vague memory of a Big-Big Hymek and coaches at a playschool in Ampthill.
DeleteI did know about the steam outline thing, there was an article on bashing the things (when they were available new and branded Novo) in Model Railways back in the 80s using the steam outline loco as a basis.
I thought Green End was retired!
It is now, Milton Keynes was the last straw!
ReplyDeleteYes, I saw the post on f/b. A shame, but, also an opportunity to start over.
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