Lister History

In a recent post I mentioned that I had found a letter with info on Nystrup Gravel's Lister locomotive. From the letter it seems Nystrup Gravel was searching for a locomotive in the 4-5 t. range, but had to contend with a Lister. The steel and machine trading company P. C. Petersen informs the shop manager at Nystrup Gravel, Torleif Petersen that they have two locomotives on their site, but advise Thorleif not to buy them due to their deplorable condition. Instead P. C. Petersen's salesman suggests acquiring the Lister.

In the letter posted Friday June 18 1948 (obviously sent in a hurry as it remained unsigned) the salesman writes that the Lister has been taken as partial payment in a recent exchange of goods with another customer and that Nystrup Gravel can have it for a price of 637 Danish kroner. The salesman writes: "...we need immediate response from you as the rail tractor is the object of much attention from other potential buyers".

The salesman describes the Lister as "... built on a frame of steel profiles with a one cylinder engine under a light bonnet. The driver's position is open and the tractor is equipped with ballast weights and buffers and couplings both front and rear". The letter confirms old workers' reports that the Lister was a mid-thirties model bought second hand after 1945. The Lister was mostly used for light shunting duties at the gravel works in Nystrup and the occasional light permanent way train.

Vespa

In the early fifties a private car was still something many people could only dream of. Public transport and bikes were used by those that had a longer distance to work than they could walk. Scooters became popular as they provided a good deal of flexibilty, were comparatively fast and relatively cheap. It is no surprise that I had to have at least one scooter on Nystrup Gravel.

Scooters were popular among both young and old. Here three children are enjoying the Danish summer outside Odense in 1954 on a sidecar equipped scooter. Archive: Fynske Billeder.

My model is a Welly 1/18 scale model bought on eBay from China. It is marked as a Vespa 125cc 1953 model. I suspect the model to be an earlier model as the 1953 model saw the headlamp move up between the handlebars. No matter what the model fits the period I'm modelling.

Right out of the cardboard box and onto my small stretch of smooth country road for a posed photo. The Piaggio company originally designed the Vespa to cope with poor post-war roads in Italy. Once a producer of military planes Piaggio went on to produce millions of scooters for those not wanting to spend a small fortune on a car.

Despite being a relatively cheap diecast model most of the detail present on a real 1953 Vespa is represented on the 1/18 model. Some of it a bit soft and clumsy, but nevertheless there.

My Vespa will have brake and gear cables fitted, minor details repainted and will be equipped with license plates. I presume the scooter is owned by one of the younger workers at Nystrup Gravel, having seen the Vespa's obvious sex appeal in the 1952 movie 'Roman Holiday' starring Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn.

Vespa posters on a fence in Nystrup. Perhaps a meeting place for the local Vespa club? Vespa enthusiasts will notice that the Vespa World Days poster is way out of the usual timeframe in Nystrup being from the St. Tropez 2016 meeting.

Inspiration - No Bicycling!

With access to a large number of images from Danish industrial railways I'm flooded with scenes, structures and vehicles begging to be modelled. Currently I'm looking for inspiration for my future 16 mm scale module. In that proces I stumbled over an image from Vindø Brickworks.

No bicycling! As if any sane cyclist would want to cycle uphill into a clay pit? No matter what the image is full of character and atmosphere. I'm quite sure I will try to incorporate a model of the sign on a post near the track on my model. Photo: IBK archive.

Vindø Brickworks is one of the few surviving Danish brickworks. Founded around 1850 it is today a modern fully automatic brick factory with a production of 25 mio bricks a year.

Aerial photo of Vindø Brickworks 1946. A lovely Fordson 7V is visible just where the ramp meets the white building in the upper right corner of the image. The ramp took the narrow gauge track onto the 1. floor of the building where clay was tipped for mixing and homogenisation. Image nks_04499 in the Royal Danish Library.

The brickworks' narrow gauge line was rather short, but ran through a beautiful wooded area close to the fjord. On the aerial image from 1954 below there seems to be a building halfway between the brickworks and the clay pit. Probably a dry storage building for loaded trains of skips.

Thanks to the Royal Air Force photo mission in May 1954 we can see Denmark from above in 42.700 images. Here Vindø Brickworks and clay pit.

A long story just to help remind myselt that I must remember to include the sign in my planning of my coming 16 mm scale module.

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.