1/24 scale South African Railway "Cape Gauge 1"

[Riekus]

Hi guys,

Over here in South Africa, a bunch of us have just started a scale we call lovingly Cape Gauge 1. It is concentrated around our SAR, later Spoornet and now Transnet Freight Rail rolling stock. We run on 45mm gauge and therefore our models are 1/24 scale. As our track width is 3ft 6" in real life.

For many many years the backbone of our railroad, was indeed the venerable Class 34 diesels. Both in GM and GE variants. The first model we made was indeed the GM version, build code GT26MC. I fit ESU sound to them, dynamic smoke and so forth. In the attached picture you can see the difference in size compared to 1/32 Gauge 1 German outline stuff.

Over in England we have a gentleman by the name of Andrew Giffen, who is taking care of the steam side of things. We have the first 15F type steamer shipping within the next week or so. With another coming to me and also a GMAM Garratt that he is just starting. Should have that here by June 2020
year

 

[Riekus]

The 15F nearing completion. All valves and piping will be fitted here as we have a guy called Carel janse van Rensburg here and the man is an absolute master when it comes to detail stuff. Hehehehe, he is even making tongue and groove footplanks for this baby. As is the case with the diesels, we are using USAT motors in these things. They are strong and reliable and respond brilliantly to the ESU decoders. This one will come to me eventually so I can fit dynamic smoke, cylinder steam to it. Can't wait.

 

[Riekus]

I am in the process of weathering the first TransKaroo first class coach. We did lasercut some bogies for these but they proofed to be problematic. So USAT came to the rescue once more and these die-cast sideframes were fitted last night. The stability increased to where I want it. They track beautifully. On my bench currently sits a third class coach that I am fitting light to and changing bogies.

Bottom pic is what the consist locos will run like. Ass to ass. The Spoornet orange livery still remains my favourite.

 

[dunnyrail]

Interesting concept, love true to scale Gauge and scale. Some years back I was modeling Irish NG to 15mm ft on 45mm track perfect for Irish 3ft Gauge. Had the availability of Battery RC Sound and Battery DCC been available back then I doubt I would ever have gone East German Harz Using Track DCC.

 

[Riekus]

Couple of months ago we had the opening of our dedicated line in Centurion close to Pretoria. Like Jon said up top here, true scale but that is not without its problems. Most of the garden lines here were built for LGB stock in narrow gauge. So one sees a lot of tight radius bends and short turnouts. It was a long hard decision and many many heated arguments to get this scale off the ground. And keep them true to scale. So the min radius is LGB R5 at 15 degrees. And even that with a large 790mm loco like the 34, is a squeeze. Because the overhangs are so long and we are sticking to prototypical body mounted couplers..... One of those coaches are 880mm long. I am pulling 14 at the moment with two locos in consist up front. It measures 14m in length! And weighs 65kg.

The other problem is track work. Needs to be as level as we can get it. We have major theft issues over here, so we built the bench work and remove the track after each run. That is problematic. Setting up a 25m by 20m layout every single time is hard work. I am in the planning stage to build a 34m by 8m layout here by my shop. And I want to put it under roof. Big big money! But it will be fixed permanently. So we can put some structures down too.

Anyway, some more pictures of that run and a couple more to showcase some of the other stock available. We have a couple of members thats very handy. So freight wagons like the DZ7 and CAL-J as well as the TZ dairy coolers are all in various states of development. A great addition are going to be the Clarkson steam vapour cars. Those are going to be lovely.

Laters

 

[Riekus]

Clarkson Vapour van

 

[Riekus]

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=2187315238241345

I have no idea if that video is going to work.

 

[Riekus]

Sorry man, this one is in Afrikaans heheehehe, but it does show the dynamic smoke that i do for these. Normally I run them with slightly less smoke but when you go outside things get a bit diluted. So this is a lot of smoke but looks perfect when she runs out in the wind. And hell, the new Visathon speaker in this one is very very good.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=906324396429901

 

[tac foley]

Riekus, as I wrote on the FB page, that is THE very best diesel sound I've ever heard!

 

[dunnyrail]

Very nice, I feel your pain but understand the need to lift your track after each running session. I feel over years this will become an issue but little you can do? Though I have found for security well clamped track is pretty good as it is difficult to walk away with over 100 foot or more of rail. Though whether that would work in your circumstances is debatable.

 

[Paul M]

Clarkson Vapour van
View attachment 259782

Very nice, but can someone rectify my terrible ignorance? What is a vapour van? It's obvious nothing to do with alternatives to cigarettes!

 

[Riekus]

Very nice, but can someone rectify my terrible ignorance? What is a vapour van? It's obvious nothing to do with alternatives to cigarettes!

Hehehehe, no. It was used to heat water in a passenger consist.

 

[PaulRhB]

Lovely stuff!

 

[tac foley]

Diesel locomotives, unlike steamers, don't make or use steam when running. Steam locos have plentiful capacity for making steam to pass via piping down the rest of the passenger train.

 

[dunnyrail]

Very nice, but can someone rectify my terrible ignorance? What is a vapour van? It's obvious nothing to do with alternatives to cigarettes!

They were very popular in Ireland when they were first dieselised in the early 60’s. We also had some Ethel heating locomotives as well, converted predominantly from Class 25 Diesels though I think that they may have been producing Electric Power for heating. Faded memory.

 

[MTheStrong]

They were very popular in Ireland when they were first dieselised in the early 60’s. We also had some Ethel heating locomotives as well, converted predominantly from Class 25 Diesels though I think that they may have been producing Electric Power for heating. Faded memory.

ELECTRIC TRAIN HEATING EX LOCOMOTIVE
Three former Class 25 locomotives were converted for use as mobile generators to provide electric heating on trains where the hauling locomotive could not supply this. They were referred to as ETHEL units (Electric Train Heating Ex-Locomotives), and unofficially named Ethel 1, Ethel 2 and Ethel 3.

 

[Chris Vernell]

Over here in South Africa, a bunch of us have just started a scale we call lovingly Cape Gauge 1. It is concentrated around our SAR, later Spoornet and now Transnet Freight Rail rolling stock. We run on 45mm gauge and therefore our models are 1/24 scale. As our track width is 3ft 6" in real life.

I admire your achievements.
I did think for a while of trying to make some Newfoundland Railway stock (also 3'6" gauge), but my attention wandered elsewhere.

 

[Chris Vernell]

Diesel locomotives, unlike steamers, don't make or use steam when running. Steam locos have plentiful capacity for making steam to pass via piping down the rest of the passenger train.

Though some diesels were built with steam-heating equipment.

EMD FP9s, for example.
(I'll take any excuse for recalling that superb CPR livery)

 

[Paul M]

Hehehehe, no. It was used to heat water in a passenger consist.

Thanks for taking the time to explain everyone who answered, yet another gap in my knowledge filled

 

[Paul M]

I am in the process of weathering the first TransKaroo first class coach. We did lasercut some bogies for these but they proofed to be problematic. So USAT came to the rescue once more and these die-cast sideframes were fitted last night. The stability increased to where I want it. They track beautifully. On my bench currently sits a third class coach that I am fitting light to and changing bogies.

Bottom pic is what the consist locos will run like. Ass to ass. The Spoornet orange livery still remains my favourite.
View attachment 259727

That coach is huge! How long is it?