A early version Drop Centre in "O" scale part 2

Not much to report on but as I needed to take some progress photos I thought I would make another post anyway.

I have finished cutting out all the pieces and the first photo is of them all spread out on the table.
The score and snap method went much faster than cutting right through with cardboard. It only took a day but now I have a sore finger from pressing down on the knife. The edges needed much less cleaning up afterwards as well.

Like cardboard though I needed to resharpen the knife blade every few minutes and unlike card the first cut had to be very light so as to just score the surface otherwise the blade tendered to wander away from the straight edge. A bit like grooved rail the first cut provided a guide for the blade's second and heavier cut.

All the pieces that needed laminating have been glued together and were left sandwiched between two pieces of glass overnight. These pieces produce the window frames and doors etc. Only two of these pieces are handed and guess who glued them the wrong way round. It would have made the drivers doorway on the wrong side. So I had to make new ones of these. The next photo shows all the pieces in their approximate positions.

The next stage is the fun part. Assembling the model. It has been so long since I started the first one I have no idea what some of the pieces are for any more. Maybe I'll find out as I go along.

A early version Drop Centre in "O" scale part 1

My previous model was of a later version drop centre. This time I planned to model a very early version. These were built as handbrake cars from 1925 onwards and many still had not been converted to air brakes when the system closed although all the early ones had the open cabs enclosed. The museum's 231 is in this condition and still has it's diamond frame trucks which are part of another thread.


The main differences between the two versions by the 1960s was the lack of the metal skirt below the cabins and the drivers compartments and no side destination rolls. The drawing shows the general layout of these trams after the drivers cabins has been enclosed and the photo of 196 shows generally what they looked like by the mid 1960s.


All the converted ones had the diamond frame trucks replaced with plate frame trucks. So I will have to be careful that the number tram I choose still had the diamond frames in the 1960s.

Recently, I joined with a local model train club in the purchase of large sheets of polystyrene from a local plastics supplier. Armed with 4 sheets of different thicknesses I decided to try and make this model from styrene instead of my usual cardboard.

The styrene in some ways is not as versatile as card and I needed to spend quite some time on the computer altering and resizing where necessary all the different panels I needed. Where card can be bent when required styrene needs to be two separate pieces with the edges bevelled and then glued together.

I also did some experimenting with sticking printer paper onto styrene and found the best was spray adhesive sprayed onto the back of the printer paper only. When touch dry I pressed it onto the styrene and it stuck well but it could also be removed without too much trouble. So I have reorganised all the panel drawings to fit onto A4 size sheets.

It will be interesting to see how many mistakes I have made. The last photo is one of the sheets ready to be glued onto the styrene. And no, it isn't blue paper. My camera didn't like all the white and decided to make it's own adjustments.

Making maximum traction trucks. part 4

Everything stopped during the lead up to Christmas so not a lot has been done lately. The axles gears and wheels have been fitted to the chassis and the brass holders for the motors made. The driven axle is kept centred by the gear on the axle. I like a little sideways movement so the side frames were made a millimetre wider than necessary and a couple of brass washers threaded onto the axle along with the gear wheel which gave me just what I wanted. The pony wheels are kept centered with a piece of brass tube that is a sliding fit over the axle. The piece of tube has a hole filed in it at it's centre. When everything was lined up a dob of flux and a small amount of solder was used to lock the tube to the axle. Once the pick up springs are fitted and tensioned they will hold the axles centred but will also allow a small sideways movement if necessary while running.
The first photo shows a truck with the motor disassembled. I like to start off with the motor mounting set up so there is no backlash in the gears. Then I use cardboard shims to set the motor/worm wheel height so I get the correct backlash. Not enough and the gears will bind. Too much and the gears will jump teeth under load. Neither is desirable. I cut a square hole in the centre of the cardboard as well to make sure that the armature doesn't rub.

The brass tube in the centre is part of what will eventually hold the side frames in place. The top cover for the motor still has to have the pivot attached. Prototypically the pivot should be only about 2mm forward of the axle centre but I think I shall use a slightly more central position than that. Once the pivots are in place I shall be able to permanently set up the motors.


Now to get on with mounting the pivots and the pickup springs. Oh, and the sideframes. Seems there is still a lot to do.

Making maximum traction trucks. part 3

I have the side frames ready now so I thought I would share a couple of prototype photos with everyone.

I have to be careful what tram number I use on my new model that these trucks are being built for as most of the droppies had the diamond frames removed and replaced with plate frames as they were converted to air brake operation. Not many droppies remained as handbrake cars right up to the end and it is the last few years that I am concentrating on for my modelling.


The first photo is of the museum's droppie No 231 which was built in 1925 and was never converted. The rather delicate nature of these trucks is clearly shown in the photo. Restoration was started on this tram some years ago and was stopped for one reason or other. Although drivable it remains in a partially disassembled state with all it's bits stacked inside.

The next photo is of our spare diamond frame truck which is tucked away in the back of a shed. The bearing that it pivots on is on the triangular hinged plate just in front of the motor. Only about 75mm in front, and this caused the pony wheels to swing outside the tram body on sharp curves. Hence the protective covers over the pony wheels.


The rubbing plates that the body sat on are much further forward, at about 45% - 55% spacing between the driving wheels and the pony wheels. I guess that with the one and a half ton weight of the motor hanging to the outside of the driving axle there would have been very little weight on the pony wheels with this light weight truck so the designers moved the location of the rubbing plates forward so that they got the correct weight distribution between the two axles.

On my model I'm hoping to set the pivot point at about the same place so I will be adding some lead weight over the pony wheels to insure good electrical pickup. But not too much. With a rigid chassis like this you can only ever have three wheels in contact with the rails at any one time. It doesn't matter how accurate the chassis is or how well the track is laid the tripod principal still applies and one wheel will always have marginal contact. I would prefer it was one of the pony wheels so there is always two wheels driving on each truck. A compensated chassis would solve the problem and I have built these before but I'm too lazy these days.


The last photo is the finished truck sideframes cast in polyurethane.

I hope to have the motors etc mounted in the next few days but Christmas is getting closer and closer and time seems to be becoming a premium item.

Making maximum traction trucks. part 2

The bore in the Romford/Jackson gear wheel is 1/8" as are the flanged bearings. The Romford/Jackson wheels come fitted to 2mm axles and gauged for HO. Ideally the axles should be all steel but without a lathe I can't do the machining that would be needed. So I use hard brass tube from the hobby shop. I reckon it's ok for my tram models because my models are lightweight, won't be pulling 100 wagon trains, won't be running continuously, run slowly and added to that I use the long axle bearings so the wear is distributed over a quite large area. Anyway so far hard brass has not shown any signs of wear. I just have to remember to keep a drop of oil on the bearings.

I am using HO scale wheels and the back to back dimension for HO is 14.55mm +0.05mm -0.15mm. I add 15.5mm to that to get the back to back for O scale using HO wheels. The difference between 16.5mm and 32mm. So I end up with a back to back that should be 30.05mm +0.05mm -0.15mm. 30mm is near enough and suits me just fine.

I use the nesting brass tubes you can get from the hobby shop. I started off with the 1/8" OD hard brass tube and selected the next tube down in size that nested inside the first. I cut 4 pieces of the smaller size to a length of 28mm as the insulated hubs on the wheels stand proud of the rear of the wheel by almost 1mm.


Then I cut the pieces of 1/8" tube to a length of 25mm and slid the smaller tubes inside the larger. I soldered the two tubes together on the ends. The top photo shows the stages of construction.


The bore on the inner tube is too small to allow the 2mm axles to be inserted so they needed to be drilled out. This is where a lathe would be handy but my method works just as well if a bit slower. The advantage of using tube here is provided everything is set up reasonably accurately a 2mm drill will track down the dead centre of the axle and give me a wobble free wheel.


The table of the drill press was checked to make sure it was still horizontal and a 1/8" hole was drilled through a piece of nice flat pine. Then I sawed a narrow slot down the pine and through the centre of the 1/8" hole. With an axle inserted into the hole I used a G clamp to close up the saw cut which grips the axle. This trick will hold the axle tight enough to drill out the centre but at the same time not mark the surface in any way which would interfere with smooth running.

I cut the wheel sets in half so I ended up with wheels and stub axles still attached. The fit into the axles was firm. Just too tight to do it by hand so I used the drill press as a wheel press as can be seen in the next photo.

All the wheels have been pressed into one end. The other end will be done after the axles are assembled on the trucks. Each unit was lightly clamped into the drill press chuck and given a spin to check for wobble. None so far. I checked the blackening on the wheels with a multimeter and the coating is conductive but I will polish it off the rear of the wheel where the pickup springs will rub just to be on the safe side.

Making maximum traction trucks. part 1

Am I the only one. I just received an order of gears and wheels from Britain. A lifetime supply probably and have just realised I forgot to order more axle bearings. I have just enough for one more tram and then....

I'm about to start an older version of the Brisbane droppie. These earlier models were originally mounted on 4' 6" diamond frame trucks. I like to build the trucks first as their the final height determines what I do with the floor. I prefer to use the Jackson/Romford gears but the larger diameter of these means the motor is mounted too high for a full under floor mech.

Over the years I have settled on my own method of constructing mechanisms that suits the tools I have. It's a combination of many other peoples ideas and it works ok for me.

I cut out the two side plates and two more pieces of scrap approximately the same size. The two side plates were stacked on top of each other and soldered together at the ends. Just enough solder to hold them. Then I filed the assembly to insure the plates were identical. This time I used printed circuit board for the scrap so I had to glue them to the side plates. One tiny drop of superglue at each end as they had to be removed later undamaged. The first photo shows the assemblies ready for drilling.


With everything stuck together I drilled the bearing holes out with a 1/8" drill in the drill press. This part of the job was critical because if the holes were not vertical the truck would not run properly. After removing the printed circuit board pieces I drilled out the bearing holes to take the Romford flanged bearings and then separated the two side plates carefully. I have found out to my annoyance in the past that if a plate gets bent separating them, even though it is easily straightened, it does not return to the same size. In a much longer wheelbase like a 6 wheel loco it causes wheel alignment problems.

The second photo shows all the parts ready for assembly. The small pieces of brass are my frame spacers. I made these my cutting a strip of brass and filing it to make sure it was a constant width. I then cut and folded the brass so that all the spacers were exactly the same width. The two sets of truck parts must be kept as sets. Very important.


Next I soldered three frame spacers to one side plate and using a square and a sheet of glass to position the second side plate I soldered it to the spacers as well. Up to this point, apart from drilling the holes vertically, accuracy wasn't all that important. The next bit squares everything up.

I have a couple of 1/8" rods about 50mm long to represent the axles while I solder the bearings to the side plates. I fitted the four bearings with the flanges on the inside and threaded through the 1/8" rods. This is where I used the printed circuit pieces which still have the original 1/8" holes. They were threaded on to the ends of the 1/8" rods and held the axles parallel. I then sat the whole assembly on two machined aluminium blocks I have which were in turn sitting on a sheet of glass. This made sure that the two axles will be in line with each other and hopefully all four wheels will sit on the track. I don't want one wheel sticking up in the air.


The third photo shows the setup. The bent piece of brass in the photo is a piece of hardened brass being used as a spring to hold the flanges of the bearings against the inside of the plates while I soldered them on the outside.

The last photo shows progress so far. Next I will have to get on with mounting the motor and the brackets for the polyurethane side frames.

A Card model of a drop centre in "O" scale part 5

Another model that has been sitting around for quite awhile has been finished, well almost. The final items. the window glazing and the adverts are done but as I was taking the photos for this post I realised that I haven't finished the headlights. The model sides and interior have been sprayed with a couple of coats of Testors glosscote and reflections on the model make it look as if it has only been half painted in places. I can assure everyone that this is not the case, The model was sprayed by airbrush.


Most of the roof ads are from photos I took of the ads on the museum's droppie and were modified, recoloured and resized using Paint Shop Pro. Printed onto photographic paper they were then given several coats of Testors glosscote before being cut out and glued to the brass boards.



I still call this a cardboard model but some other materials found their way into this one. There were some things that cardboard was just not suitable for, The roof ad boards for one as it wouldn't have been strong enough. These were made from shim brass with brass wire soldered on the back for the mounting brackets. After several attempts to make the seats I decided to make them out of Evergreen V grooved styrene sheet. The original seats were made up of individual slats and the V grooved sheet has worked out well.


I have drawn out the patterns already for the next droppie, an earlier model without the lower skirt and I think that this one may be a styrene version. The large number of cardboard edges in this model were difficult to finish off properly. Something that is much easier in styrene.

I shall soon have a number of different thickness, full size styrene sheets at the right price so I am holding off starting the next model for awhile. But I have been experimenting with different ideas in marking out the paterns on the styrene. More about that in a future post.

For now I'm happy to get this model finished and move on to a couple of other projects. A fellow museum member did masters and has lost wax castings for most of the sideframes that were used on Brisbane trams. With his kind permission I am about to start producing masters suitable for polyurethane casting from his originals for the diamond frame trucks used on the earlier droppies and the Brill trucks used under the centre isle cars. So there is plenty to keep me going for awhile.

A Card model of a drop centre in "O" scale part 4

The model is progressing. I have fitted the seat armrests, the safety rail slides and the vertical handrails at the four corners of the drop centre section. I have also attached the ads that were found around the motorman's cab. I was fortunate to be able to photograph a number of original ads and thanks to modern technology I was able to repair and recolour them on the computer. I haven't been able to get any useful photos of the side panel ads as used on the droppies but I can always add them later if I am lucky. I have printed the ads for the roof boards but I have still to make the boards.I have also attached the destination, route number, tram numbers and the Brisbane City Council logo. To position the BCC logo and the tram number on the sides varied from tram to tram. Originally the logos and the numbers were positioned central on the side panels below the windows. When they started selling these spaces for advertising the logos and the tram numbers were moved up to the space above the windows. For some reason some trams had the BCC logo above the front windows with the tram number above the rear windows. Others had the position of the logos and the tram numbers reversed. It was a case of pick a tram and attach the decals accordingly. The positioning is correct for 328.

The last photo is of 341 at the museum. Although it is painted in the silver and blue of the 1930s era it shows the amount of brass work that was on these trams. I made the armrests by setting the shanks of two drills into holes in a piece of wood and then bending brass wire around the drills. This is a model that would benefit from a brass etch being done for all the brass detail. There is an awful lot of it. My armrests are not that accurate but it conveys the feeling of the original. The slides for the safety rail and the handrails were bent with a special tool I have left over from my years working in electronics. It's a tool for bending the leads of resistors ready for insertion into a printed circuit board. A screw adjustment sets the distance between the bends and once set it repeats the same size over and over again.

I still have to glaze the windows and fit the roof advertising but I have already started the drawings for an earlier version of the droppie with diamond frame trucks. We just happen to have such a tram in storage at the museum which will make life a little easier.

A Card model of a drop centre in "O" scale part 3

This model has been painted now with acrylic paint. I probably should have experimented a bit longer before committing myself to a model as I am not entirely happy with the results. I seemed to get better as I went along. It looked reasonable until I sprayed the model with Testors Gloss Coat to get it ready for the decals. The so called gloss finish has come out rather blotchy. This may improve with more coats of the gloss as the acrylic is very flat and either it or the gloss coat may be uneven. Only time will tell. No going back as you can't strip paint of a card model.

It seems that there are as many recipes for acrylic thinners as there are people on the net. Putting all the different ideas together and with a bit of experimenting I ended up using a spraying thinner made up of 75% isopropyl alcohol and 25% distilled water. I then diluted the paint 2 parts paint to 1 part thinner. This mix seems to suit my airbrush and compressor combination.

Fortunately the museum has a number of droppies that are still carrying their original paint from the 1960s. They have been tucked away in the gloom in the back of sheds collecting dust and grime but at least the paintwork is as it was when they stopped running in the streets. Number 277 was the easiest to get to and I already had an exterior photo of it when we had it out a few years ago. As can be seen in the photos the exterior and inside up to the tops of the seats was light grey. From the seat tops to the roof was a pale yellow and the roof itself was green. This colour scheme was very popular in the 1960s and was commonly known as egg and lettuce. Many people had their kitchen done in this colour scheme.

As far as the model itself goes, it is a very complex model with lots of edges and this shows up with the cardboard. I need two more of these and will seriously look at using polystyrene for these. Especially if I can find some way to print the patterns on to the styrene.

The next stage is to fit all the arm rests and other fittings followed by the window glazing and the decals so plenty to do yet.

A Card model of a Phoenix tram in "O" scale part 4

This is the last report on my model of the Phoenix tram as it is now finished and will be put away for the time being until I can start a layout.

Only eight Phoenix class were ever built and I have chosen the number 549 for mine as I found a photo of this tram with the "Cinzano" ad on the side. After I added the Tristram's soft drink ad to the other side I found another photo showing that it had the "Caltex Astron" ad on the second side, at least for some of the time in the latter years. But I can live with that as the Tristram's ad was a favourite of mine with it's misuse of the word, "TRIS TRAM"

One disadvantage of cardboard is it is often necessary to "beef" up very small parts so that they can be assembled without breaking. This proved to be a problem with this model as I had to trim the ads to fit over the central doors because of the thickness of the trim around the roof and the door mouldings.

I am pleased with the model. The Bull Ant mechanism runs well and I have run a pair of wires under the floor to pick up power from the second truck. All my models are wired for two rail operation but I have made allowance to switch over to overhead collection without too much effort.

Now back to my drop centre model.

A Card model of a drop centre in "O" scale part 2

I have yet to paint the body shell of my model but the big thing for me is I have my new airbrush working now and I have been experimenting with acrylics. I had real difficulty handling acrylics with my old airbrush. The results with the new brush are so good this tram will be painted entirely in acrylics. But more of that in a future post.

Supplied with the Transit Classics FM kit I built recently was a set of brass castings for the controller, airbrake and handbrake fittings. I felt these were a waste putting them into the FM as they wouldn't be seen. So I decided I would use them for my drop centre model which has a fairly open cab. Some modification was necessary as the air brake unit in the FMs is simply screwed to the tapering side wall with the air pipes exposed. In the drop centres the air pipes are enclosed in a tube which also becomes a pedestal to hold the main unit as shown in the cab photo of 341 above. I managed to get something that looks reasonable by soldering the handbrake unit to a length of brass tube

I also needed to put a larger plinth under the controller which I did with a piece of styrene. The parts as supplied didn't have the bracket to hold the handbrake mechanism away from the front wall and these were made out of some spare brass wire.

Again I haven't gone for 100% accuracy but have tried to achieve something that looks the part.

A Card model of a drop centre in "O" scale part 1

I started a model of a Brisbane drop centre some time ago and made a mistake with the trucks so it was put aside until now. The Brisbane droppies had reverse maximum traction trucks fitted and at the time I felt I had no choice to scratch build these.

I was fortunate enough to acquire a number of 12V Mabuchi motors. These are the same motors as were used by Tramalan and BEC in their "OO"gauge trucks. As I planned to use one at each end driving a single axle the same as the prototype I felt that they were more than adequate for the job. So I stretched some Jackson wheel sets and fitted Romford brass gears. In the process I made a mistake in one measurement so the side frames didn't sit at the correct angle. In the last couple of days I have dismantled them, corrected the problem and put all the bits back together again. The photo is the new improved version.


The body is a far more difficult job than the FMs and card wasn't suitable for everything. I have reinforced the floor with styrene so it will support the weight of the body without distortion. I have used styrene rod to represent the window bars but have yet to see if temperature changes and the different rate of expansion and contraction between the styrene and the card will cause any problems. I once built 30 cattle wagons in polyurethane using steel wire for handrails running the full length of the wagons. These had severe problems with temperature changes.


The model is almost at the point of painting and then having the seats fitted.

Almost 200 Brisbane drop centres were built from 1925 to 1938. The earliest ones had open driver's cabs and all were handbrake only cars until the last batch in 1938 which were built with airbrakes. From 1939 on they started to retrofit the older trams with airbrakes. Initially the trams were built with short wheelbase diamond frame trucks which were unsuitable when they started the conversion. So those that were converted were fitted with City Council built long wheelbase plate frame trucks. Some survived to the end as handbrake cars and still with the diamond frame trucks. One example is No 231 which is at the museum.


My model will represent one of the later trams with the curved wheel arches but before they went to wind up windows. The plan shows what I hope mine will look like eventually.

A Card model of No 400 in "O" scale part 6

I finally managed to get the adaptors I needed for my new airbrush so I have finished off my model of Brisbane FM N0 400 at last. It has had the roof cabling done and the roof sprayed in a fairly typical darkish grey. My scratch built trolley poles have been done in the same grey. The model is on a pair of powered and un-powered black beetle mechs.

The tram is on route 60, a Balmoral service, because that's the tram my wife used to catch home from the city every day.


I have modelled the tram for the late 1960s period and the ads which are correct for the period are from "Transit Classics" One side is for "Checkmate Chocolates" which I haven't seen in the shops for years and the other side is the "Take it easy take a tram" ads that were explained in an earlier post.

This tram actually had "Johnny Walker Scotch Whisky" ads on one side and ads for "Vincents Headache Powders" on the other side when the Brisbane tramway system was closed in April 1969. The combination was probably supposed to tell you something.


I now have 494 and 400 finished and will soon have my Phoenix class finished. That will give me three Brisbane FMs so it is time to start a few different models.

A Card model of a Phoenix tram in "O" scale part 3

This was the first model I started to build when I decided to change scales. It has been sitting on the shelf for some time but now I'm finally about to finish it.

I was originally going to power all my models with the Australian made Bull Ant mech. These are beautifully made units but have a problem with height that I was prepared to live with. At least with the FM models. I needed to lift the floor at one end to almost window sill height for sufficient clearance. With the small windows making it difficult to see into the cabin and after fitting seats with very short backs it has came out looking quite reasonable. I am now using the Black Beetle mechs because they will fit under the floor.

What to use at the other end? Being a long time scratch builder and having built quite a few chassis, a home made unit was the obvious choice. I like to use pinpoint axles because of their low friction and as the body only weighs 100 grams that wasn't going to be a problem. I cut a pair of Jackson 14mm wheel sets in half and stretched the gauge to 32mm by gluing the then stub axles into a brass tube. Jackson top hat bearings in a brass chassis and some pickup springs made from phosphor bronze wire finished the job.

I have found the best way to test a chassis is to let it run down a smooth plank. It should run as straight as possible and not curve. It shouldn't crab sideways either and the rear wheels must be directly behind the front wheels. That last one might sound a bit silly but with a bit of sideways slop in the bearings and if you set it up with uneven tension on the pickup springs it is easy to have the wheels offset from each other.

A Card model of a Phoenix tram in "O" scale part 2

The seats are finished and I am tidying up the painting now. Then I will start applying the decals. I have been trawling through my collection of photos and have chosen to number mine 549 as thanks to Transit Models I have the appropriate ad decals etc. No photo of progress just yet as there is nothing to show.

The manufacture of the phoenix emblems wasn't a success. When I sprayed them with Testors clear coat, the ink smudged. I have sprayed inkjet images on plain paper before with no problems so possibly the fact that the inks were on decal film is the reason it didn't work. But the images are so small anyway that I have decide that I will still use them. There will still be the appearance that something is there and with a bit of imagination they will pass.

I don't have plans for the Phoenix class as such but they belonged to the group of FMs from 504 onwards except that the Phoenix class had roof mounted route number boxes unlike the earlier trams that has the frames attached to the sides. They were fitted with resilient wheels and fluorescent interior lights. Their roofs were bondwood sheets skinned with fibreglass which gave the roof a somewhat different appearance.

After the disastrous Paddington Depot fire in September 1962 where 65 trams were lost it was decided to build eight more trams which were to become known as the Phoenix class. Unlike the other FMs which were in all over grey by the 1960s these new trams were painted in blue over grey with a royal blue band. They were called the Phoenix class because they used various components salvaged from the Paddington fire. No 554 was the last built and only saw five years service before the whole network was closed in 1969.

A Card model of a Phoenix tram in "O" scale part 1

While I'm waiting to get my new airbrush working I decided to continue on with my card version of a Phoenix class tram that has been sitting on the shelf for some time. It still needs the seats fitted and the decals added.

I was able to photograph the Phoenix emblem at the museum and I changed the blue background to white using Paint Shop Pro then I scaled it in Corel Draw and produced left and right images. I printed the images onto a ordinary piece of printer paper using the single sheet feeder. Looked like what I wanted so I taped a small piece of clear decal sheet, left over from some commercial decals, over top of the printing on the paper. I figured that the printer would print in the same place again and fed it back through the printer. It did and it printed without any problems with the white background coming out clear. Now when I get my airbrush going I will spray a gloss clear over the images before I wet them.

The seats will be a small problem as this model was built for a "Bull Ant" mechanism. This unit is quite high and it was necessary to create a floor at one end which is just below the height of the window sill. The truck at the other end is scratch built from brass and uses Jackson RP25/100 wheels with the axles extended.

Now off to start making seats.

A slight change in plan

As the title suggests things don't always go smoothly.

I was airbrushing the roof of No 400 the other day when my airbrush of 15+ years literally fell apart. It looks like years of tightening and un-tightening the air hose to the airbrush had taken it's toll and the chrome barrel that holds the air valve came loose from the main barrel of the airbrush. I always thought the main body was one piece but it appears these protrusions are a press fit into the main body. There was no sign of soldering or brazing evident.

The result was no airbrush and a badly splattered roof. I am in the process of sanding back the roof to have another go. This also seemed like a golden opportunity to obtain a new airbrush. Especially as my good wife decided she would shout me one as an early birthday present. So a bit of research on the net and a visit to my local hobby shop and I am now the proud owner of a new Paasche. On arriving home I found that it wont connect to my mini compressor. The hobby shop can't supply an adaptor so until I can chase one up this week I can't spray anything.

So for my change in plan. I have a dropcentre tram partly built so for something to do while I'm waiting for the adaptor I have been preparing some ads for the model. The photo of 356 by Richard Johnson shows a typical dropcentre with a full compliment of ads attached. On the dropcentres all the body ads were attached to thin boards which in turn were attached to the tram.

The ads were printed on low quality paper and were not expected to last more than a few weeks. The collection at the museum are now over 40 years old and are mainly in a poor state as one would expect. I have been using the computer to restore these to a standard suitable for use on my model. Two of the ads, the 4BC and Canberra TV ads can be seen on the photo of 356. 4BC was and is still a local radio station but Canberra Television, who would rent you a TV for $1 a week is no longer in business.