Scrubber Car No 15 in "O" scale part 4

I felt up to a short visit to the museum the other day so I got into the back of the shed and took my camera inside No 15. I'd say that no one has been inside in 20 years and I had to fight my way in through spider webs and dust. Fortunately all the equipment is still in place and I was able to photograph the air tanks, air compressor, the built in tool boxes and the upright locker. These are the items that will be visible through the open doors. So armed with the photographs I made representations of these items. They are not 100% accurate but everything was assembled from what ever scrap I could find in the scrap box and as the view of them will be limited they will look the part.

The first photo is these items almost ready for painting. The air tanks and the compressor will be black and the wooden tool box and locker will be the same brown as the inside of the car.


The next photo is the body assembled about as far as I can go until I get the mechanism and the Brill side frames done. I've been told that the mechanism could take up to 6 weeks to arrive and I haven't got the side frames ready for sending off to the caster either. I'm reluctant to even work on the steps as these may foul on the side frames. I can work on the controls which are quite complex in these scrubbers and also the roof details. So I still have some work for awhile.


The last photo is the motorman's view of the controls that I need to start on now. These cars didn't have destination boxes so the red handle on the right is connected to a large red arrow outside and the motorman would point to the direction he wished to go by turning the handle to the left or right when approaching a signal box.

Scrubber Car No 15 in "O" scale part 3

The joys of modelling. I decided to start assembly this morning but discovered to my annoyance that I had laminated the side layers together the wrong way round. I needed my open doorway to be at the front left and I ended up with them both on the wrong side instead. I was able to salvage the display boards but I have had to cut out new sides and now I'm waiting for the glue to dry.

In the mean time I have finished working on the advertisements for the model. I have used a free copy of "Paint Shop Pro" for years and upgraded it recently to "Paint Shop Pro 10" when it was also became a free give away for awhile. I did try "The Gimp" as an alternative as it is free and very good but totally different in how it does things. The learning curve was to steep and as I was already familiar with PSP I have stayed with it.


I scanned in the best photo of No 15 I could find and using PSP I cut the ads out, corrected the perspective and then resized them to fit the model. What I ended up with was something rather blurry but by creating a second layer above the first, I redrew the ads. Everything has been totally replaced except for the coke bottles and the glass. These have been fiddled with and enhanced as best as I can but retained. I figure when they are on a moving tram they will look ok.

Scrubber Car No 15 in "O" scale part 2

I always found the layer method of construction a bit on the tedious side. Drawing all those overlaying pieces accurately one layer at a time. That all changed when I discovered CAD software and now I actually enjoy developing the parts for a model. Fortunately Brisbane trams were fairly angular and by drawing each overlay on a different layer and using large amounts of copy and paste the work goes quickly. The first two drawings are for most of the pieces with all the 1mm and 0,5mm pieces grouped together.



To transfer the details to the styrene, I have settled on printing them on to printer paper. To fix the paper to the styrene I spray the back with spray adhesive. When the shine goes off the adhesive I lay the sheet onto the styrene and press it down. Only one surface has been sprayed and the paper stays on long enough to cut the pieces out but comes off easily when I'm finished.


All went well and I spent the morning cutting all the pieces out as can be seen in the photo above.

The last photo shows the pieces after all the overlays have been glued together. It isn't very apparent in the last photo but the display boards complete with the full length hood for the lights are already in place on the sides. This display boards sit clear of the sides by about 2" on the prototype.

Everything has been set aside for a day for the glue to fully dry before I can start the assembly. So to keep busy I'm going to get on with recreating the Coca Cola ads for the model.

Scrubber Car No 15 in "O" scale part 1

I have managed to lay myself up with damage to my ribs for the last couple of weeks so no work has been done on the layout. But I have been able to sit in front of the computer so I decided to start work on a new model.

My choice of a scrubber car might seem a bit odd but I wanted a break from bogie cars and as I'm only building models that ran in the 1950-1969 period I have had to rule out all the old time 4 wheelers.

No 15 started life in 1898 as a Standard Combination Car, was converted to a scrubber car in 1932 and was "modernised" in 1947 into the car as seen in the attached photo. On the closure of the network in 1969 the car was transferred to the museum where it is today.


The photo shows the car in the mid 1960s. The wooden chassis of these original Standard Combination Cars were only 6" wide. When it was converted, the wider passenger body was removed, and the new body is only the width of the chassis. This makes it and it's sister (scrubber car No 14) the narrowest cars in the Brisbane fleet.

The central area between the bulkheads will conceal the Bull Ant motor and I will attempt to model the air cylinders, air compressor and lockers etc in the exposed areas. All together a neat little tram that shouldn't take too long to build.