On the tramway theme, here's my most recent scratchbuilt effort- Redlake Tramway Coach No.3:
The coach is built from thick plasticard and plastruct girders, with glazing material supplied by Jacksons Miniatures. The interior features longitudinal bench seating but to strengthen the body structure I've had to install a vestibule at the halfway point. The balcony railings were steel fabrications on the original and because I didn't have either the right wattage soldering iron or the right gauge wire I had to cut and file the railings from a sheet of plasticard. They're too thick, of course. The roof is a cut down Tenmille moulding. Number transfers to match the originals are a Chris Moxham product. The real colour of the coaches was thought to be red oxide, but as my other westcountry tramway rolling stock is this general shade I thought I'd apply a little artistic licence!
The bogies are LGB spare parts from GRC in Cheltenham. If they look out-of-scale, that's because they are. The original coaches - 4 were supplied along with open wagons and the two steam locos that worked the 3' gauge line by Kerr Stuart- were mounted on tiny bogies that allegedly rode roughly, although the Redlake Tramway was very well engineered with sweeping curves over southern Dartmoor, so it's hard to understand why. Anyhow- I couldn't find any bogies or bogie kits that resembled the originals, but the scale/gauge combination I've used is as much to blame.
The Redlake Tramway opened in 1912 and connected the Cantrell China Clay Dries on the GWR main line at Bittaford with the Redlake China Clay pit in the heart of Dartmoor. The coaches were used to take workmen to and from the clay pit, and the wagins carried coal and supplies up the line. The china clay was carried by gravity as a slurry down a twin pipeline from the pit to Cantrell. When the line closed with the collapse of the China Clay Corporation in 1932, the sole motive power was an Atkinson Walker steam tram engine.
Alyn
