Bedford and Vacation (1/35)

After a pause, I had time for work on the Bedford O tipper again. The work on the cab interior was challenged by missing parts. In fact everything except seats and dash board were missing. Once again the spares box came to my rescue (must write a tribute to the spares box one day!). Steering wheel came from a scrapped ZIS-5 lorry, gear lever and hand brake from the Italeri Bedford QL while the little box is the unused battery from my recently built Kapitän. I didn't bother to fit pedals as they can't be seen anyway. I added a small bag on the passenger seat and a British army fire extinguisher (from Resicast) on the cab rear wall.

Before painting. A horrendous sight - I can't say I managed to get things lined up here!

Cab interior painted and ready to be fitted inside the cab.

I fitted the last small parts to the chassis and aligned them with the tipping body. The spare wheel had to be trimmed a bit to make the body sit just right.  I didn't glue chassis and tipping body as I wanted to be able to paint the two parts separetly. To make sure everything would fit together effortlessly after painting I dry fitted cab, radiator and bonnet several times to check the fit and position of the parts. Finally I glued the radiator in place to act as a solid point to start from when fitting the painted subassemblies.

The cab interior was air brushed with Vallejo's 'Verde Oliva' 967, details brush painted and finally weathered. Fitting glass in the windows is alway rather tricky on resin kits, where hardly any opening is exactly the same size. But with determination and experience from several resin kits it wasn't too bad. I only had to throw away two pieces of glazing that turned out too small with the last stroke of the file. Glazing was glued with Kristal Kleer that dries up shiny and clear. I then closed up the cab and fitted the dash board which is best done through the still open doors and glued from behind (that prevents spilling glue over both wind shield and dash board).

After fitting of bonnet the lorry is now ready for painting. I have designed decals and they are currently being printed - license plates and all. It'll probably be a while before I get to paint the lorry as I'm off on summer vacation. While I like to model while in the summer cottage, I only paint models at home.

My Bedford O tipper ready for primer. Cab, bonnet and body will be 'Verde Oliva' while wheels, grill and mudguards will be black. The company name will feature on tailboard and cab doors.

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.

1950's Loco Advertising

The old Nystrup Gravel binder I recently found contained some advertising material from Danish loco manufacturer Nagboel. The Nagboel company obviously made several offers to Nystrup Gravel, although it is highly doubtful if the efforts ever paid off.

The 1950's advertising for a small Danish company like Nagboel surely can't be said to be advanced. No flashy fonts or advanced photography. Just a simple drawing of a loco working at a construction site. In the foreground two heroes of progress - civil engineers in practical dress - are overseeing the work. Even if a small company Nagboel made their material in English and managed to sell a rather sizable part of their production overseas, mainly through agents. Today Nagboel's international outlook hasn't diminished as the company in 1973 was taken over by British GKN Wheels - today GKN Landsystems.

Nystrup Gravel didn't seem to be tempted to buy. By the beginning of the 50's the company had several locos in decent working order and didn't need more. Chief mechanic Petersen even had a few old relics parked on a siding in the woods that could be used if everything else failed. If only for a few days until repairs were made on the more modern locos. If nothing else the Nagboel company made an impression on at least one of Nystrup's employees. Someone glued a small poster from Nagboel on the wall in the loco shed. The poster can be seen in several images from the shed.

From Chelyabinsk to Nystrup

Not just two French locomotives ended up at Nystrup Gravel because of the world war. A year ago a friend sent me a few photos. He had explored into one of the birch forest covering what was once the northernmost gravel pit of Nystrup Gravel. His photos showed a huge tracked tractor with cyrillic letters on the broken off radiator and faded white letters 'FluPlaKo' on the rear plate.

Two images of the rusting remains of a Soviet S-65 in one of the old gravel pits around Nystrup. Today a wilderness of birch forest difficult to navigate. Thanks to friend, explorer and railway enthusiast J. Jensen for his images.

Now I have determined that two Soviet tracked tractors found their way to Nystrup Gravel. The tractors were used by the Germans to pull aircraft at the air field at Mellemåen (Middle Stream) not far from Nystrup. Again a case where the German military utilized captured enemy equipment as best they could. According to British documents found in the Skovby Local Historical Archive 'FluPlaKo' is an acrynom for 'Flug-Platz Kommando'.

The S-65 tractors were Soviet copies of the American Caterpillar 60. The Soviet version was built at the Chelyabinsk Tractor Factory in the Urals in large numbers for both agricultural and military use. In the Soviet army they were primarily used to pull medium and heavy artillery. Large numbers were captured by the German army in the opening stages of the attack on the Soviet Union. A brief history of the S-65. Somehow two of them found their way to Denmark. The huge Chelyabinsk factory still exists today, continuing to produce tracked tractors.

Nystrup Gravel used one of the tractors to haul cut down trees away from areas to be quarried. The other was used for spares. Not much of a chance for delivery of spare parts from Chelyabinsk to the Danish countryside!

I went straight to my local hobbyshop in Copenhagen - Stoppel Hobby - to shop for Trumpeter's kit of the S-65 (kit no 05538).  My 1:35 version of Nystrup Gravel also has to have an S-65.

Sala Repair and Update (1/35)

Time flies and suddenly locos need maintenance - even without having seen much use! That was the case with my Swedish Sala loco. I built the loco in 2008 (see images from the building here) but its O-rings fell apart shortly after. Having had less than 1 hour of running time it was hardly a case of wear! With lots of other projects going on the Sala was set aside. In 2010 I went digital. The model was dismantled back in september for O-ring replacement and fitting of decoder. Since I have been working on the Sala now and then.


New O-rings in place and wires during fitting. O-rings to the right are from my bag of spares - kindly provided by Otto Schouwstra several years ago. The mini connecters are from Micro Mark.

The design of the loco makes it necessary to remove the motor to detatch the upper body from the frame. In the future this will be made somewhat easier, as I fitted mini connectors to the wires from the current collectors to the motor. That way I can easily disconnect decoder plus wires and remove the motor. No need to pull out the soldering iron.

With the new O-rings in place I tested the loco before I installed the ESU-decoder. If things didn't work I wanted to be able to spot where something had gone wrong. While the micro decoder is small all the associated wires take up a lot more space. I'm usually reluctant to cut the unneeded wires, but this time I chose to loose them.

ESU Micro-decoder and mini connectors fitted.

Before I assembled the loco again I fitted a few dials on the engine housing. I used dry transfers from Archer Transfers. I found the smallest dials on the set AR35209 to match the size of the kit's relief etched dials. I finished the dials by adding a drop of Kristal Kleer to represent glass.

With a decoder mounted the loco had to have an address, and that demands a number painted on the loco (or I will never be able to remember the loco's address).  Most locos on Danish industrial railways didn't have a number. In most cases they were the only loco a railway had. In case of more locos they could be identified by their colour, maker or by calling them names. Numbering was mostly used as a last resort. So with some reluctance I numbered the loco. Now the Sala has the number '3'. The numbers came from an old Italeri sheet, while the Nystrup Gravel-decals are costum made by 'Skilteskoven'.

No. 3 at Nystrup Gravel. Although built in Sweden in the 1930's the loco is still looking good in this 1953 photo. Nystrup employees obviously took good care of their machines.

A Working Ruston-Bucyrus RB10

I seem to be blessed with excavator related expiriences these days. Last week I stumbled over a tinplate excavator, today I could see an RB-10 in original condition work at the Graested Veteran Show. The show is a great gathering of all things mechanical more than 30-35 years old. Trains, tractors, steam engines, cars, military vehicles, threshers - you name it. Check the show's web site for info.

My favourite this year was a drag line excavator working in an 'contractor's corner' on the show grounds. The RB10 excavator will be known in some parts of the world from the TV programme 'Salvage Squad'.

The excavator took working sessions with regular intervals and it was great to see the little machine work. Nystrup Gravel had a Ruston-Bucyrus of an older and larger type (RB17). A special feature on the RB10 at Graested was that it was in almost original condition. There was even traces of the original shipping address that made sure the machine arrived on the quay side in Copenhagen habour! 

Working the handles! Today a relaxing past time occupation, once a hard job - especially when it wasn't sunny and the folding doors could be opened.

The Ruston-Bucyrus excavator even came from the same region as my little gravel company. The contractors Carlsen & Nilou were from Soroe, only a few miles from Nystrup. Carlsen & Nilou also owned narrow gauge equipment that was used when larger earth works were handled.

The programme 'Salvage Squad' RB-10 programme can be seen in four parts on youtube:

Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.

At my work table I'm still working with wires and ESU-decoder for my Sala-loco. That could be the topic of next blog post rather than yet another of topic excavator diversion!

Toy Tinplate Excavator

Any reader of my blog who has read more than a few posts will know that I’m fond of excavators and old machinery. The other day I was charmed by a tinplate excavator at a flea market. The asking price was low and although I’m usually very hard to tempt I couldn’t resist bringing the toy home. The sheer simplicity of the toy, the bright colours, its size and the fact that it had Cyrillic letters impressed in its plate work was too much for me. (Having studied Russian I find machinery with relation to Russia particularly interesting.)

The excavator posing in the grass. The cyrillic letters 'AZLK' on the front of the frame.

Rear view of the excavator with bucket raised. What is supposedly the year of manufacture is cleverly positioned as to mimic the usual position of the painted on Soviet license number.

The excavator certainly isn’t one of those antique British or German tinplate toys that fetch huge prices at collectors’ auctions. With Cyrillic letters I wasn't in doubt that it was of Eastern European or Russian origin. A search on the internet showed the letters to be an acrynom for 'Avtomobilny Zavod imeni Leninskogo Komsomola' (no wonder they needed the acrynom!). Apart from the famous passenger car 'Moskvitch' AZLK apparently also produced toys. Their toys were well made and heavy. AZKL stamped the year of manufacture into their toys. My example was made in 1972. From my knowledge the toy is not attempting to look like any known type of Soviet excavator.

As a toy the excavator must have been taken rather well care of. Its condition can be described as only less than pristine. The two wheel axles are a little bent, it seems the original wire has been replaced and there is minor scratching of paint here and there. Judging from a single image found on the internet my excavator is missing all the windows that were originally fitted. But there is no sign of rough handling and I found no deposits of sand or dirt in the excavator’s nooks and crannies. The excavator even came with an extra clam shell bucket (made from 2 mm steel) to complement its face shovel rigging.

Now only two things are needed. Figure out where to display the big excavator and perhaps give the machine a minor overhaul. Should you, dear reader, know more about the excavator’s origin or history, please leave a comment.