Nystrup Gravel: Lanz Tractor (1/35)

Monday 12 January 2015

Lanz Tractor (1/35)

I'm still without a real worktable for modelling due to my recent move. I still manage a little work on my gasgenerator Citroën now and then. Before I get a post done on that topic here is a few lines on a 10 year old model.

On several occasions I have used parts from Plus Model's comprehensive range of small diorama accessories in 1:35. The Czech company also does a few vehicles, including a pair of tractors. Plus Models supplied my first resin tractor kit - a Lanz Bulldog. Until then all my tractors had been white metal kits.

The Plus Model kit is a very fine kit of the legendary Lanz Bulldog HR 7 with 30 hp. engine. It is a kit that really has more in common with a normal plastic injected kit than with most peoples' idea of a resin kit. This model isn't hard to build. Other modellers besides me must have thought highly of the kit, as it was awarded the title 'Modell des Jahres' by the German modelling magazine Modell Fan in 1999. I finished my kit in 2004, but have recently fitted it with a license plate to make its appearance unmistakeably Danish.

My Plus Models Lanz tractor parked outside the loco shed. The tractor is from one of the farms surrounding Nystrup and the driver may have dropped in for a visit. According to the top digit on the green license plate the tractor is registered in police district 4 encompassing Roskilde and surroundings (Roskilde Købstad, Ramsø-Tune Herreder og Lejre Herred). Nystrup seems to be placed somewhere between Roskilde and Sorø if other license plate observations are to be believed.

The kit is still available as is a very interesting tracked version. At least one tracked Lanz worked on the Danish island of Lolland in the fifties. As the island is well known for its clay rich and heavy soil a tracked tractor would probably be useful there in wet conditions. According to my late grandfather a Lanz Bulldog was capable of running on any relatively flammable fluid thinner than porridge! More info on Lanz tractors on this German website.

An advert on the virtues of the Lanz Bulldog tractor. From a 1940's German farmer's magazine.

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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.