Wab from a Triang Baltic. . .
or, How a Princess can be a Wab.

Oh dear, another diversion. . . .

Was looking to bash up a Triang Baltic into a decent looking "Wab" loco, but getting more and more disappointed at the ever increasing prices for them. Even in shoddy condition.

This was one of the things done back in the day before S scale NZR came along. They used to bash up whatever OO/HO models were available to get an NZR looking version - Triang Baltics among their sources. Remember seeing a mention and sort of how to in an old Guild magazine or two somewhere

Eventually I found a cheap body in an online auction. It was in need of some TLC, but that's ok, it was going to get bashed anyway.

Put it up against a Guild drawing of the Wab and not a bad match for length and height and most proportions. The domes need a bit of fettling, bunker needs shortening height-wise, and as this body came without chimney and headlight (both broken off) - no problem..

But what about a chassis? For some reason I noticed the Triang R50 Princess chassis was almost identical - except for the trailing truck. The Princess 4-6-2 had a single axle, while the Baltic 4-6-4 had twin axles with smaller wheels.

Well then! Up comes a nice and in running condition Princess in an online auction et voila! For hissy things, those Princess models are quite pretty really. Nice polished nameplate and everything.

Luckily this later version Princess had the body mounting screw exactly matching the Baltic body I had - on the flat above the buffer, and not down the chimney!

After removing the Princess rear truck, bingo. Perfect fit for the Baltic body. Awesome! Thankyou Triang.

BTW, I've since found out the Triang R54 Hiawatha chassis is the same as the Princess. Already have one of those, but that's staying as a Hiawatha!

Now for the fun bits, more to come. . .

References

• Search National Library of New Zealand for Wab locomotive
• Re-scaled drawings of the NZGR Wab classes from NZRLS Cedric Green set CGL2