In my previous blogs I have mentioned that I wanted to scratchbuild a DU65 Draisine. Over the past few days I have started work on the bodywork for the vehicle and gathering as many pieces of information as I can about it. I have never really researched a topic properly before and this has been one of the more rewarding parts of the project. Planning something like this out properly is certainly the right thing to do, this is especially important considering the fact that the chassis that I have ordered is so small and will require some modifications before it will fit into this model.

The literal translation of Draisine is "Speeder" but I think that the word is more to do with describing the vehicle as a light trolley. They are used as track maintenance and permenant way vehicles and can be loaded with various different features such as a hydraulic lifting crane, hedge trimming devices, gauge clearance measurers and snowploughs. I have photograpghed a few of these vehicles in use on the SNCF network as well as in preservation.

A DU65 Draisine in Eymoutier. Note I was given very odd looks from the driver when taking this picture on my camera phone...

I have seen a few brass kits produced in France for these but I have never had the good fortune to find one for sale. That added to the fact that my soldering skills are pretty poor has pushed me to have a go with Plasticard.

I managed to find a low quality drawing of one side of a Draisine from which I established some measurements which allowed me to make measurements for the rest of that side. Then I found a decent front side picture and established the measurements for the front. These were then test drawn onto paper and then I drew them onto Plasticard:

Once these were cut out I tested how they fit together using tape:

I discovered that I had not taken into account the thickness of the Plasticard when making the measurements so I did some filing down and changed the design from having a window support on the front and back sides to just using the front side window support.

The next phase was to start the bonnet of the vehicle. This requires a section to be removed for the vents. This was tricky as in N scale the distances are very small but I think I achieved what I needed to:

Tonight I shall work on the bonnet some more and perhaps look at working on the roof. I am thinking of using a small piece of Balsa as the roof as this will be easier to shape and it wont be too difficult to cut to the correct size.

The chassis should arrrive in the next week or so and then it needs to be chopped into the right shape and resoldered to make it fit (hopefully!!!!!!!!!!!!).

Let me know what you think.

Stephen