hartleymartin

It is an O gauge wagon. For reference, the top of the wagon side is 105mm long.

Here is the artwork for the wagon as a jpg file. The etches are off to the bottom-right. The bulk of the wagon is to be laser-cut in 1.5mm and 2.5mm plywood. The etches are only for various items of strapping, corner-plates, etc. I still need to draw up the support brackets and the coupling hook plate.

Yes, but I need to put in a half-etch from the rear for fold lines for the corner plates.

The etches are going to be used to represent strapping and corner plates on wagons going onto laser-cut plywood bodies.

Hi everyone. I've made a good start with the laser-cutting design work, but now I need to look at etched brass components. I already have a guide to artwork which states to use black for metal, red for half-etch and white for etch through. I'd like to know what sort of width I need for fold lines and what size half-etch circle to use to form rivets punched through from the read. I'm working in 7mm scale.

Revision 19 of drawing for 1.0mm plywood. This one is off to the laser-cutter for a test-build of the design. The roof section has been put onto a 0.8mm sheet which will be easier to form an arc and is actually quite close to scale thickness for the roof.

Indeed, it is. I am also reliably informed that the official drawing for it still exists.

Revision 18. Lots more errors found and corrected. Also my second change in laser-cutter. I've been in contact with someone who has a cutter that will do 1200x600mm sheets and a variety of other materials that will come in handy. So the drawing is re-jigged back to 600x300mm and I can get four carriages out of a sheet of plywood. This larger size also allows me to include a panel to form the double-roof, though I have not yet figured out what I am doing for brackets yet. I also had a number of very helpful suggestions for detailing parts available off-the-shelf from various suppliers and it seems the only component not covered is still the bogie side frames, though I can get a number which have a good passing resemblance if one doesn't look too closely.

A few more revisions and a change of laser-cutters means I needed to change the fill to green and sheet size to 800x400mm. I managed to sneak all the components into a single 400x400mm size, so I can get two carriages out of a single sheet. Now to draw up the underframe components in 2.5mm plywood!

Revision 14. Found another laser-cutting place which has a wider variety of materials and sizes, and is for model-making/hobbyist. It seems that they cater mostly to design students who are making models as part of their degree/diploma. They offer a larger standard sheet of 800x400mm, which is price-competitive with the last place which was offering 600x300. By re-jigging the design, I can get all the parts into a sheet under 400x400mm and I should be able to get these kits cut two at a time for only slightly more than the previous company was charging for just one. The rather garish change in colours is due to this new place specifying green instead of black for raster etch/area fill.

Right in the middle of that photo I can see the remains of the truss-rods, the bogies and the few metal components of the KA. Every timber component burnt to ashes.

The re-design of the roof forced me to re-think several other aspects of construction and now I have been able to include some rudimentary interior details in the form of the timber shades and the internal horizontal planking revealed in a 1980s era photo show the restoration of one KA Tramcar - sadly this carriage was completely destroyed in the 1993 arson attack on the Parramatta Park museum.

So far I've had expressions of interest to make up 5 of these as kits. In that light I asked some of those who expressed interest in what suggestions they would have for the kit design. One good request was for some sort of framing or system whereby the roof is a separate component to the main body to allow fitting interior detail, passenger figurines, etc. To that end I have drafted (in green) a false ceiling which will hold ribs which will help keep the roof arc in profile and allow it to be simply friction-fit into the top of the carriage. The drawings for the correct bogie are proving elusive, but I was sent a diagram for a 6'0" wheelbase bogie of an extremely similar design, which I think I can cut down to a very close representation of the 4'9" wheelbase bogies on the prototype.

After a bit more discussion with the laser-cutting company, they informed me that I had to get everything either onto a 300x300 or 600x300 plywood sheet, those being the two smallest standard sizes of 1mm Birch Plywood. So I'll be taking the opportunity to draw up some alternate parts which will allow me to build several variations of the KA Tramcar. The most obvious variation is that there were at least three different arrangements of the headboards and vents, and at least two different styles of end-doors. With the extra roof available on the sheet, I've decided to add some interior detailing such as the paneling on the partitions, interior planking, rudimentary seats for passenger figurines, etc. I will also be altering the design of the roof to make it removable.

The Manning Wardle and the KA Tramcar together. I believe this image may be from when these operated on the Camden line. Photo is some time between 1892 and 1900. And, with some excitement, artwork to get the KA Tramcar body laser-cut in 1mm Birch Plywood. Yes, that is the 7th revision of the drawings.

Revision 7. Found some glaring errors in the floor and roof panels. Floor too wide, roof too narrow. All fixed now.

Indeed it is. A standard K class design. Minor variations such as wider cabsheet/roof for a bit of extra crew protection. If you look closely at the very first photo, a Manning Wardle is hiding behind the crowd and the footbridge, but the distinctive cab-sheet is visible as well as a bit of the saddle-tank and the chimney. The potted history is thus: NSWGR No. 292-293 1884 - Delivered, used on Camden Tramway (former Tramway converted to Railway, but called a "tram" until closure in 1963) Classified as Class 292. 1889 - Reclassified as 127 class with 4 other locos 1x Manning Wardle (possibly old "I" class) and 3x Vulcan locos. 1901 - Renumbered 532-533, sent to Carlingford Line 1906/7 - Sent to Yass Tramway (another converted line like Camden) dates uncertain 1909 - Sold to G&C Hoskins, Lithgow, named "Bunyip" and "Bandicoot" at Lithgow Steelworks 1922 - Disused at Lithgow 1927 - Two locos cannibalised into one engine 1928 - Sent to Wongawilli Colliery, near Dapto, then transferred to Port Kembla Steelworks, renamed "Rat" used as shunter at ore jetty 1934 - Scrapped at Port Kembla Manning Wardle (E.B. Wilson) seems to have been quite a popular supplier of locomotives in the early days of Australian Railways. At least a dozen were bought by the NSWGR of various designs and several contractors and early industrial railways bought them into the 1870s and 1880s.

A bunch of images showed up after some requests on facebook groups with an interest in NSWGR and Modelling: Date Unknown. Possibly 1900-1909. Likely location either Clyde station for Carlingford Line or at Yass Junction. Photo marked Yass, March 1911 Date Unknown. Double-roof suggests ca. 1900 and after. Possibly Camden. Unknown, probably Camden Tramway 1892-1900 Unknown. Possibly 1918 or later in Newcastle District for Caledonian Coal Company.

Craig, Thanks. I really should get myself back to the State Library of NSW to get some photocopies/scans of those pages. There is one photo from circa 1892-1900 which seems to show some sort of gas cylinder below, but nothing is clear as to the arrangement of the westinghouse brake system. The 1891 drawing and later photos show provision for vents along the headboards, but the best photo I have (ca 1885-1890) does not show them. I'm starting to wonder if I should have chosen something smaller and simpler as my first project, but I am too far along now to change my mind. I've already had a request to make it available as a kit to another modeller.

Doors, roof formers and partitions now in. A bit more design work with tab-and-slot and it looks to be coming together quite well. 90% of the way to sending the drawings off for a first test laser-cut.

Work is progressing. I have drawn the carriage ends and two partitions as well as the floor. Still to go are the end-doors, sliding doors, roof forms and the roof itself. I am using notches and tabs to help locate the ends and partitions. These will be covered with thin strip-wood which forms the layering of the sides. At the moment the plan to use scale timber is in place. My thoughts are to put some tabs in the ends and partitions with matching slots in the floor so everything will lock into place. All a bit theoretical for me at the moment since I have never done this sort of thing before. I had to make some colour corrections. The service I will be using specifies blue for etched lines, black for etched areas and red for a full cut-through. I am planning on using 1mm birch plywood

I was going to scratch-build this, but I decided that trying to scribe 1.6mm lines was going to do my head in, so I finally took a dive into some CAD. I have a scan of original construction drawings dated 1891, though the prototype dates from 1885. I am using LibreOffice Draw to create vector graphics, which allows me to specify measurements to 0.1mm. The plan is to get the sides and ends laser-cut from 1mm birch plywood, use kappler scale lumber for various components and to figure out a way of making a removable roof. Whilst it is a "simple arc roof" it may prove a challenge to make it. My biggest challenge will be the bogies. They are 4'9" wheelbase, and as far as I can tell, no similar bogie are available just yet. I've send some photos and drawings to people to inquire about having patterns made for cast brass or white metal ones made. I'll need to search the archives harder to find proper drawings. The KA "Tramcar" was a lightweight carriage generally paired with a Manning Wardle K class used to operate the Camden line from 1884-1901, Carlingford line 1901-1906 and Yass from 1906-1909 (I think). The Manning waddles were phased out and replaced by larger locomotives, but the KA Tramcars were not phased out until around 1917-1919. Details are a bit sketchy from this era. It seated 20 2nd class and 12 1st class passengers and had a combined luggage/guard's compartment. There are brakes at each end, presumably to just the bogie at that end of the carriage. Before the continuous Westinghouse brakes were fitted, the guard must have spent considerable time travelling on the small end-platforms in order to operate the brakes. The first image shows a circa 1890 photograph of the prototype. They were fitted with Westinghouse brakes around 1891-1892, but I have found neither drawings nor photographs which clearly illustrate this. My first sketch-up of the carriage side has been edited onto the image for comparison: This second image shows a little further work in the drawing of the sides, and of course the image has been flipped to give the other side of carriage. I still have to draw the ends and figure out a lot of details.

Peco Code 124 is really their Code 100 rail with an extra 24 thou on top of the head. It makes for a near-enough bullhead profile. The track is sturdy and reliable, but it isn't an accurate reproduction of any one type of track and points used by any British Railway company. It is a generic design, but also designed so that a good portion of the components are common to all items. Take a Right, Left and Wye point look at them closely together and you will see that they all have common parts. I believe the design of the Peco O gauge points was optimized for manufacturing - to get as many different products out of the same group of moulds and patterns. Sometimes there is a problem with wheel-drop in the Vee crossing. It is a fairly simple matter to pack it with some styrene or card which the wheel flange rides over to minimise the drop of the wheels, though there is now a 3rd part laser-cut part which simple snaps into place and solves the problem. All modelling is compromise to one degree or another, and for the most part people don't notice how track looks. Over here in Australia, lots of modellers use the Peco Code 124 bullhead track, despite the fact that we typically used Flat-bottom here. I hand-laid most of the plain track on "Stringybark Creek" using timber sleepers, four spikes in every sleeper. Considering that I laid about 2 scale miles of the stuff, I never want to do it again.

Slaters offer a few S7 wheels for GWR Broad Gauge. I believe you have to send your Slater's wheels to a service where they get re-profiled to S7 standard.

Yeah, but I play with trains to get off my phone and computer!