Get in Shape - Ride a Speeder!

Narrow gauge is great fun when you get to experience some of the charm of running historic vehicles in nice autumn weather. Last week I had the opportunity to propel a speeder along the track at the Hedeland vintage railway. It's not healthy always to sit behind the modelling table!

Meeting one of the ordinary trains on Brandhøj Station. In track 1 it's dieselelectric M 24 built by Nakskov sugar factory in 1962. Photo: Leif Johannsen.

The speeder has been restored by volunteers and it was one of the vehicle's first tours on the line after having been approved by the Danish Civil Aviation and Railway Authority. During the restoration the speeder has been regauged from 785 mm gauge to 700 mm and all wooden parts completely renewed due to rot. The speeder has two traction modes: human and wind power. As we have yet to design, make and fit a sail to the preserved original mast, the speeder was powered by human power alone.

The speeder is powered by moving the handle back and forth as well as using the pedals for extra power when climbing gradients.

The braked speeder waiting for the first train meet of the day.

The speeder was originally used on a railway line owned by the Danish governmental service building and maintaining constructions along Denmark's North Sea-coast protecting it from erosion by the sea. As the line ran mostly north-south and with a predominantely westerly wind, sails were an obvious source of traction for speeders on the line.

The speeder doesn't bear any identifying plate as to who built it, but there are some indications that it may have been built by Swedish Hults Bruk, now famous for their high quality axes.

Hults Bruk catalogue from September 1913 showing a speeder (bottom of page) of very similar construction to the one on the Hedeland vintage railway.

Speeder of similar construction photographed 7. November 1904 near Agger on the standard gauge line that transported building material for the dykes and groynes built to protect the coastline from erosion. The line was regauged to 785 mm between 1948-50. Gun barrels and cannon balls placed next to the track are salvaged from 'HMS St. George' and 'HMS Defence' that both stranded on the west coast of Denmark 24. December 1811. Only 17 British sailors survived out of a total of 1425. Photo: Vandbygningsvæsenets fotosamling No. 237.

The Agger line was comparatively flat, which can't be said of the Hedeland line. Consequently it's a benefit if the speeder's crew is of some physical capacity and endurance. But then again, it's good to do something else than just sitting writing or modelling!

Speeder on an Evening Run (1/35)

At this time of year the summer evenings are long and it isn't dark until half past 10. This evening the weather was particularly nice and I took a few pictures of Nystrup Gravel's speeder as it made a trip on the gravel line.

It's past 10 and the speeder heads West and approaches the bridge over Little Stream. The purpose of the trip was unknown.

Passing Little Stream on the way to Nystrup. Nice and sunny weather has almost dried out the stream.

An hour later the speeder heads home. In a few moments it will pass the loco shed in the woods. The setting sun still leaving a bit of light on the horizon.

Not many of Nystrup Gravel's locomotives were fitted with lights so very few trains were run during the dark hours.

Canadian Speeder (1/35)

I thought that Nystrup Gravel was the only 1:35 model railway to have a 'garden shed-type' speeder. But I have learned that Pete Mesheau in Canada over the last few weeks has built a speeder with pretty much the same general characteristics as Nystrup's speeder No. 7. Pete has allowed me to show a few images of his nice model. I'm proud that the first model built by a friend to feature on my blog is such a nice piece of scratch building.

Speeder no. 8 scratch built by Pete Mesheau in 1:35 scale. I never dreamt of seeing a little family of speeders in 1:35 - even numbered i cronological sequence. Photo: P. Mesheau.

Although it looks as if Pete's speeder is fitted with a more powerful engine than mine, both speeders are actually built on Black Beetles. Pulling three wagons was beoynd Nystrup's speeder's capability. Photo: P. Mesheau.

It is a great honour for me to have a model of my somewhat weird design being remodelled on the other side of the Atlantic. Pete wrote "When I saw your speeder, it 'spoke' to me, so I had to build one. Over the years, I've built similar models for western US logging roads. They are not overly pretty, but very charming". Pete called his model a 'Nielsen rip-off', but I don't see it that way. I haven't been ripped of anything - having gained much pleasure from seeing Pete's speeder. I believe that the motto 'if you don't share, you don't receive' applies to modelling as well as most other aspects of life.

Of particular interest is the features for crew safety Pete has built into his model. The exhaust pipe is routed above the roof to minimize ingress of dangerous gases and the fuel tank fills from outside the speeder to avoid fuel spills in the cabin. I’m sure Nystrup employees would applaud solutions like that.



Pete is very productive and has just finished this Fordson Thames lorry. It is built on the basis of a resin kit (Wespe Models) with a scratch built tipping body. The driver is a figure from James Coldicott.  Photo: P. Mesheau.

Flat wagon for the speeder (1/35)

As the speeder isn't capable of carrying much besides a crew, I have hurried to put together a flat wagon to carry tools etc. It is the frame of a Scale Link skip fitted with floor and ends from plastic card. The floor was made to look like it was covered with steel sheet - one half with tread plate pattern.


The speeder shunting in front of the shed. Preparations for work on the line, it seems.

The little wagon is painted in different colours and weathered to appear well used. When painting one of the floor panels I used a Vallejo paint called 'flat earth'. I thought that the idea of a flat earth disappeared centuries ago! In my paint drawer I also found another paint with the amusing name 'skin' - a sort of light pink. It may fit the skin colour of most native scandinavians, but for at least two thirds of this planet's population the colour will bear no resemblance to the colour they see in the mirror (if they've got one). So much for paint names - I'll carry on with the small flat wagon!



Half an hour later the flat wagon is loaded with warning signs. Two workers wait for a colleague to fetch some shovels before driving off to the work site.

The small flat wagon is loaded with some freshly painted warning signs to be reerected along the line after repair and repainting at the loco shed. The signs are etched and available from Freja Modeltog - a small Danish manufacturer. I fitted most of the signs to a length of used rail by soldering and a few to a wooden post with two part epoxy. The hardest part was painting the signs and getting red paint only on the raised lettering. I still don't have any road crossings to erect the signs at, but I like to be well prepared!

Speeder Finished (1/35)

The speeder is finished. There may still be a small detail to add, but I now move on to other projects. The speeder is painted in acrylics from Vallejo and weathered with oil paint and home made chalk powder. I still haven't bought any of the newer colour pigments, even though several of them have received positive comments in reviews. Call me old fashioned... The numbering is made to look like two enamel signs normally used for numbering houses. Very appropriate I think, as the vehicle looks like a shed.

The speeder parked at a tree line. The paint repairs around the rebuilt radiator can just be made out. The speeder was originally fitted with a motor cycle engine. After the engine refit a larger radiator was needed. It also meant that part of the door was cut away.

Spare rails. Perhaps the crew is looking for a length of rail for urgent repairs of the line?

When I have looked at prototype wagons and skips with wooden frames there seems to be no end to the number of iron fittings. I have tried to recreate that look on my 1:35 speeder. Most fittings are made from plastic card and glued with two-component glue. Rivets and bolts are made from my little rivet punch and glued in place with AC glue.

The roof is dressed in my favourite tarpaper material, micro pore tape. It's a tape from the health industry made to position and fix bandages and still allow the skin to breathe. When painted it retains a slightly rough surface which resembles tarpaper. The tape is self adhesive, so it's easy to attach. The tape doesn't seem to loose its grip over time. I have had tape on a roof now for more than five years without any 'slipping'.

The previous post on the speeder covered the electrical parts. Earlier posts can be found here:
Drawing and the first plastic cut
Parts cut out and ready for assembly

For those who care, even more images of the speeder's construction can be found in the Flickr work bench-folder.

Speeder Details and Electronics (1/35)

Work on the speeder continues among the other modelling tasks at my desk. On the body I have primarily been working on the interior (bench, instrumentation and levers) and getting the roof started. 

Something you don't see too often: The wiring and fitting of decoder in the tight condition inside a 1:35 model. The Black Beetle out of focus to the right. The decoder is an ESU Lokpilot 4.0 Micro. I really like ït's small size!

I have also mounted the ESU-decoder and fitted lights with their associated wires. The grain of rice bulps are from a batch I bought from Micro-Mark in the US a few years ago. The bulps had a very powerful light at 12 V, so I fitted resistors to bring down the voltage to about 6 V. That took the light level to something more in line with my idea of dim lamps rather than floodlights on a super tanker. The speeder is my first model with lights and I can't wait to see it trundle back and forth on the gravel line in darkness. The decoder, resistors and wires are hidden under the central bench and is accessible by removing two screws and lifting the upper body of the model.

Testing the speeder after fitting of decoder and lights. Trundling round my portable test track in prototypical Decauville style the Black Beetle behaved well in cooperation with ESU-decoder. Not at all like a Tenshodo! Two bolts and nuts give weight to the assembly. When finished the speeder will be weighted down by more invisibly placed weights!

In the coming weekend I will touch neither knife nor glue, as I will be attending the '22. Internationales Feldbahntreffen' hosted by Waldeisenbahn Muskau. I am looking forward to nothing but narrow gauge trains for four days - and a beer or two in between. I love the wooded landscape around Muskau and Weiswasser and I really admire the work done by my German colleagues so I can hardly wait...

See the finished speeder.

Progress on The Speeder (1/35)

My model of Nystrup Gravel's little speeder is progressing. The upper body is assembled and fitted with window frames. The sides are made from two layers of plasticcard. The outer layer is grooved 2 mm sheet from Evergreen with a thickness of 1 mm. while the inner layer is 0,5 mm. With bracing in the corners this makes a comparatively sturdy construction. The laser cut window frames are cut to size from the original size. The wooden window frames are secured in place with two component epoxy glue. The two sliding doors were cut from 1 mm. plasticcard and glued on the outside of the speeder. Plasticcard is glued with my standard thin plastic glue 'Contacta' from Revell.

The wooden frames of the speeder are made from simple profiles of wood and epoxy glued to the lower bottom plate of the model. The frame will be fitted with strengthening bands modelled from plastic strip and fitted with Scale Link axle boxes. Couplings will be a simple metal plate, a 'horn' and some chain links. Mainly to enable the speeder to be coupled to a train and pulled, as the speeder's engine wasn't sufficiently powerful to pull anything but an empty skip or a flat with a crate of beer.


Parts for one side of the speeder. At the top an example of the laser cut window frames I used for the build. I don't know what scale they are produced to, but bought them as I thought they could come in handy. So they did - but not in a building as I imagined. I have plenty more, so some might find their way into a larger structure one day.

Rear wall in the speeder fresh out of a sheet of plasticcard. This is one of the things that makes scratch building so great: A plain sheet of plastic made into something you've created yourself. And even the cut off piece above will probably be built into a model some day.

Current status on the speeder. The wooden frame is still way too long and will be cut back. The square (well, almost...) hole in the middel will house the radiator for the engine that was transversly mounted under the central seat. You even had to fill the fuel tank from inside the speeder!

See the finished speeder.

The Nystrup Speeder (1/35)

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.

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.



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.