I decieded this weekend would be a good time to restore a Tenmille Talyllyn Guards/Luggage/Ticket van I built as a kit in the 1980s. It came from a vendor with the clever name of "Rail Britannia", who sold Tenmille kits in the USA in the 1980s.
The one thing that I never quite liked about the car was the wheels. While they were a nice split-spoke design, at 30mm diamater, the car towered over the Mamod stock.
Plus, the funky mounting was not that hot. For a while, it rode on a pair of old USA made Athearn O gauge bogies, and the frame styrene overlays were left off.When I first got the car (I think I was 14 or so at the time) I decided to brush paint its plastic sides (mistake) in chocolate and creme, ala GWR. When I got around to actually building the kit later it got painted with Testors enamel spray matte grey. Also unfortunately, I used Goodyear Plio-bond (my father swore by it for all his railway kits) which distorted the vacuum formed sides.
Well, after some thought and deciding that I would rather use some Brandbright axleboxes and Heywood wheels on an IP passenger carriage kit I just purchased, I decided to use the IP axleboxes and 24mm wheels on the Talyllyn van.
I am also using some 5/16" square wood for the solebars (the originals were about 1/2" tall plus spaced too far out) and then with the IP boxes and wheels, the dual Talyllyn buffers meet just the right height for the Mamod buffers. Yes, wrong height by 16mm NGM standards, but Rule 8 applies here in the Colonies!
I have some photos to upload, but gluing the solebars in place, fixing some minor body damage (the plastic is brittle with age) and adding the axleboxes remain to be done. Then to re-do the running boards, clean 25+ years of dirt and "yuck" off of the car and repaint the car a nice medium military green Testors paint (not my favorite, but it will do). Last will be cleaning up the roof, replacing the rain strips that used to be on the roof and regluing it to the car.
Will the car be perfect? No, it will be a 5' model at best, but it is just too old and has been around too long to just trash it.
Stay tuned!
