Old Triang Jinty

Ok guys here's my latest addition to my OO gauge collection, a Triang (old Hornby) model of a 'Jinty' tank engine. These were and still are a very popular model, fairly simple of design, but really good runners and incredibly hardy/reliable.

However this one is a real gem, it is modelled in LMS red which was before British Rail came into existence. Despite its age it is absolutely immaculate, perfect transfers/printing, no damage and it is even fitted with a smoke generator.

The thing most difficult to believe though is the age, it comes in its original box complete with all the packaging, the instruction sheets, even a glass funnel for filling the smoke generator. I'm not sure of the exact age, but it has the original price written on the end of the box, which is 65/- which is old English short hand for 65 shillings or in modern money £3 and 25p. The fact it has both marked probably puts it around 1970 as decimalisation came into being on 15 February 1971 and this one being marked with both prices probably means it was on sale just before and through the transition. So this makes the loco around 50 years old

[Super]

Thats cool and so vintage too. Nice that it is equipped for its own smoke. The rivets on the smoke box look great but I don't see any others and there is no headlight. Is this true to the real ones and only ran in the daylight hours?

Nigels, have you thought of getting some train display shelves that can mount to a wall or a stand alone? One that would have clear acrylic on the front to keep out the dust? You have so many beautiful engines that its a pity they are all stuck and stacked in there boxes.

Nigel’s, that’s an awesome little engine! The Jinty is among one of my favorite British steam locomotives.

I know what you mean OTR it is one of the all time classics and probably the first model loco that many a child had through the 50's to 90's when it changed to a cheaper to manufacture model.

They are also quite cool real life loco's too

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Thats cool and so vintage too. Nice that it is equipped for its own smoke. The rivets on the smoke box look great but I don't see any others and there is no headlight. Is this true to the real ones and only ran in the daylight hours?

Nigels, have you thought of getting some train display shelves that can mount to a wall or a stand alone? One that would have clear acrylic on the front to keep out the dust? You have so many beautiful engines that its a pity they are all stuck and stacked in there boxes.

You pretty much summed the model up there for me Super, its a bit of a mystery to me while these days models (at least OO in the UK) are made without smoke generators. Back in the day this was made it was quite a common thing to buy them with manufacturer's fitted smoke units. I don't know if they are not fitted as standard now for cost reasons (although I can't see they would be that expensive in bulk) or probably more likely health and safety reasons - in case little Johnny drinks the smoke oil or something!!

As for headlights, unlike the USA virtually no UK outline steam trains had headlights or tail lights, instead they had the portable little lamps like you see sometimes modelled on Thomas etc... These were not so much to allow the driver to see where he was going, but to allow signal boxes, other loco's to see the loco coming. It was only really with the introduction of Electric and Diesel trains that they started fitting headlights to the UK trains

The idea of display cases is one I've considered, I do already have a couple of standalone glass display cabinets, but they are generally used to display dragons, wizards and similar collectibles, but maybe I could do a rota system

[Ucwepn]

Very nice, I have 3 in BR black and 2 of the different shell saddle tank (same chassis though)

Yeah, black send to be the default colour, you see them for sale all the time, Lms red though send to be quite unusual in comparison.

Those chassis though are so well made I would say they are probably all but bullet proof, even the cos and worm gears are made of brass!

Don't make them like that very often these days and definitely not on an entry-level model....

[Ucwepn]

yeah the only things that wear out is the brushes, they are easy to get running like new by lubicating them and cleaning the comutator

Yeah the older triang designs were great for maintenance, most of the older motors you could either replace the brushes or even the armature if needed. Ironically more eco friendly than the plastic throw aways we have these days :-)