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The 1/50 project, a cardboard loco.


Dave John

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I think it will take me a while to get used to the size of a larger scale. Years of working in 4mm has put me in a mindset of the size of things, experience tells me the kind of internal volumes of things so I can make a reasonable guess at what will fit where.

 

A change of scale, period and a move to diesel means that I’m not totally sure about things. Spending a bit of time looking at various photos on the net has condensed my ideas. So an imaginary line in an imaginary country or island perhaps somewhere vaguely down towards the med or in the adriatic. Warmer than Glasgow for a start.

 

The loco would have been built by a private European company sometime in the mid to late 1950s for freight trains. A simple Bo-Bo diesel electric rated I would guess at about 500 kW. So likely a straight 6 cylinder. Twin cab, since I fancy that.  Biggish radiators, warm climate. Fairly simple, lowish gearing, might do 40 kph on a good day with the wind behind it. Mainly pottering on at about 25 kph most of the time with trains of perhaps a dozen wagons. Train brakes would be air, so just a compressor and some blower motors,  a reasonably compact engine compartment then. Multiple unit working ? Maybe, but make one first.

 

Going straight to a build seems a bit over ambitious. So I made a cardboard loco. Oh, and some cardboard people. 35 mm, so a vaguely average 1.75 m tall.

 

 

 

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Feel free to have a laugh at that, or add to the design.

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Cardboard is a great material for the larger scales. Check out some of my "cheapo" models. With diesels, I would have 2 or 3 layers to the bodysides, to give relief, by cutting out grills, doors etc. The roof dome can be shaped balsa wood. Check out Amazon for the cheap, electric motor and gear sets they do. Enough for 2/3 models for sub £10. Also, look for speed controllers for the batteries at about a fiver each. Looking good so far!

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I have seen your models 33C , very nice. 

 

I think I'm heading for a styrene body on a brass spaceframe, but I felt the need to do a mockup to give me an idea about the internal volume of the engine compartment since there might be a lot in there. I'd agree about motors , I have bought a couple of the n20 double shaft types though their use will depend on detail bogie design.

 

 

 

 

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The engines and rolling stock on the metre gauge railways of the Peloponnese might provide some useful clues.  I think the system is now "not currently operating" but there is a description here: https://railwayworld.net/2014/10/20/a-metre-gauge-adventure-in-greece/  and a (not 1:50) model here: https://www.facebook.com/Modellingcentre/videos/nafplio-railway-station-project/262005937774171/.  The railway survived long enough to be provided with diesel traction as well as the more familar railbus type of passenger vehicles.  When I was last there - 20 years + ago - I saw some steam engines rusting away in a railway yard north of Nafplion.

 

And yes,  it's certainly warmer than Glasgow.

 

 

 

 

 

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Both good articles, many thanks.

 

Certainly the Corsican railways are the sort of thing I have  in mind, though I don't want to go down the rivet counting faithfullness to prototype path. One layout of that is enough.

 

Aiming for the early to mid 1960s will I think justify a railway which is in use for freight not just tourism though it is likely to be very compact if it ever gets that far. 

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Looks like a plausible Metro-Vickers design?

 

Dava

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1 hour ago, Dave John said:

in use for freight not just tourism

...it was that that caught my eye on the Peloponnese system - freight as well as passenger (also, from the model, the focus on marching bands and statues with the railway a bit of a footnote).

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Or possibly red and cream . 

 

But , yes that is the direction I'm heading in . 

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Here’s a photo of some hi-tech Corsican track taken on holiday in 2019. Bear in mind this was a fully operational line and it was all like this. Perfectly effective but I was grateful high speed expresses are not ‘a thing’ on Corsica!

 

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Oh, excellent pic, many thanks.  Old sleepers, but reasonably ballasted. The metal band at the ends is a detail I had not noticed. Just looking at the notch in the sleeper top I wonder if they had been used for chaired rail at some point and then recycled for use with fb. 

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