A brake van for the Dyfrdwy Tramway...

The Dyfrdwy Tramway has until now operated without any kind of brake vehicle, and the workforce were expected to walk to undertake any work on the line, as well as the quarry and mill staff not being able to be transported...

I had for sometime wondered about building some sort of man-rider vehicle, initially inspired by the Hare Crag vehicles. These would have been constructed on skip chassis, with simple wooden ends, bench seats and canvas sides. However it was actually a photo of ISABEL on the Leighton Buzzard Light Railway that spurred me into action. ISABEL is a brake van built onto an old Simplex chassis...

I decided to copy the idea, but sketched out my own ideas on layout and construction. The model has been built around the same chassis that is under my Simplex 40S, but without a motor this time. The 20/28 straight frames were assembled from plasticard cut to size. This is much longer than the 40S but the wheelbase is the same. I designed some suitable axle boxes and had these printed by Shapeways, these are now available in my EuroNG store on Shapeways if anyone else is interested...

Bodywork was started with angle iron forming the corners, and enclosing the guards seat. I envisaged the original 'build' had half height panels but due to the weather this was enclosed later with metal and windows around the guard, and then later still some timber added to cut out the adverse Welsh weather.

The chassis top was enclosed with styrene to mimic the arrangement of a Simplex and then infilled where the engine and gearbox had been removed. Rivet and bolt details were added, along with some bench seats, which will be modelled to look like they have hinged lids shortly. Handrails are thin styrene tube filled with 0.9mm brass wire and bent to shape. The roof was a stumbling block until I visited my friend Steve and we discussed options and how it would have been done in real life. Until that point I'd scratch built the body, but the only real option for the rolled angle in the roof was to resort to the laser. Some 40 thou was cut in curves, and then 30 thou bonded to this to create L girders, then glued to framing down each side. End plates were added and cosmetic rivets to these, this means that the roof can remain removable, but positively locks in place. The brake man seat, from Model-earth was fixed in place on plastic angles assembled from bits in my scrap box.

The roof was then formed from a piece of 40 thou styrene that was scribed to plank width. Each plank was then bent to form a crease and this 'curved' the roof and allowed it to be glued in place.

This gives a lovely appearance both inside and outside the roof - the outside will be coated with tissue paper or similar to give the effect of being covered in canvas. The model is very small actually, despite being quite wide, shown here with the existing 'Dalmunzie' style open coach.

Next up I'm awaiting some parts from Model-earth including Simplex buffers and a brake wheel stand. Then adding the roof, fitting some brackets to secure rolled up canvas sides before priming... it shouldn't be too long before I can give it a test run on the line. More soon...