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.