Scratchbuilt European tram

[sleepyrider]

Inspired by themole's Trams and Tramway Matters thread, I've started construction of a simple, freelance old style European tram. Not sure how close to reality it is, since I'm committing what seems to be considered the ultimate sin in certain quarters (not here hopefully!) and building a model of a model - in this case an H0e project aimed at beginners, by Bruno Demaiter, which appeared in the excellent Voie Libre magazine (issue59).

I'm using a USA Trains motorblock that I picked up from the Back2Bay6 stall at the Midlands Garden Railway show a few weeks ago. The original article includes templates. After a bit of experimentation, I've scaled them up by a factor of 4 - this seems to bring it up to a similar size to the Bachmann car I already have.
After 2 card mockups, I've started cutting the plasticard for the finished version.

I recently picked up a copy of Ian Allen's Heyday of the European Tram, which has a Graz car on page 5 which doesn't seem a million miles from what I'm aiming for, so hopefully it won't be too unrealistic!

Jim
Leicestershire

 

[Dtsteam]

Interesting stuff, Jim, its looking promising so far.
There are few sins you can conduct in G scale*, and scratchbuilding a tram certainly isn't one of them !
Feel free to post lots of piccies and give us plenty of detail about the build.





*Most of them at the moment appear to involve batteries. No sniggering at the back, Turbutt.

 

[mike]

your doing a grand job, and if anyone dares say its not right..ask them to check rule 8

 

[stockers]

Looks good. Your picture looks like the Harz T1 railcar (except for the pantograph)

 

[sleepyrider]

That Harz railcar looks interesting, maybe that's where the original magazine model's inspiration came from. Rule 8 will be working overtime with this one!
I'll certainly post more photos as things progress. Just waiting for a bottle of Mekpak to arrive in the post - the local 'toy shop with model department' sold the plasticard, but nothing to glue it together with... Thank goodness for ebay!

Jim
Leicestershire

 

[tramcar trev]

Looks very nice to me....
I'm still in the dark as to the European preference for single truck trams. Is it the narrow winding streets, steep hills or are they cheaper to build?

 

[themole]

The top picture is a Graz four wheeler.
The orange tram a German "reko" or rebuilt car. Alyn

 

[themole]

It could be a Vienna car, what does the bumpf say about the HO model ? Alyn

 

[stockers]

Great pics as usual Alyn - Thanks

 

[themole]

Some Duwag trams (secondhand) off to Turkey. Alyn

 

[nico]

thought you might like,out with the old in with the new

 

[trammayo]

Like that one Nico - is that the ex-London trailer car restored as DUT 224?

 

[Glengrant]

Nah, I think it's one of them Edinburgh trams everyone is talking about, sort of

 

[trammayo]

Nah, I think it's one of them Edinburgh trams everyone is talking about, sort of

Hey up Cyril - one of the largest fiascos ever to hit the British Isles! Still they are on back on track now

 

[nico]

Like that one Nico - is that the ex-London trailer car restored as DUT 224?

http://www.nationaltransportmuseum.org/b006.htm :thumbup::thumbup::thumbup:

 

[trammayo]

Cheers Nico - it is indeed what I thought it was - thanks for the link

 

[minimans]

I once got knocked down by one of those Graz trams one dark and very drunk night on a F1 trip to Austria!!

 

[tramcar trev]

I bought a bottle of Jeyes Fluid for heavy duty cleaning and reading the bottle it says that its "imitation" Jeyes Fluid.....

 

[themole]

I bought a bottle of Jeyes Fluid for heavy duty cleaning and reading the bottle it says that its "imitation" Jeyes Fluid.....

Damm clever those Chinese!!!!!

 

[sleepyrider]

Finally made more progress with the tram this weekend - I thought I'd achieved some during the week when I cut out the ends, excitedly offered them up to the sides pictured above, and realised something was glaringly wrong...
In short, I learned the hard way that sheets of plasticard may appear rectangular, but in fact are anything but - my carefully cut out sides were in fact parallelograms. Not far off rectangles, but far enough to throw out the shape of the ends. I tried trimming them, to no avail.
This meant a trip into town to buy more, since I'd carefully bought the right amount first time round, then cutting out a fresh pair of sides all of over again - taking care to square them off first - a rather wasteful process.
Anyway, I've reached this stage:

I now need to start filling and sanding the the angled corners. Before this I'll add the four partitions included in the original design, plus a dashboard, to strengthen the structure before I start getting medieval with the sandpaper.

I've also been geting a lot of ideas for follow up projects from a book about Belgium's De Kusttram I recently won on eBay. Until recent years, 'tram trains' were the norm. This made it economical to carry the massive increase in passengers during the summer months, without having loads of motor trams standing idle all winter.The absence of gradients most of the way was a great help.

They also had luggage trailers -

And freight trams -

Passenger trailers could be closed or open. I like these ones, waiting for the crowds outside Ostend racecourse -

The train of trams idea appeals because it means my motor cars will need to run round, add or drop off trailers as their duty progresses. I like a bit of operation. These subsequent models won't be copies of the Belgian originals, but will follow the concept. I like the idea of a coastal tramway too, probably because we're about as far away from the sea as it's possible to get in England here. My line's already surrounded by shingle anyway. This will at least make that aspect more realistic!

Jim
Leicestershire