Tram Loco Bodies

[IrishPeter]

At some point I need to put 'Tram Cans' on my two Accucraft Ruby locomotives to represent locomotives 1 and 3 of the Skebawn and Castleknox. So far the hold up has been that I am not any good at iron strangling and brass pounding. Wood is my material of choice.

Anyway, as I was sipping three fingers of the water of life the other night I began wondering if it would be possible to build the tram loco bodies out of plywood suitably painted rather than brass. The locomotive boilers are of the 'fire in tube' type, so the direct fire risk is fairly small provided I boxed (pun intended) a little clever around the smokebox door.

I am inclined to think it is do-able. Just take the camera out there the first few times I run her in case we decide to out-do Britomart, the 'Oh-dear-it's-on-fire-again' Mamod

Any thoughts?

Peter in AZ

[GTB]

Anyway, as I was sipping three fingers of the water of life the other night I began wondering if it would be possible to build the tram loco bodies out of plywood suitably painted rather than brass.

Can't think of any reason for not using a wooden body for a tram loco. if you use an internally fired boiler. I've seen a couple of scratchbuilt ones running at a local steamup and Regner have done four locos. so far with wood in the body structure.

Wood catches fire at much the same temperature as paint, so if you aren't burning the paint off the Ruby boilers now, you won't set fire to a wooden body.

Wood doesn't soften or melt when it gets hot, so just a decent air gap between the body and the smokebox is all you need.

Just avoid meths firing..........

Graeme

[steamie1]

Any good Hobby store can get litho plate or speed tape from an airfield (a similar sticky foil product for quick alloy skin repairs)..This thin sticky foil should deflect the heat if applied to the inside wood face...I'm going to make my first diesel body soon...agh!

[IrishPeter]

I live in a Pondorosa Pine forest, so I do not do Meths-firing due to the wildfire risk if the darn thing imitates Britimart!

Cheers,
Peter in AZ

[Crackingjob]

I have just bought a tin can with the view of cutting to fit over my Regner Max, as a Java tram...its an idea

[IrishPeter]

I am now agonizing over what sort of a box to put over my Ruby. Something resembing a Kitson six-panel is the favourite as they there were at least eight 3' gauge Kitsons of various sizes roving around Ireland - three Six Panels on the Castlederg, three Four Panels in Portrush, and several of unknown size on the Dublin and Lucan. One of the Castlederg Six Panels and the three Portrush locos had lives of about 40 years. A six-panel body would hide a 'Ruby' and leave space to swing the smokebox door open to light the bloody thing - it does not like the chimney method. I am tempted to model it in battered condition, as per a photo of a Barrow Tramways SG Four Panel loco c.1902 that I found on t'internet. It was in a distressed condition having lost all the fancy bits from the loco body, and looked generally unloved. That would not be far off how I imagine my line's locos would have looked by the late 1920s.

Other designs that have caught my eye have been Krauss of Munich as the Wolverton and Stony Stratford Tramway had one; Henschel; and Backer and Raub, Breda. Backer and Raub locos have a fair amount of 'oomph' (4-5 carriages wighing 60-75 tons at 25 mph) but tend to be very small, and have inside cylinders. The Henschels are just as powerful, but have a bigger tram body, about 4.3m against the 3.2 common with B&R. Krauss probably has the simplest body shape - literally a "Boxlok." Breda and Henschel used to supply a handful of standard designs in anything from 750mm gauge through to standard with metre and standard gauges being the commonest. Of course there is nothing to stop me from having both a Kitson body and a Henschel or Krauss and swapping them out from time to time!

Anything French or Belgian is out as they favoured 0-6-0s, and I am trying to clothe an 0-4-0 loco. The Baldwin steam dummy is also out as their design is too much of a tramcar body with lots of curves. If you know the Douglas Bay Tramway, their covered trams are rather American looking complete with all the bent wood, and the carbodies on the steam dummies look similar. That said, those loco bodies were indeed wooden, as the Aussies found out when vandals burned the body of NSWGT 103A a few years back!

Choices, choices, choices!

Peter in AZ

[Vapouriser]

I was thinking if doing something similar. I d thought of sticking ton foil both sides of the wood for protection and a paint surface. May be too thinbto apply prooerly though

[Stuvon]

A wooden body will be fine as the outside of the boiler cannot exceed water temp, which at 60PSI is 307deg.F or approx 152.7deg.C the problem area would be the smoke box which doesn't have water cooling. A prolonged smoke box fire could cause an issue but with care I don't see a problem.

I think that wood would be a fantastic material to use, as surely the originals were mostly wood? (I don't know a thing about tram engines). Have you got any pics of prototypes you wish to imitate?

[IrishPeter]

Most European examples had steel bodies, though wood was used occasionally. The Wisbeach and Upwell locos were wooden bodied, but that is unusual for the UK. The decision to use wood was probably a pragmatic one as they were built by the GER not by one of the usual Tram Locomotive manufacturers. Far simpler to hand them over to the wagon shop for a wooden cover than to make the iron stranglers do something new. OTOH, wooden bodies were common in the USA where there was more of an attempt to imitate a tramcar body rather than just conceal the works, though the usual practice here was put a steel panel where the smokebox comes through the carbody so there was at least a foot between the smokebox, and the nearest part of the wooden body.

I am leaning towards either a six-panel Kitson, or Henschel design as that would leave plenty of air space around the smokebox. My experience with the 'Ruby' class is that they are prone to smokebox flares until they are warmed through, and one of mine likes to have its smokebox door cracked open when warming up! Both of these considerations make having about an inch on all sides of the smokebox desireable.

Cheers,
Peter in AZ

[IrishPeter]

I have almost come down in favour of the six panel Kitson, though unless I do a very battered version, based on the photo of the Barow-in-Furness four-panel I found on t'internet, the eliptical tops to the windows may just make me a little buggy. However I many make both a Henschel and a Kitson as I have two Ruby chassis doing nothing right now...  

Peter in AZ

[AFGadd]

My dear old Dad had a bit of a passion for Tram Engines.

I kept a few of his drawings, they were always freelance with a pinch of "Emmett" thrown in for good measure.





My apologies for the quality of the images, my father would draw on anything that came to hand...

[IrishPeter]

Utterly delightful!

The first one looks like the result of a mesalliance between a Becker - the body shape - and a Krauss - smokebox door through front plate being a common Krauss feature. The second looks bred from a Merryweather and a Beyer. Beyerish in that the tram can is very plain, and Merryweather in having a centre door etc. IIRC bth types were VB.

Cheers,
Peter in AZ

[IrishPeter]

"Something SM45 and Henschel" is taking shape on the workbench at the moment. In the end the round corners did not put me off, though I know there will be some muttering when the time comes. The bdy shape is actuall quite a bit simpler than the photos might suggest as the GTW was still panelling out its loco livery in the 1940s and 50s. The S&CT loco's paint job will be a lot plainer.

I am now eyeing up the Accucraft 'Dora' as a potential chassis and boiler donor for a Backer and Raub. The key to success here wil be length over beams. The ex-GTW Backer loco at Valkenburg is quite a bit smaller than its Henschel shedmate at 3200mm compared to 4470mm over the beams. The Henschel is a tight fit over a Ruby chassis, so using that as the basis for a Backer is out.

I'll see if I can get the pics out of the camera later.

Peter in AZ

[11thHour]

[quote=My apologies for the quality of the images, my father would draw on anything that came to hand...[/quote]
Surprising how the absence of a ruler makes a drawing much easier to visualise in the flesh. Well done father.
Tim