Lister Construction Continues

Despite no news for a while, I continue to make progress on the Lister  Rail Tractor. I have been fitting bolt heads, an assortment of small brackets and gear box details.

In addition, the parts needed to finish a running model locomotive is finally on their way to Denmark. Due to unfortunate delays in production of some of the electronic components the wait has been quite long. But then again, I would have been too busy with other things to use them even if they had arrived earlier.

Having studied drawings and prototype information I decided to completely sand away any bolt heads on the side frames. I should have done so while the frame was still unassembled. New bolt heads were fitted according to drawings and photos. I used sliced hexagonal plastic lengths picked up by the tip of a sharp knife blade, carefully dipped in a pool of AC-glue and placed on the model. I had marked up each bolt head's position with pencil in advance. Additional bolts were placed on the end frames and top corner reinforcements.

All details sanded off one of the frame profile.

Bolt imitations glued on with AC-glue.

The top of the bonnet was supplied in the kit as two white metal parts. As I had narrowed the bonnet slightly and as white metal parts were very thick and clumsy, I replaced them with a homemade part cut from nickel silver sheet. I bent the rather hard nickel silver over a former made from wood and the kit parts. I made a few dents in the bonnet as on the Dutch Lister I use as inspiration for my model.

The bonnet during construction. I still need to figure out how to mount oil and petrol tank. The floor is drilled to take a SPDT switch and recharge socket.

Current status on my first 16 mm scale locomotive. 

...and a look at the Dutch Lister that serves as inspiration. My model will not be a scale model of this prototype, but share some of its distinguishing features. Photo: Arnound Bongaards.

Traction Engine Finished

Being slighty embarrassed by my lack of progress lately I have speeded up my work and the traction engine from Hansen haulage contractors is now finished. I took it out in the garden for a quick photo session that nearly ended in disaster. We are currently plagued by heavy winds in Denmark and as I have not glued wheels and axles, the traction engine suddenly took off, propelled by the wind. Luckily I managed to catch it just before it rolled of the photo plank!

Hansen's old traction engine parked in the road side.The driver must have gone for a brief pause in the woods.

Most of the basic colours was applied when I mentioned the traction engine in the last post and I basically only needed to apply weathering and the small details I had fabricated. I had applied subtle tonal differences in the base colours from the start to reflect the different types of impact smoke box and cab area are exposed to. I added some chalk deposits around valves with the air brush. I followed up with small streaks of thinned white oil paint. Picking up the air brush again, I dusted the lower parts of the traction engine with light earth coloured road dust, adding a little gloss black with brush on the threads ot the brake gear to simulate grease.

Weathering in progress. I have air brushed rods, motion and the area under them with gloss varnish to simulate the shine of an oil soiled environment.

 Apart from the small tool box, I made a coal shovel from brass and a cut down tooth pick and added a piece of cloth from copper foil postioned on the forward/reverse control handle. The cab floor was supplied with a small pile of ash and dirt in front of the fire box door, weathered with pastel chalk powder. Worn metal surfaces were touched with a soft pencil, minor scratches around the cab area was made the same way.

While the driver is off the engine the cab can be studied. The gauges are printed paper discs flooded with gloss varnish. Wheels, handles and seat chipped with chrome and air brushed with gloss varnish to represent wear. The chopped up remains of someone's old shed is positioned for starting the fire.

A view from above. How someone came to fit a seat from a Ransomes engine on a Garratt is a mystery. Perhaps a driver's favorite seat having followed him from an earlier engine?

The driver is back in the cab. He seems to be making his mind up if he really wants to put the engine in forward and drive off. As my only 16 mm scale figure it has to perform every task needing a human shape.

Slow Progress

Well, it's been a February with a lot of deadlines at work. Articles, tenders and exhibitions to prepare and finalize. Also some projects on the 1:1 scale vintage railway HVB, where I spend some of my spare time, have been swallowing up time, too. Still I have been able to sit at the work table now and then, but have precious little to show.

Since last post every part of the traction engine has been painted. Mostly black and dark grey, but  brass, copper, gun metal and red were used as well. Weathering is now in progress. Some of the equipment to be fitted to the engine is also in progress. I hope a small selection of hand tools and personal belongings can make my traction engine look like a 'living vehicle'.

A small wooden tool box for the traction engine. The box is built from scraps of wood. Currently it is slowly filling with tools, wire and rags.

Recently I have finished stage 2 of my great 1:35 scale clear-out. Currently I have no more 1:35 railway models for sale as a few have been saved for exhibition purposes on a narrow gauge vintage railway along with my 1:35 scale modules. There are still a few road vehicles on the sales list, though. I'm also beginning to drag out all the kits I have had stashed away in boxes in the loft. There is a few original 13'eme Dragon 1:35 Pechot wagons among the unbuilt kits. Write to nystrupgravel@gmail.com if you are interested and I'll send a list.

Parcel almost ready for send-off. All the locos and wagons I had made wooden boxes for, presented no problems and all have arrived at their new owners undamaged. I was more worried about this particular parcel, that contains several rather flimsy road vehicles with open doors, direction markers and exhaust pipes. To cut down on transit damage I had packed models in several smaller sub-parcels. Still, not every model arrived without damage. Damage, that fortunately has been reported as repairable.

As a sort of Christmas present HVB received a new Schöma loco. After a short proces HVB took over the ownership from the old owner and we arranged the transport. The loco has run under its own power within the last 15 years, but has a different gauge (785 mm rather than 700 mm). Time will show if the gauge can be changed.

The 6 ton Schöma 2867/1965 will soon touch the rails. It will then be pushed into the narrow gauge industrial railway 'gene bank' building. The loco will reside here until it can be properly exhibited or restored and put into use. Photo: Hans-Henrik Schönthal.

Painting Traction Engine

In my last post on the traction engine I was fitting the rods and motion on top of the boiler. With that work finished the rest of the assembly was plain sailing and soon only the parts to be fitted after painted wasn't firmly attached.

The assembled traction engine with flywheel, gear levers and two protective covers for the transmission still to be fitted. Steering and brake wheel are still removable to make painting of the cab/cockpit easier.

View from above showing that there isn't much room to spare on top of the boiler. The ever troublesome vinyl tyres with seams almost impossible to remove are clearly seen.

The supply of coal and fire wood is piling up. I will add a small wooden tool box and some oil cans.

With the model finished I gave it a good covering of Chaos Black primer. After drying I airbrushed  lower firebox and smokebox  Vallejo US Air Force Dark Grey and the rest of the engine a thin covering of a home mixed dark grey (I prefer to call it light black). As the airbrush was on, I also gave lower smoke box door and ash pan some irregular spots of light rust as these areas have a tendency to burn away paint.

Detail painting has begun. I've painted the teeth of the transmission gloss black and the motion is picked out in chrome. The transmission covers are painted black and ready to be fitted once painting the transmission is done.

Pipes and equipment are being picked out in brass, copper and different greys. The rear wheels are in primer and only the front wheels remains unpainted. To the left are five frames for 1/87 two-way excavators for a project at work. 4 Liebherrs and one Atlas.

During the next few weeks I will finish painting and weathering as well as equipping the traction engine with small details like tools and personal gear belonging to the driver. I'm looking forward to that.

Nystrup Gravel Equipment Sale - Part 2

Part 2 of the Nystrup Gravel sales list is now available. It is predominantly some of the road vehicles that has been roaming the roads in the vincinity of the gravel company.

1:32 scale Fordson Major tractor. Assembled, painted and weathered white metal kit from Scaledown Models. 80 €

1:32 scale Volvo T 41 tractor. Assembled, painted and weathered white metal kit from Scaledown Models. 95 €

The gas generator unit takes up all available space on one side of the Volvo T 41.

1:32 scale Ferguson tractor. Assembled, painted and weathered white metal kit from Scaledown Models. 95 €

1:32 scale Claas 'Europa' combine harvester from Universal Hobbies, weathered and fitted with extra detail. 90 €

1:35 Stalinets tracked tractor fitted with detailed resin engine. Assembled, painted and weathered. 55 €

The tracked tractor outside the loco shed. See more on this blog post.

Tamiya Citroen Avant fitted with resin gas generator and driver figure. Painted and weathered. 50 €

1:32 Austin 7 van. Resin and white metal kit with etched wheel spokes from Glenorchy Models built, painted and fitted with custom decals. 4 extra white metal tires included. Comes in protective wooden box. 85 €

The Austin van is a nice little car for even small layouts. Unfortunately Glenorchy Models seems to have stopped trading since I bought the kit.

Tamiya Simca 5 painted and equipped with luggage and small details. 45 €

Two army figures in British battledress. 20 €

Two 1950’s railway enthusiasts. Rebuilt resin figures fitted with cameras and painted. 30 €

Two enthusiasts exploring. Perhaps your layout is their next destination?

Prices are my suggestion. I’m open to suggestions and will give discount to buyers taking more than one lot. I will add shipping cost to the order. Payment by PayPal.

Send me a message on nystrupgravel@gmail.com if you are interested. 

2018 in Review

Before long 2018 will have passed and a new year begins. 2018 was a year of radical change for Nystrup Gravel. Not even the little model railway's move in 2014 matches the change that hit the gravel company in 2018. Having modelled in 1:35 for more than 15 years I had a sense that something had to change to keep my motivation as high as usual. Before 2018 had come to an end, I had switched scale from 1:35 to 16 mm scale - also known as 1:19,05 on 32 mm gauge track.

An illustration of the change currently in progres on Nystrup Gravel. A massive increase in size.

I began 2018 with finishing a 1:35 scale resin kit of a Soviet tractor with dozer blade. A great kit from Balaton Modell in Hungary. I fitted it with homemade decals for an imaginary East German brick works.

The Ernst Wollweber brick works tractor was my first finished model of 2018. It also turned out to be one of my last models in 1:35 scale.

An extraordinary amount of my modelling took place outdoor in one of the sunniest and hottest summers ever recorded in Denmark. No end to hot afternoons after work and lovely evenings to spend under the parasol modelling and sipping cool wine.

Approaching the limit for modelling in the garden. Darkness brings an end to detail painting. The birds stop singing and the bats begin their hunt for insects. The mind wanders and new projects are considered.

Some of the summer evenings were spent building a living van and a water cart for my steam roller. Both wagons were largely built from left over parts and plasticcard. Many years of modelling has enabled me to build up a large collection of parts (some of them in different scales) that can come in useful. That made the two wagons my cheapest projects of the year.

A steam roller road train on my road photo plank photographed in my garden in the warm Danish summer.

A trip to Wales made a profound difference for my modelling. In the shop at Tywyn on the Talyllyn Railway I picked up a 16 mm scale plastic kit. Under usual circumstances I would never have looked at or handled a kit in any other scale than 1:35 or 1:32. But as I had recently been lacking motivation in my modelling, my usual focus was probably disturbed. Holding the GVR granite wagon kit from Binnie Engineering in my hand I remembered the articles in Narrow Gauge and Industrial Railway Modelling Review about 16 mm scale and the kit was placed on top of my heap of books on the counter. 

My double identity GVT wagon. It's numbered 130 on one side and 157 on the other.

I started the 16 mm kit while on summer vacation and had great fun with the assembly. The large size appealed a lot to me and it even allowed me to work on the kit with a bandaged broken left wrist. I ordered af few more kits to get a better feel of the scale and checked the availability of road vehicles and figures. It turned out that what I needed for a small layout was available and I started to wonder if a change of scale would be the right thing.


After much head scratching and consideration I decided it was time for radical change and as a consequence I now model in 1:19.05 scale. A selection of my 1:35 scale models have since found a new home on fellow European modellers' layouts. I will offer more models for sale before too long.

Loco 78 and a few skips in company with a 1:35 scale figure named 'Claus' on a German layout. I hope they will contribute to the develpoment of the local industry in the future. Photo: L. Behme.

It's a big task beginning from scratch and building up a new model railway. 2019 will be used to build up a larger collection of rolling stock and finishing my first 16 mm scale locomotive as well as buying my first length of track. I hope to start traffic as soon as posible as demand for gravel continue to be high.

Two models I'm currently working on: the Bandai steam traction engine and the I P Engineering Lister.More about them in 2019.

My best greetings to all you readers and contributors to the blog. Thanks for your input and ideas, regardless if made here, on Facebook or an online forum. All the best wishes for health, modelling and life in general. Happy New Year!

Traction Engine Motion

The most complex part of the traction engine kit is the motion, rods and crank assembly. I studied the instructions and the made up my mind to do things differently. I prepared the parts, some of them needing filling and sanding. Now they are assembled I can see I should have been filling and sanding even more...

Rods, crossheads, cranks and most of the motion ready for assembly and mounting in the frames.

The parts in their bearings in the traction engine's frames. Rather than a lot of sanding on an annoyingly bad assembly beneath the cranks I simply cut a thin piece of plasticcard and glued it in place.

Due to some unfortunate delays in the manufacture of the electronic components for the RC equipment I have ordered for my little Lister, I'm currently holding work on that model off. The good thing is that my supplier is keeping me informed of the delays. I consider that good service. Christmas preparations are underway and work on my full scale heritage railways is also keeping me busy.

Da 7 built by Henschel in 1921 is still going strong and pulling this season's Christmas specials on HVB in cooperation with Danish built dieselelectric M 25. No snow for the December trains this year.