World Craft Plastic Series mini freight motor

[velotrain]

Thanks to Mark's lead, I found this image - the text on the site is:

 

土佐電気鉄道1型　　昭和63年　桟橋車庫にて
好ましい感じの木造単車です。この車もモデル　ワムで製品化されてますね。

 

At Tosa Electric Railway Type 1 1988 pier garage
It is a wooden motorcycle preferred feel. It has been commercialized in this car model Wham.

 

Yoshiya told me "The model questioned is a free type", but it looks pretty spot on to me.

 

 

 

 

I also found another image of the Toyohashi depot at Akaiwaguchi.

 

 

[Kabutoni]

For those interested, here is the track plan of the Toyohashi tram. It is far from impressive, but it certainly is interesting for modelling purposes:

 

Source: http://okiraku-goraku.com/2008/08/1-3.html

[Nick_Burman]

I'm curious - is the plastic range fairly new for them?  Some of the plastic products look a bit crude to me, but I liked the funkiness of this one.  There's also the possibility of adding your own side panels with a freight door.  You certainly can't beat the price for a powered kit.  I almost bought it on PJ a few weeks ago, but it was about $10 more than HS, and I decided I was willing to wait for HS to get it back in stock.

 

velotrain

 

Yes, the plastic range is fairly new - I have their Ueda Kotsu EB4110 GE steeplecab. It's a gem of a loco, but as you say its quite bare in the realm of details - I'm slowly upgrading mine and WK has announced a brass detail kit to be released at the JNMA show. Once you have lubricated it, given a run in and applied a few drops of Zap-it on the bearings it's quite a good performer, especially given the fact that I have chocked the hoods with extra weight. One day it will also receive a CT Elektronik decoder to try and curb its rocket speed.

 

 

Cheers NB

[marknewton]

Charles, there's some nice photos of the depot on this page:

 

http://www.agui.net/tasya/toh/tohsta-akaiwaguchi-all.html

 

I'm not very familiar with this tramway, but it appears that all their cars are in different paint schemes. They're wonderfully colourful I reckon.

 

Brill trucks are very durable things. They're fairly simple and anything that can wear out, like pins and bushes, is easily replaced. Most of the single-truck cars I work on at my local tramway museum are on 21Es.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[katoftw]

Yoshiya told me "The model questioned is a free type", but it looks pretty spot on to me.

Could be a way for the manufacturer of the model to dodge paying royalties to the owner.

[Welshbloke]

Looks as though tramways the world over built their maintenance stock in a similar fashion.

 

I think a lot were rebuilt from four-wheel tramcars when systems went over to bogie stock, at least that happened a lot here. It helped at least one early car survive into preservation - LCC 106 at Crich was restored from a snowbroom (had a brush rather like that on an upright vacuum cleaner under each end to flick snow off the track). Bean counters were as endemic then as now, so creating works vehicles which merely required the purchase of some timber and a few days work by the depot mechanics would have gone down well.

 

Some lines weren't allowed to use trailer cars here, it may well have been the same in Japan hence having a self-propelled ballast hopper or what's essentially an open wagon with motors. You did get oddballs like Blackpool and Glasgow where standard railway wagons were seen being hauled by small steeplecab electric locos over parts of the tram network, the former carried coal for the tramway's own power plant while the latter served the shipyards.

[marknewton]

While searching for images of work trams, I found this oddity from Brazil.  It sure looks like the cab was built for something else, and later grafted onto the flat, but I'm not sure what such a small cab would have been built for in the first place.

 

OTOH - the piece at the end has the same paint and lining as the cab.

 

 

 

That's an interesting car for sure. I have an old Brill catalog that shows a similar work car to this, available without a cab or fitted with something rather like this one. But it could have easliy have been built in the tramway's own workshops. Any reasonably well-equipped workshop could easily construct a car like this, the only bought-in component needed would  be the truck, which again is a Brill 21E. In that case I reckon that the cab would have been purpose-built rather than recycled from another car.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[velotrain]

Mark - I'm guessing the frame was built locally also.  The sag at the ends tells me that no steel was used in it's construction.

 

I'd also guess that the cab was added before the sag became so bad, or they wouldn't have bothered making it so (relatively) attractive.

 

Sort of looks like the proverbial silk purse riding on a sow's ear !

[marknewton]

Mark - thanks for the wealth of info and images.  Wow - those Brill trucks must have been well made, if they're still running after 125 years!

 

I was surprised at how short the Toyohashi line is, only running to the Tokaido main line station.  I also noticed that the line splits near the depot, but with each part only running for a couple of blocks, which seems surprising.

 

My pleasure Charles. I love threads like this where questions are asked, people start researching, answers are given, and we all learn something new.

 

According to Volume 2 of Electric Railways in Japan the Toyohashi tramway was longer in the past. The line used to continue past the current terminus at Toyohashi-ekimae to the hospital at Shimin-byoin-mae. There was also a branch from Shinkawa to Yagyubashi. The hospital line closed in 1969, and the Yagyubashi branch in 1976. The branch to Undo-koen-mae wasn't opened until 1982, however.

 

The more I learn about this tramway the more interested I get by it! :)

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[marknewton]

For those interested, here is the track plan of the Toyohashi tram. It is far from impressive, but it certainly is interesting for modelling purposes:

 

It's interesting alright. Thanks for posting this Tony.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[marknewton]

Charles, since you have a Tosaden car, you might find this depot of interest too. At the western end of the Ino line there used to be a little depot tucked away on the side of a hill:

 

 

http://rail.hobidas.com/blog/natori/archives/2012/07/10_6.html

 

http://rail.hobidas.com/blog/natori/archives/2012/07/3_1.html

 

Although it's been closed for many years, Google streetview still shows some track and overhead in place. 

 

More ideas/inspiration?

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Edited July 2, 2015 by marknewton

[velotrain]

Thanks for the image, Mark.  Looks like there was a serious threat of landslide.

[Welshbloke]

That cab looks exactly like the cab ends from a Birney single-truck trolley (as modelled by Corgi in O scale). The truck may have come from there too, the length would be about right.

[marknewton]

I doubt that the cab is from a Birney. I'm very familiar with them, our museum fleet includes one on long-term from Bendigo:

 

Bendigo 11 at Loftus - me on the left and my good mate Ben on the right.

 

The Birney's have an all-steel body as opposed to the wooden body on the work motor. They also run on a Brill 79E truck, which is very different to the 21E under the work motor. As far as I know the tramway at Juiz de Fora never had any Birney cars to convert, either.

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

[marknewton]

Mark - I'm guessing the frame was built locally also.  The sag at the ends tells me that no steel was used in it's construction.

 

I'd also guess that the cab was added before the sag became so bad, or they wouldn't have bothered making it so (relatively) attractive.

 

Sort of looks like the proverbial silk purse riding on a sow's ear !

 

I agree, the frame is obviously of wooden construction. Sagging ends, or as it's sometime known, hogging, is very common on old single-truck wooden cars.

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

[kvp]

I've found this info about the Juiz de Fora trams:

Following cars 1-4, Guinle ordered tram 5 from Brill in 1906, tram 6 in 1907, tram 7 in 1910 and trams 8 and 9 in 1912. The tramway survey of Brazil's Directoria Geral de Estatística of 1912 [see BIBLIOGRAPHY] reported seven passenger cars and one work car operating on 10 km of meter-gauge track in Juiz de Fora. Between 1913 and 1915 new tram lines opened to Tapera, Fábrica, Manoel Honório and Passos [see map], and in 1918 Guinle ordered two more trams from Brill, numbers 10 and 11. CME continued to order parts from Brill but thereafter built its own equipment in its shops behind the "Castelinho": 10 more 8-bench cars numbered 12-21 and nine 13-bench models numbered 22-30. The photograph below, taken on 15 October 1920, shows CME directors in front of their first 8-bench model, probably numbered 12. Unlike the early Brill cars, it had enclosed platforms at the ends [col. Manoel Marcos Monachesi]:

(http://www.tramz.com/br/jf/jf.html)

 

So it looks like they were using Brill parts and home made bodies. Considering many post war japanese 4 axle trams had the exact same fronts, this design was simple and universal enough to be built by anyone from local materials.

[Nick_Burman]

As far as I know the tramway at Juiz de Fora never had any Birney cars to convert, either.

 

All the best,

 

Mark.

 

If my memory doesn't fail me, only Curitiba, Petrópolis (and I might be wrong) Porto Alegre used Birneys in any large scale in Brazil, Curitiba being by far the largest user - they were employed to replace the original Nivelles-built equipment.

 

Cheers NB

Edited July 3, 2015 by Nick_Burman

[marknewton]

We need a button that says, "I've read this, good comments that make interesting points, but it's bedtime so I'll reply in the morning!" :)

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Edited July 3, 2015 by marknewton

[westfalen]

Charles, since you have a Tosaden car, you might find this depot of interest too. At the western end of the Ino line there used to be a little depot tucked away on the side of a hill:

 

 

http://rail.hobidas.com/blog/natori/archives/2012/07/10_6.html

 

http://rail.hobidas.com/blog/natori/archives/2012/07/3_1.html

 

Although it's been closed for many years, Google streetview still shows some track and overhead in place. 

 

More ideas/inspiration?

 

Cheers,

 

Mark.

Here is the former depot/storage sidings at ino when I was there on 29th May last year.  There is still one track in place with overhead but neither the track or overhead is connected to the main line.

 

[velotrain]

The rails may be there, but it looks like some of the flangeway has been paved over.

 

For anyone interested, this site has a lot of info and photos on the Juiz de Fora, and is where I found the work tram photo:

 

http://www.tramz.com/br/jf/jf.html

[velotrain]

Sorry - hadn't noticed that kvp had previously posted the link.

 

I wasn't following the Birney vs. Brill debate.

[velotrain]

I just noticed that HS is showing this kit as #1 on their Best Sellers list.

[cteno4]

See what you did charles -- you incited a mass buying spree! Sure lots of ancillary damage as well, just like my purchases! My logic was not flawed it's all your fault! ;-p

 

Jeff

Edited July 4, 2015 by cteno4

[velotrain]

Jeff - I can't wait to get mine (4) and start bashing them!

 

and you didn't even get this one!

 

I think we should approach HS for a JNS discount for all Forum members  ;-)

 

 

Although - I've noticed that AmiAmi has some sweet discounts, so long as something isn't shown as "sold out".  "Back-order" works just fine.

[Densha]

Meh ...HS has gotten very expensive over the years and nowadays even the price they ask for foreign customers has become even higher than for domestic customers! That's simply a rip-off because prices for foreign customers should be lower because they would not have to pay local tax. At least they shouldn't be HIGHER.