Model Railway Forum

Evening all,

Some of you may recall my post (a while ago) showing you the damage caused to my locos and rolling stock by my ex-girlfriend when we separated.

I have finally found the time (and courage) to head back in to the loft to have a good look at everything to see what, if anything, can be salvaged. I'm more optimistic than I was 6 months ago as it seems most of the damage is to the wheels - I suspect she took hold of my dremel and cut them all.

So, I have a bit of a shopping list... Wheel sets for my Flying Scotsman, Tornado, Class 08, J94s, Fowler 4P, Britannia Class (Dornoch Firth), Class 37 and another A3. I also need the plastic side wheel covers for my Class 221 Virgin Super Voyager. Additional to all that, I am in need of various couplers and buffer replacements - Mainly for my Hornby Pullman Coaches (Illuminated).

Is eBay the best place to check or should I be looking at certain websites? I am hoping to get all the locos and rolling stock serviceable over the next few months so I can spend the back half of the year back up the loft working on the track etc.

Many thanks.

Scott.

I suggest you check out the spares on the Hornby web site and contact Bachmann, they are pretty good for spares. As you haven’t said what make you locos are apart from the pullmans that is the best I can do. Ebay is an obvious choice as is Peters Spares. I wouldn’t hold out much hope though.

Take a look at Peters Spares and if you are on Ebay, try there. Sometimes Elains Trains has the odd useful item, especially spare tenders for some reason!

Thanks for the info, I shall have a look at Pete's Spares.

I've done a bit of a scout around eBay and the wheels seem to be relatively easy to source - the connecting rods not so...

Most of my locos are Hornby, with a few Bachmann. I did have more Bachmann ones but as the she-devil completely split those ones in half, I think trying to repair them would be about as useful as farting in a wind tunnel.

New Railway Modellers shop.

The method I use if you can determine the part number from a service sheet is to google the makers name followed by the part number which will normally pop up several dealers who may have spares in addition to the more obvious sources...e.g Hornby X9096. You often get hits but find there is no stock unfortunately.

A pity the big UK names do not have the same spares support seen as some of the Continental brands.

Thanks all for your replies. I'm making some progress but other parts are harder to source - particularly a new Fowler body shell and the lower body/chassis and cab for the J94's.

I thought i'd show you some pics of the task i'm up against...

You certainly have a major task to repair the damage.

I would consider rationalising (making smaller) the collection and concentrating on the ones where it is possible to obtain spares. The bodies on some of them look ok (maybe it's the photos and they are damaged) so you may be able to sell (for a fraction of the cost in time and money they originally cost) to help fund new or second hand replacements.

I was thinking. If you can't get parts for bogie sides and bodies etc, if you have examples of complete items you can make a casting from the good one to use for the damaged one.
I have done this for my 0-16.5 creations in the past if I want duplicates of parts. The castings are ok as long as one does not require too much of a close eye on the tiny details. The resin does replicate fine details, but I tend to cast in playdough so I don't have to keep making specific moulds. The moulds are better for multiple piece castings, while playdough is better if one only wants a single item or just two or three. One of these days I will get myself some more resin and start casting again!

Con rods can be handmade but they are not easy to match todays scale models. Earlier models that had thicker con rods are easier. I have made con rods from model railway rails.

I thought I would give some ideas if all other ideas have been exhausted.

Regarding some locos. The class 08's. It may be the best option to make one good loco from the two, and the same goes for the pair of J94 saddle tanks. The Virgin loco. If you don't find the bogie frames would the resin casting method be an option. As long as you have a good bogie frame to copy.

AC Models have a lot of Hornby spares and IME usually far cheaper than Peters Models.
https://www.acmodelsspares.co.uk/