Regulars will know my penchant for old kits and other items of vintage. This is the latest. There had been some discussion on signal boxes for Rhiw 2 and the modern timber clad structures such as Radyr were mooted.
While looking for photos for something else, this pinged up: Tri-ang but Hornby boxed and 40+ years old - what Kent used to produce before variants. Footprint wise it closely matches Mr. Hill's initial sizing, but is to my eye a wee bit short. This is not a problem as it could be jacked up easily enough. I've never seen one of these detailed up, though the mouldings are crisp and better than a lot of the resin things that they push out now.
The problem will be separating the two parts which are pretty tightly welded together. I'm thinking multiple light passes with a very sharp knife and a waggle. The brickwork would be treated as normal and closely matches the Slaters for size, but is plain bond. There looks to be a false floor on the red bit so an interior could be built up on this. The steps at the rear need a tubular handrail or similar. Even if it doesn't work I'll have succeeded in winding up all the collectors by chopping up a mint boxed vintage model.
This via James F. and Phil's blog from 2014:
Doesn't someone do a decent kit of this now?
ReplyDeleteI've opened several plastic-welded transformer casings cleanly by multiple taps along the join with a light hammer, following demos on Youtube. Hesitated in saying this in case you tried it and subsequently didn't speak to me again.
ReplyDeleteI remember having one of these with my first train set items as a child and later on realising that it's actually quite a nice model when I saw examples of the real thing...Lydney and Bedford St. John's spring to mind.
ReplyDeleteI did try to get the top off mine, probably to put in a signalman figure. I think the cream coloured part was less brittle than the brick red locking room, certainly I recall removing little bits of broken brick from the area where the two parts joined!
I definitely broke the roof on mine, but looking at that picture again, perhaps it was authentic.
DeleteBRM May 2015 is the one you want. Some top bloke ruined the collectability of just such a signal box: https://philsworkbench.blogspot.com/2015/04/saving-2nd-hand-models-in-brm.html
ReplyDeleteIt it one of the less well-known but useful old models. I'm sure if it appeared in MRJ, the finescale crowd would be all over it...