Garden Railway Forum

Following my recent request for inspiration, and not finding anything that grabbed me in back issues of SMT, I turned to my own stockpiles of idea for "one day" and there I came across pictures of Wickham trolleys. Something that I have thought about more than once but wasn't sure I could get all the gubbins in the small engine compartment and never took any further. My mental image of a trolley has two or three open frame cross benches and a small, more or less square engine housing in front of the front bench, but looking again at the pics I realised that the earliest models had a full length, enclosed centre bench with the engine underneath and that certainly has enough space for a motor & gearbox. I also discoverd that many of them ran with a matching open tool truck, which gives me the potential space for batteries, sound equipment, etc. I also found that although the majority were standard gauge, Wickham did produce 'special' narrow gauge versions. So I've spent a few hours over the last few days drawing up a Type 17 trolley based on a British Railways one in an exhibition in Shildon 10 years ago, but narrow gauge.

It still needs some details but this is the result so far:
I have a motor and gears and some other bits on order, and once they arrive I'll get the chassis design sorted although I have a fair idea of how I think it will work out.

More to follow....

Great idea Philip, one I would never have thought of, so following with interest.

Looks like a lovely project --- and very fitting. Already wanting more!

I think that somewhere I have an old copy of RM with a scale drawing of the later style Wickham trolley and trailer. Standard gauge. I believe they were often kept in a lineside shed equiped with a miniature turntable to put them onto a siding.

invicta280 wrote: Sun Mar 14, 2021 8:13 pm I believe they were often kept in a lineside shed equiped with a miniature turntable to put them onto a siding.

Yes, the turntable was a standard fitting although I can't make out where/how they carried it. There was no reverse on most of them so it had to be turned to go back to where they started from!

Made a start by printing the front.

My original intention was to print it as one piece, but on closer thought, I realised that there were too many different layers which would need support and be difficult to clean up, so I split it into 4 layers:
Window frame, front boarding, intermediate layer with internal framing, and then two vertical timbers ( the two horizontal bars on these are simply to keep the alignment and will be removed).
This shows all the bits straight off the printer:



I've also printed the roof.Following what others have said I tried printing it vertically. First time I've tried anything thin ( 1.5mm thick) and tall and it seems to have worked better than I could have hoped.

philipy wrote: Tue Mar 16, 2021 9:57 am

I've also printed the roof.Following what others have said I tried printing it vertically. First time I've tried anything thin ( 1.5mm thick) and tall and it seems to have worked better than I could have hoped.

I always print roofs on the end. 1mm is too thin and 2mm is a bit thick so I think you have it bang on at 1.5mm

Looking very good so far, and looking forward to seeing more as this progresses.

This is a terrific project. Enjoying seeing the progression via photos of the prototype, CAD drawing, printed parts...

A bit of an update:

1) The three main components of the ends glued together and the front glued to the underframe.
2)The cantilevered seat glued to the engine cover, but that is not yet glued, simply placed in position for now.
3) One of the two footboards.
4)Test print of the chassis. This will fit up inside the engine cover with the longitudinal frame members siting on top of the axle boxes. The chassis will hold the motor, as seen but slightly further in (I forgot to leave a cutout for the motor connections!), plus the gears, plus the battery.
5)Test print of one wheel which seems pretty satisfactory so far.

I have a couple of other cunning plans but waiting for bits, which should have been here this morning but weren't!!!

Good progress. Looking forward to seeing this in action.

Looking good. Should look great pottering about on the track.

Rik

ge_rik wrote: Mon Mar 22, 2021 9:36 am Looking good. Should look great pottering about on the track.

Rik

Absolutely! You've really captured the utilitarian look of the prototype...

Just in case its of interest:

I have found reference to an unmanned 2 ft gauge wickham trolley which was used at Raytor Target Railway on Dartmoor! (Wikipedia).

Trevor

So they did make them as narrow as 2 ft gauge.

Thanks Trevor. I didn't know about that one specifically but I did know the War Office/ MOD had several on various narrow gauge lines including Longmoor, where it was used in The Great St Trinians Train Robbery. There is a preserved ex MOD one at Amberley and there were a couple on the IOM.
They were all post-WW2 as far as I know, but I see no reason why there couldn't have been earlier ones where the documentation has sadly got mislaid!!

Philip,
You know you want to...


Looks like it just gets balanced and then spins on a capstan. Although the picture above seems to have a different arrangement.

Thanks Phil, that's the first picture I've seen of the T/T itself although I haven't looked specifically. I can see it has 4 separate parts that slot together for use but I'm still not sure how it was carried around on the trolley though. Might look into it a bit further when I've got the basic machine sorted.

I've been doing some digging and although I've not found anything particularly relevant to my project, I did come across this amazing Wickham trolley version exported to India in 1932. This has to be up Peter Butler's street?
http://hgcreasey.co.uk/wickham-ware/wic ... rks-no-494

Whilst on this site, take a look at the other headings, there are some amazing road vehicles that are crying out to be modeled.

philipy wrote: Fri Mar 26, 2021 7:49 pm I did come across this amazing Wickham trolley version exported to India in 1932. This has to be up Peter Butler's street?

Too right Philip, that is a posh Wickham and I love it! The bucket seating looks really comfy too.

On the subject of the turntable, I've found this video showing how its done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mrf0tpoRES8

philipy wrote: Sun Mar 28, 2021 10:56 am On the subject of the turntable, I've found this video showing how its done.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mrf0tpoRES8

Well done for finding that! It really is as simple as it appeared to be then. Presumably there were variations in the central pivot point employed, hence the differences in the photos.
Personally, at our scales, I think 'the hand of Dog' is easier