Tralee & Dingle goods stock for the DCE (2013)

Bert van Rhijn

Previously published in the 009 News.

From Kirkcaldy in the Kingdom of Fife the most exquisite narrow gauge kits emerge – especially the Tralee & Dingle rolling stock. For anyone thinking they are too big compared to their other models, here is a description of a few changes I made so they don’t dwarf my other 009 stock built for the Dramfford Cwm Eglwys (DCE). I slightly lowered them and removed a 2mm slice from the middle to narrow them.

Lowering the vehicles by 0.5mm is possible by using smaller wheels. The wheelsets supplied with the kits have 8mm wheels on long axles to accommodate the 12mm gauge these kits are intended for. I replaced these with 7mm wheelsets (Parkside Dundas PN65) with short axles. This means the solebars need to be repositioned, turning the 00n3 running gear into 009. The crossbeams under the floor need to be shortened to 14.5mm using a knife or a file (cut away the shaded area in fig. 1). The solebars then can be fitted to the floor as indicated in the instruction sheet.

Fig. 1: shortening the cross beams under the floor to enable the solebars to be fitted more closely together.

Fig. 2: narrowing the ends.

Narrowing the body is done by cutting away the shaded area from the vehicle end indicated in fig. 2, and re-assembling it. The difficult bit is the top where I cut a piece out of the centre instead of along one of the verticals. The top of the vehicle end needs to be re-shaped with a file. The vehicle bottom has to be narrowed on boths sides accordingly. The entire body will now be 25mm wide. Again, assemble the vehicle as indicated in the instruction sheet. I fitted a piece of 1mm brass on the bottom for ballast.

I fitted no. 23 with two ventilators and styrene rain strips (0.5x0.5mm).

DCE 23 (DM70 kit) is used by the L*DF - Llefrithdy Dinas Ffermwr (the local dairy) to transport milk churns:

DCE 25 and 26 (DM71 kit) are used to transport barrels of beer or "wysgi":

DCE 28, the T&D 'butter van' (DM72 kit), now transports fish (pysgod in Welsh):

After building these four, I was inspired to build a few cattle vans by Mick Thornton’s tale “Economic Goods Vehicles for 009” in the Sept 2005 009 News. But when I heard about the second 009 Society kit being the T&D cattle van, I decided to wait until these were available. Meanwhile I thought of building a vehicle closely based on the T&D horse box no. 1T, of which I have written in another project page.

The scratchbuilt horsebox, numbered 1T. This one was made for Ted, and my own is almost complete:

At the same time Paul Titmuss was building his variations on the cattle van kit, I built my own. Like the closed vehicles, these were lowered by 0.5mm by moving the solebars and fitting 7mm wheels. Because these kits are only 26mm wide, they didn’t need to be narrowed. I did some modification on the cattle vans, as follows.

The first one, DCE no. 83, lost its roof.I replaced the curved roof beams by straight ‘steel’ spacers. The ends were changed to a flat profile as well. The next one, DCE no. 84, also lost its roof but kept its curved roof beams. I fitted the leftover beams of no. 83 as well, as if to improve structural strength. Finally, I fitted a removable corrugated roof to DCE no. 85. The material is Slater’s corrugated styrene sheet which I curved to shape by immersing a piece in hot water, tied to a bottle. The roof was reinforced by the original roof beams and pieces of styrene strip. The latter also prevent the roof from moving longitudinally. I fitted pieces of 1mm brass sheet under the floor between the cross beams for ballast. This leaves the floor surface intact.

DCE 83 (a 009 Society kit) has lost its roof. The roof beams were replaced by 'steel' rods and the ends were filed flat:

DCE 84 has also lost its roof, but still has the wooden beams, including those from no. 83 for strength:

DCE 85 has a removable corrugated roof:

The same vehicle with its roof removed, also showing the running gear:

Enlarged photos