Nystrup's Lister Finished

With a servicable Lister available I only had to perform a mild weathering job on the loco before I could call my first loco project in 16 mm scale complete. As I had decided not to fit a canvas to block the view from the back of the bonnet, I began by painting the electrical equipment and wires matt black. If they can be seen by anyone, they will now appear more like parts of the engine. To the untrained eye at least! The battery sides were also covered with matt black.

Nystrup Gravel no. 3 on a solo trip on a section of the line with light rail.

The little locomotive then received a rather standard light weathering with scratches applied with a very fine brush, oil washings, acrylic paints and graphite powder covered with a layer of matt varnish. Dust was then added with air brush and chalk powders, a bit more oil wash and a final light covering with matt varnish. Wet oil spots were lightly represented with gloss varnish.

Apart from finishing the Lister model I found a letter from the company that Nystrup Gravel bought the Lister from. I will scan the letter as it is interesting and shows that Nystrup Gravel was quite lucky in acquiring locos and rolling stock.

I added home made coupling chains both front and rear. Standard chain with lengths of equal size just doesn't look like prototype coupling chain.

A rear view shows how little of the electrical equipment and wires is visible under the bonnet.

Lister coupled to a short train of skips ready to a trip to the gravel pits. Perhaps an urgent order for foundry sand needs to be filled. Usually the Lister didn't pull regular gravel trains as it wasn't strong enough.

New Loco Project

While putting the finishing touches on my first 16 mm scale loco I'm already in full swing planning my next loco project. I have several locos listed that I would like to build, but my choise fell on a loco from the largest Danish narrow gauge loco manufacturer Pedershaab Maskinfabrik (Pedershaab Machineworks).

Pedershaab loco with 'semi-closed cab' at a major road viaduct project in Haderslev, Denmark in 1952. Photo: Historisk Arkiv for Haderslev Kommune B5921.

Pedershaab Maskinfabrik was established in 1877. After a major reorganisation in 1915 the company concentrated on equipment for the cement and concrete industry. In 1925-1926 the first narrow gauge loco was produced resulting in a production of close to 500 until the last loco was delivered in 1963. A small number of locos were exported to primarily Norway and Finland.

Pedershaab also produced excavators, cement mixers, gravel handling machinery, concrete formwork and road rollers. The factory in Brønderslev is still active designing and producing machines for the concrete industry as a part of HawkeyePedershaab. Advert from 'The Engineer' 1943.

Gravel sorting, storing and loading facility supplied by Pedershaab to the Hans Jørgensen gravel company on the Danish island of Fyn. To the left of all the cars a Pedershaab locomotive is parked with its rear end facing the photographer. Photo: IBK archive.

As Pedershaab quickly built up a good reputation and had sales channels to contractors and gravel companies, a large number of Pedershaab's production initially went to them. Later other companies looking for a dependable and solid little locomotive became faithfull customers.

Pedershaab's first locos were named type HSL after the designer H. S. Lindhardt. This HSL was built 1930 for Taastrup Brickworks (only 500 m from where I live). Photo from a film about brick production. See the film below.

Film from 1940 showing brick making at Taastrup Brickworks. Instructed by H. Andersen and filmed by Axel Ørsted. From the Danish film site 'Denmark on film' containing more than 1000 films from 1899-1995. Available for non-commercial use free of charge.

With the type PCM in the early 1930's the Pedershaab locos reached maturity and through the next 10 years about 100 locos of the type PCM and PM-F were built.

Pedershaab's next type of loco was the PCM - here VBV (Danish State Costal Protection Department) No 9 (PM 124/1934). IBK archive.

In the late 1930's Pedershaab introduced type D. With a sturdy welded deep frame and solid bonnet with rounded top, the type was the most numerous Pedershaab loco and with minor changes the type that ended the company's locomotive production. Even today type D locos are in service making valuable transport support for the Danish peat producer Pindstrup Mosebrug. Primarily in the Baltic countries, but a single Pedershaab is still available for peat transport on the Fuglsø Mose facility in Denmark. It's been rebuilt with modern drive line etc., but 65-70 years of service is nevertheless quite impressive.

600 mm Pedershaab loco with open driver's position at the German refugee camp at Oksbøl, Denmark. The crew is mostly made up from youngsters in leftover military coats. With 35.000 refugees the camp was the sixth largest 'city' in Denmark in 1946. Most Pedershaab locos were delivered without cab. Photo: Blåvandshuk Lokalhistoriske Arkiv.

The Pedershaab type D was delivered with a range of different engines. With a Ford-engine the locos were labeled type FD, with a Danish built BurWain-engine BWD and with a Fordson-engine the type was called FDD. Advert from 'The Engineer', 1942.

Pedershaab-loco at Fuglsø Mose, 2014. Probably built in the 1940's this loco is still in service. See more on this blog post from 2014. 

Modelling wise I have aquired a Swift Sixteen 'adjustable length power bogie' to ensure my Pedershaab model becomes as trusty a loco as a real Pedershaab. More on that and on drawings in a later blog post.

A Danish Hudson-Hunslet

I have been fortunate to be able to acquire what must be a small part of the Nystrup Gravel company archive. In previous posts I have shown some of the old documents. The documents, newspaper clippings and pictures have been a huge inspiration for my modelling.

Due to the overwhelming succes of Danish manufacturers of small internal combustion narrow gauge locos foreign locomotives are comparatively rare in Denmark. We have had a fair selection of German locomotives from Gmeinder, O&K, Jung and Deutz. British locos, on the other hand, were few and far between. In a small advertisement from P. C. Petersen, Aalborg a brand new 3.25 ton Hudson-Hunslet with 20 hp is mentioned being for sale in 1947. There is currently no evidence as to where the Hudson-Hunslet loco went from P. C. Petersen, but the demand for locos was great after the war. It's unthinkable a brand new loco wouldn't be a prized item for any gravel company or contractor.

The advertisement is a scan from the newspaper 'The Engineer' 18. July 1947 found in a box with Nystrup Gravel documents. It also mentions 20 new British 600 mm gauge skips. Nystrup Gravel had British skips but bought from the Danish dealer V. Spøer.

In the Nystrup Gravel archive I have also found half a list of the company's skips. The British skips are simply mentioned as being of 'British type'. From photos we know they were of the Hudson 'Rugga' type. The list of skips was originally mentioned in a post in April 2013.

A torn off upper half of a list of skips at Nystrup Gravel dating from 1951 and 1952. Six skips of British type are listed numbered 47-48, 50, 52 and 54-55.

Lister Power Supply

With no electricity to pick up from the rails my new loco in 16 mm scale relies on battery power. As I'm still a novice regarding battery power and eager to get the loco rolling, I have equipped my Lister with a single cell standard camera type battery. Battery technology and the associated circuits is a new game for me, so to cut down on mistakes, loss of hard earned money and avoid getting myself too challenged I chose a type of battery I'm used to handle.

Lister on its side. From left to right: Battery under rear foot plate, wires for receiver in seat/figure, motor and transmission (big word for such a simple thing!) charging socket and two pole switch mounted under/in bonnet.

The battery is a Li-ion Japcell JC123R 3.7 V 650 mAh.  It may not be cutting edge technology, but the battery has turned out to be able to provide power through my helplessly executed circuit to the Lister's motor and actually make the loco move. I consider that a success.

While I was shopping batteries I bought a BC-4123 charger as well. Battery and charger set me back 35 €. Not much for starting a gentle learning curve and should I continue using JC123Rs or other 16340 type batteries, the charger will see plenty of use.

'But if you have installed the battery permanently under your loco, how do you fit it in the charger' the attentive reader may ask. The battery is permanently fixed and it will not fit in the charger. To be able to charge the battery in the loco a socket is installed under the bonnet. A matching socket's two leads were soldered to a pair of crocodile clips. On one of the four stations in the charger I soldered small brass tabs on the contacts. I can now easily attach the crocodile clips to the tabs on the charger and charge the battery via the socket under the bonnet. May sound very old fashioned but it does really work.

Soldered tabs from scrap brass on one of the charger's four stations.

Crocodile clips are now easily attached. Charging can begin.

With a fully charged battery all I have to do is to flip the 2 pole switch next to the charging socket from charge mode to work mode, switch on the Tx-22 controller, select loco no. 3 (my only one so far), turn the speed knob and the loco moves. And I don't have to clean rail heads or wheel treads!

All the bits that make my Lister run.

Equipment for Lister

When modelling I often try to personalize a kit. If I don't rebuild or change the kit I like to at least add some other special feature to it. I like the manufacturers' support, but if we all build the same kits the same way we may end up with very little variety. Adding a bucket, a bracket with extra coupling chains or fitting a spare can for petrol avoids models that look the same, even if they are otherwise built right out of the box and painted the same colour.

A 1:35 scale Billard T 75 fitted with a detailed jack. I had two Billards and adding small differences to them made it a lot more fun having to identical locos on the layout. The two Billards have been sold to a modeller in Luxembourg. 

With the Lister running and painted I looked around for a small addition that would set my Lister apart from others and make a realistic impression. On eBay I found a few manufacturers selling detail parts for car modellers in 1/18 scale. Many of them useful for my purpose.

Detailing parts to be fitted to my version of the I. P. Engineering Lister. The jack may be slightly oversized for the Lister?

My white metal parts came from Dioramaparts in Germany through eBay. Their range of parts is large and one could easily spend a considerable sum of money on parts from their selection. The jack is a very fine casting and I only removed the cast on handle with a file. No mould lines were present and an extra, extended handle was supplied. I added both lower and upper handle on the jack from brass wire. The oil can had some mould lines which I removed with a few strokes of file and sand paper.

Nystrup Gravel probably bought the jack on an auction over German military equipment left on a nearby air base after the war. The gravel company didn't bother covering the late war German standard paint for armoured vehicles, but took the jack into use immediately. I painted the jack a 40/60 mix of Vallejo Air 71.078 Gold Yellow and 71.028 Sand Yellow. Once dry I washed the jack in heavily thinned brown oil paint and added scratches in the yellow paint with a fine brush and dark grey oil paint. The oil can was painted gun metal. It had been my intetntion to fit a canvas cover on the open rear end of the bonnet, but it really isn't easy to view under the bonnet and see the electric components fitted there, so I decided to spare me the trouble fitting the canvas cover.

Well, the jack is definately oversize for the Lister. I'll have to build another locomotive for the jack.

Having decided what to fit and what to leave out, the Lister is now ready for weathering. In addition I will have to design a charging method via the socket mounted under the bonnet. I have an idea utilizing a cheap battery charger.