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.