Although a small company with only two short lines in operation, Nystrup Gravel was nevertheless in possesion of a little covered speeder. The speeder was used for inspection tours, urgent repairs, spare parts delivery and for a 'joy ride' with business partners, government officials or with the press, whom the company sought to please whenever possible. When and where the speeder was built is unkown. In inventory lists the speeder is mentioned as far back as 1936 and seems to have originally been fitted with a motor cycle engine. A new(er) and bigger engine was fitted in the late forties. The speeder fell out of use due to faulty transmission and was scrapped in the mid 1960's.
In northern Germany two narrow gauge lines have several closed speeders that resembles the speeder from Nystrup Gravel. See some of my photos on Flickr from
Dagebüll and
Nordstrandischmoor.
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| My pathetic attempt at catching the main measurements of the speeder from a blurry photo from a news paper article. As the speeder wasn't photographed much, I'm quite sure no rivet counter will ever be able to prove that I didn't get everything completely right. One good thing about modelling elusive prototypes. |
My model of the speeder is being built on a Black Beetle motor bogie from the Australian manufacturer
Steam Era Models The frame will be made from wooden profiles and the closed cabin from primarily plastic card with details in metal and wood. The window frames are laser cut wood and the first laser cut parts I saw (and promptly bought) at an exhibition in Germany back in 2004. They surely must have matured to a good, dry quality! Axle boxes will be Scale Link skip axle boxes that I have surplus from the brake skip project.
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| The very first steps in the construction of the speeder. Black Beetle with lower bottom plate fitted. It is still a most splendid summer in Denmark, so I have moved my modelling out in the sun. |
See the
finished speeder.
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