James Hilton Posted March 5, 2012 Share Posted March 5, 2012 Narrow gauge lines were built across Europe in areas where the cost of building a standard gauge route was considered to be prohibitively expensive. As a result an extensive network of lines grew up in Germany, Austria and Eastern Europe. The majority of these were 750/760mm gauge, although extensive metre gauge networks also existed in Germany, France and other parts of Europe. The intial construction costs were lower, however the interchange of freight traffic proved to be a problem. Initially manual trans-shipment from wagon to wagon was carried out but through the 20th century this became too time consuming and costly. Bear in mind that some of these lines ran through areas with little in the way of road infrastructure so rail really was the only way of getting larger loads and quantities in and out. Roll-wagen or transporter wagons were introduced that could piggy back a standard gauge wagon onto the narrow gauge. Although these needed careful loading, it was much quicker and hence cheaper to make use of this technology rather than double handling of the cargo. My garden line, the EJ&KLR is inspired by the 760mm narrow gauge lines across Austria. I wanted to portray the typical 'roll-wagen' load, tagged onto a mixed train. It did not need to be an operational roll-wagen (i.e. I didn't plan to load and unload it at a standard gauge interchange - the load need only be static). Although my garden line has a minimum R2 (750mm radius), I wanted it to be able to negotiate R1 (600mm) radius reverse curves so that it could visit other people's lines without problem. Some specialist manufacturers in Europe offered either kits or ready to run options but these were expensive. In the end my wagon has cost about £15 to produce - £30 if I had to buy the wheelsets myself. The following photographs chart the design and construction of the model - which is currently awaiting final painting and detailing. So this first post just shows the detail design work carried out. These drawings were based upon a drawing in the book 'Schmalspurig durch Osterreich' and produced in Adobe Illustrator. They allowed me to test some dimensions and proved the concept - and later in the build this pre-work paid off with a working model that met my original design brief. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Hilton Posted March 5, 2012 Author Share Posted March 5, 2012 So from those design drawings I sourced a set of wheelsets from generous members of the G-scale Central forum. A lot of people upgrade the 'stock' plastic wheelsets that LGB provides to metal wheelsets - so I got two pairs of 'Feldbahn' wheelsets for nothing - a great part of the community in G-scale (the 'help each other out' mentality). I pondered proper inside bearings for these, but for now the wagon rolls on bogies made from 3mm thick plasticard. I'm hoping that as this wagon will see limited use that these will be 'good enough' for the first few years. If I do a second 'production' batch with working locking mechanisms etc, then I'll work in brass and incorporate bearings. The chassis is made up from Plastruct section from Eileen's Emporium. This is 36cm long, 15.9mm tall, and by fluke scales out almost exactly to the drawings in 1:22. These were joined with some 60thou plasticard section cut into the distinctive shape of the prototype and glued with liquid poly in a tube - which is slightly thicker and dries more firmly in my experience. The moment of truth - I then checked that it would do R1 curves! Once I was happy I fabricated basic but effective bogie pivots in styrene section. These provide a large bearing surface area which aids stability of the load. Once the rolling chassis was sorted I started on the details - and first off was fabricating the distinctive connecting bar. Roll-wagens are often pulled and propelled using these bars that slot into a hole in the narrow gauge buffers and are secured with a pin. I wanted mine to be fully functional and adapted the pin idea by fabricating a clip that fits over the LGB buffer on a wagon. I used brass and soldered construction for strength - sourced from Eileen's Emporium. Moving onto the chassis detail was added from a variety of plastic off cuts, brass rod and bits from the scrap box. The brake wheels were sourced from Modell-land in Germany and are LGB spares from the RhB hopper wagons. LGB also offer some models of standard gauge prototypes. These are to a different scale to the narrow gauge stuff (a smaller scale) so that physically most things have a similar form factor. However the open gondala wagons they do with a roller bearing chassis is both larger and quite distinctively different to their narrow gauge models so I chose this as an easy way to get a standard gauge load. I modified this by adding metal wheels from a Bachmann 'Thomas' coach - the Emily three wheelers - which are solid disc and large enough to give the impression this is a standard gauge vehicle. These are simply eased out on their axles and then are an interference fit between the axle boxes, giving the perfect 64mm gauge (Gauge 3) for about 1:20/1:22. I have also modified the brakes to be inline with the new wheels. Finally - to bring this up to date, a coat of primer has tied all the various parts together to an effective model. I look forward to being able to share the finished product in a few weeks! Thanks for reading - I hope this has been of interest! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Hilton Posted March 6, 2012 Author Share Posted March 6, 2012 A very brief update tonight to show how she looks after an undercoat of Matt black from a Halfords rattle can. I couldn't resist posing the OBB open wagon on as well, it's really weird to see it in black after all this time. I'm going to airbrush on some satin black as a finishing coat, and then detail paint the chocks (yellow) and hand wheels and levers (red). Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Hilton Posted March 9, 2012 Author Share Posted March 9, 2012 I've completed the detail painting and applied the first side of transfers. These are custom, I drew them up in Adobe Illustrator and then got John at www.prcisionlabels.con to produce them, Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Hilton Posted March 11, 2012 Author Share Posted March 11, 2012 Well I've finished it - today I applied a coat of Humbrol 'satin cote' using an airbrush. I'm particularly pleased with the finish, it's like it's straight out of a factory, the transfers look like they're printed on, no sign of the backing at all. I grabbed a couple of shots outside... I've also been re-working a LGB Schoema diesel from a starter set to give a higher quality finish, and allow me to run my line in the 1980s period (more on my large scale blog: http://ejklr.blogspot.com). Here it is posed with the roll-wagen and load to give you a sense of scale and presence... I'll take a few snaps next time I run the EJ&KLR (probably Easter now) and share them on here Thanks for reading. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
halfwit Posted March 11, 2012 Share Posted March 11, 2012 Nice work and an interesting model. I hope that there's an interchange facility in your garden! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Hilton Posted March 11, 2012 Author Share Posted March 11, 2012 Hi Paul, thankyou and not yet! Actually this one is 'non working' - the load's wheels don't rotate (to stop it rolling off the wagon) and if I were doing a working one I'd probably try and do it in metal to be more robust. I have pondered about a small working fleet in the future, and I'm currently dreaming up plans for a second garden line at my own home this time (the initial line is at my parents home) so that could be worked into the design. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jongudmund Posted June 6, 2012 Share Posted June 6, 2012 I think this is one of the most interesting threads I've read on RM web. I'm in awe at the way you've researched/designed this. It's proper engineering. And a really interesting model too. I've learned a lot about the prototype, which I'd never heard of before. Thanks for sharing this. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
backofanenvelope Posted June 7, 2012 Share Posted June 7, 2012 James, I can just add what a great project carried out so well. The larger scales are always so tempting.. look forward to seeing more of you work. Tom Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Hilton Posted June 15, 2012 Author Share Posted June 15, 2012 Jon, Tom, thanks! It has been a very rewarding build, and sees frequent use on the line these days and has so far proven to be both reliable and reasonably robust I've now added G3 screw link couplings to the standard gauge wagon - which has made a nice difference. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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