Nystrup Gravel: Wood Gas Generator

Monday 17 May 2021

Wood Gas Generator

On my old 1/35 scale version of Nystrup Gravel I had several vehicles with wood burning gas generators including a locomotive. As the technology is fascinating I decided to have at least one vehicle with wood gas propulsion on my 1/19 scale Nystrup Gravel. I was fortunate enough to find a kit on eBay of what looks like an Imbert gas generator. The manufacturer was Dioramaparts, a German company selling detail parts and kits through eBay in 2019. The company unfortunately seems to have stopped trading since.

The zip lock plastic bag emptied: here are the kit parts for a gas generator in 1/19 scale. Light sand parts are resin, plastic parts are in small bags and the 6 parts in the middle are white metal.

So far I haven't found any other kits of gas generators in 1/18-1/19 scale and I'm glad I made the purchase, despite the kit being quite rudimentary. All the main parts are there, though. With good images and drawings of a prototype gas generator and some basic modelling skills I'm sure I can enhance the kit parts to a decent level.

I have not yet decided what to place the gasgenerator on. As the gas generator is a fairly large model usually mounted on lorries with 50 hp engines the obvious chioce would be a lorry. In the back of my mind I am considering a loco, though, as there aren't many lorries available in 1/19 scale.

A Danish built JWE-locomotive with a rear mounted gas generator. Photo: Kolding Stadsarkiv B41387.

Here is an image I've shown before: My grandad driving a JWE-loco with rear mounted Vulcan-generator. Photo: B1650 Lokalhistorisk Arkiv og Forening i Allerød Kommune.

Yet another JWE-loco fitted with gas generator, only front mounted. This mounting enabled coupling to wagons both front and rear without the awkward frame extension on my granddad's loco. Photo: Vejle Stadsarkiv B73442.

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About Nystrup Gravel

Nystrup Gravel is a 1:19 scale model on 32 mm gauge track of a Danish gravel company with a 600 mm. railway. Lines from several gravel pits converged outside the small town of Nystrup before reaching the company’s sorting facility and loading ramp for lorries.

For the first 15 years Nystrup Gravel was in 1:35 scale on 16.5 mm gauge. In 2018-2019 the layout changed to 1:19 scale.

I model the company’s railway as it looked in the early fifties. I try to make up a believable setting for my railway models by researching the history of the company and its environments. This blog gives you the possibility to follow my work. Notice that Nystrup Gravel is fiction and that all history regarding the railway and company is my work and not real.