Monday, August 31, 2009

Building a "O" scale Brisbane FM Part 2



The parts
have had the flash removed and the floor has been assembled. The two sides of the motorman's bulkheads have been glued together using gel super glue and then glued into the nose shells with 5 minute epoxy. I prefer super glue for polyurethane kits but I will use two part epoxy where I need more time to align the pieces. The bulkheads needed to be sanded down to the correct size the edges bevelled to match the taper of the nose sections. Reference had to be to be made to the drawing supplied to work out how far forward they had to go. Also critical was the height of the bulkheads from the bottom of the nose castings as this determines the final position of the floor. The floor is screwed to the base of the bulkhead seats as well as the centre seats. I found it easier for me to deviate from the instructions here and I fitted all the step castings to the floor at this point. This made it easier to get the bulkhead and centre seat heights correct.

For this reason the centre seats have also been glued to the sides as I wanted a strong glued joint here as well. The rest of the seats will be glued to the sides after they have been painted.

Now I just have to wait for a suitable day so I can mask off all the areas still to be
glued and spray the rest with an etch primer. Then down to the job of painting the interior before final assembly.

Friday, August 28, 2009

Building a "O" scale Brisbane FM Part 1.


The first Brisbane FM was built in 1938 (No 400) and the last was built in 1964 (No 554). There were several design changes over the years from canvas blinds on the doors and wooden seats to sliding doors, padded seats and fluorescent lights.

This model I'm about to start is by TRANSITCLASSICS in Victoria who have recently produced a polyurethane kit for a Brisbane FM in "O" scale. The kit represents one of the group numbered from 482 to 503. This group had sliding doors and padded seats.

Typical of the group No 497 painted in the standard all over grey of the time is shown in Adelaide St in the mid 1960s . The advertising on the sides at least brightened up the trams to some degree.

The kit came in a large cardboard box and typical of polyurethane castings has a fair amount of flash to remove. This photo is how the parts came out of the box. The obvious distortion in not the parts it is my cheap pocket digital camera. The parts are all well cast with good detail and the flash is thin and easy to remove with a knife.

This is the first kit for a Brisbane tram that has been available in "O" scale and I am looking forward to the project it as it will be a break from scratch building. Over the next few weeks I hope to report on my progress.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

The Trolley Pole Part 3

All the pieces went together without any problems. Well, serious ones anyway. The springs have a tendency to come off when the pole vertical.

I had to bend larger hooks on the ends of the rods that the springs anchor to than I would have liked to keep them on. It turns out the problem is my fault anyway. When I checked the tension at the trolley wheel with it at wire height, I found I had a force of 0.15 oz. This is well below the NMRA 0.3 oz to 0.5 oz recommended contact force. I figure when I shorten the springs to fix this the problem of them falling off will go away as well.

Since this photo was taken I have cut all the material for five more and started assembly. Now I know what to do they are taking me about an hour for each pole.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

The trolley pole Part 2

I decided to make the trolley wheels fixed as, without a metal lathe, I figured it would be impossible to drill the centre hole accurately enough.

Without a lathe, my two most useful tools are the drill press and my Dremel
. It's quite amazing what can be done with these two.

Each wheel was marked out on the brass stock then with the drill press spinning the cutting was done using the dremel. I had a couple of failures when I wasn't able to keep my hand steady enough.

Cutting these wheels meant working at eye level so wearing safety goggles was a must. These fine cut off wheels are very fragile and will shatter without warning.

With the wheels out of the way it was on to cutting the rest of the pieces for my first pole. The photo shows all the pieces that go into one trolley pole.

The anchor points for the springs are 0.5mm brass. The vertical bearing for the trolley base and the pole itself are from 1mm rod. 1mm ID brass tube was used for the harp and the bottom sleeve for the pole and the trolley base was cut and shaped from square stock using the dremel. There should be sufficient spring for one and a half poles or more likely one pole and a disaster.

Now to put it all together.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

The trolley pole Part 1

I have no intention of making my poles accurate to the prototype. The most important thing is that they work reliably. So long as they look the part from a distance I will be happy.

I needed a standard and decided to use the NMRA standard "S-5 for Traction Power Collection" which can be found at
www.nmra.org/standards/sandrp/s-5.html
The S-5 is probably old hat by modern day standards but it is something for me to work to and I will be vary happy if all of this works. S-5 calls for a contact force between 0.3 and 0.5 oz.

Which raises the subject of springs. I almost gave up trying to acquire suitable springs for the trolley poles then I met a fellow railway modeller who had been making his
own for some time from single strand stainless steel fishing trace wire. So off to my local fishing tackle shop to acquire a roll of "Mason" brand single strand chrome nickel alloy wire. I bought the smallest wire size available at 0.014" dia.

I decided to wind the wire on a 1 mm diameter former. As I don't own a lathe I figured I could use the drill press instead. The 1mm dia brass former was too flexible so I clamped a block of pine to the table of the drill press and with a 1mm drill I drilled a hole in the wood directly below the chuck. This has provided the support I needed and by hand turning the chuck of the drill press I have managed to wind my first spring. So far so good.

The spring seems to have the right amount of tension in it. Now it just has to be cut into suitable lengths and the loops made at each end. But I need to make the rest of the pole first so I can get the right length for the springs.


Friday, August 21, 2009

About my modelling

Recently I decided to seriously start modelling the trams that I remember running in the streets of Brisbane. Of course nothing is available from the local hobby shop so virtually everything will have to be scratch built. I have chosen the British "O" scale (1:43) as some items are available for tramway modelling in that scale. And hopefully this blog will give me the incentive to keep going.

I have been a railway modeller for over 40 years so I'm not concerned about building body shells and the like. My favourite building material is cardboard. It is easy to cut, has no grain and once it has been sealed with shellac and painted it seems to last forever.

Years of experience tells me to tackle the hardest part first. So for my first project I shall attempt to scratch build a half dozen trolley poles. And hopefully my next few posts will show my progress. To finish up today, here is a photo of a Brisbane tram in the 1960s


This tram photographed here at the New Farm Park terminus where Brunswick Street meets the river is now at the Brisbane Tramway Museum and I have the pleasure of driving it when I am on crew.