Trix Express & TTR » Pre war Southern Suburban box set

Hello fellow collectors,
I recently started collecting Trix trains, and I saw on E Bay ( UK ) a Southern Region Suburban box set. The box was in a terrible state, and the loco and coaches were missing, but I still decided to win it. When I got it home, I removed the tape from the lid and tried to remove the glue. It didn't work, so I decided to make a cover for the lid, that didn't damage it, and could be removed if needed. I cleaned the base and glued in some card to strengthen the edges, and then stuck some more card on the edges of each of the box sections. When dry I used some much thicker card to make some inserts for the sections.





The lid was in a very bad condition and I didn't think it would repair correctly. The ends had been cut so that the lid could be used as a tunnel, and the paintwork had stained very badly.
I found a car spray paint that looked correct, then used the paint on a sheet of thick card. This was cut to shape, and then glued together. The original lid was placed inside the new one, and then the ends were repaired. The new lid was stuck to the old one, and finally I downloaded the picture for the lid, and after airbrushing out the flaws with the picture, I stuck the picture to the lid.






The box was now complete, and ready for use.
From my collection I found a pre war 0-4-0 loco and tender, and 2 coaches, which for now will have to do until I can find a genuine loco.



I've added some pictures below, but there are the whole set of pictures in my Bildergalerie 'Trix TTR Southern Region Suburban Box Set'.
If any member wants any tips on how to make repairs to their box sets, I'm gladly help.

Regards,

Geoff

Hi Geoff,
..really a great job!

As far as I know, this was the only green "pseudo-TTR" box. And here are pictures with the right content....

TRIX TWIN Southern Railway Motor Coach

But I´m sure, you know that thread.

Regards,
Horst

Hi Horst,

Many thanks,

I've been in contact with Dieter, so I know that the content isn't correct. I did ask the seller what happened to the original loco and coaches, and he said they didn't work very well, so they replaced them with some better ones. What a shame.
I'll keep looking for some replacements and one day I'm sure I'll find them. Unfortunately my friend, Jeff Carpenter had some, but sold them on some time ago.
I did some searching through the UK auction sites, and way back in 2006 I saw a complete box set sell for £2000-00 + commission. I'm sure it wasn't worth that money, but it does mean that I have a box that is something special.

I'll have to take great care of it.

Best wishes,

Geoff.